Post Scrutiny - Executive Response

In Respect of : Scrutiny Review on Educational Attainment

Date : 18 January 2012

Executive Member : Learning and Achievement

Recommendations	Accepted/ Rejected	Executive Response	Officer Responsible	Action by (Date)
1. That the Council continues to monitor deprivation levels in Tameside and ensure this information is used by education support teams	Accepted	Deprivation data is available from the Partnership Information Portal. It has been used in the development of the Youth and Family Teams, which includes capacity for school support around behaviour and attendance. Other education support teams either support schools which are in challenging circumstances, regardless of their levels of deprivation, or support individual children and young people, according to their special	CB	ongoing
2. That the Council and schools continue to identify and work with pupils from vulnerable groups whose attainment may be lower.	Accepted	Council support focuses on assisting schools which have been categorised by Ofsted, or are seen to be at risk of this. The Council has no formal responsibility or capacity to work with pupils. Ofsted monitor the extent to which individual schools narrow the gap between pupils who are eligible for free school meals and those who are not. Schools have the responsibility of working directly with pupils. The Council communicates with schools on a regular basis and such recommendations can be brought to schools attention through termly bulletins and business meetings that are held with headteachers and chairs of school governing bodies.	Schools	ongoing
3. That the Council continues to work with schools that have a high proportion of pupils from socio economic deprived backgrounds, whether being a high performing or underperforming schools.	Accepted	Council staff do not currently work with schools according to the socio-economic status of their pupils. The Council’s key role is to work with under-performing schools in order to improve the quality of provision. Any work with high performing schools will be as part of the development of a self-improving school system, which schools will secure for themselves. Individual schools which see that they are struggling to narrow the gap between the attainment of those eligible for free school meals and others would seek support in this through the self-improving system.	Schools	ongoing
4. That all the borough’s schools learn from schools such as Pinfold School, where the FSM educational attainment gap is successfully closing.	Accepted	This is one of the functions of the self-improving school system, supporting other schools and spreading good practice. The development of the self-improving system is promoted by School Improvement Officers.	AB/schools	ongoing
5. That the local authority promotes training to increase voluntary participation to increase governors knowledge on good practice to raise attainment.	Accepted	A full programme of Governor training is provided through the Council’s Governor Services by officers from across Children’s Services. This training is promoted through the Governor Training Booklet, which is sent each term to every school governor, and at Heads’ and Chairs’ briefings, which are also held termly.	AB	ongoing
6. That the Council continues to support governors and headteachers appoint effective leaders into key leadership posts.	Accepted	At present School Improvement Officers support governors in the appointment of headteachers and deputy headteachers. In the future schools will be required to purchase support from the “market place”, as resources continue to shift from the Council to individual school budgets. Governors are currently provided with relevant information and training through the Governor Training booklet.	AB/JH/schools	Ongoing
7. That a governing body could consider having a self nominated governor who would keep abreast of good practice and initiatives to raise educational attainment.	Accepted	It would be appropriate for this responsibility to be taken on by the Governing Body’s Curriculum and Standards Committee, rather than by an individual governor. This is a corporate responsibility. The Council would be able to suggest to schools that this should be the appropriate course of action through the Governor Training booklet.	AB/JH	September
8. That Pupil Premium funding is used towards delivering extra curricular activities to raise educational attainment.	Accepted	The Pupil Premium ensures that disadvantaged pupils (FSM and LAC) receive additional support. The premium focuses on provision which helps to narrow the gap. While the premium can be used to encourage extra curricular activities, much of the provision may take place during normal lesson times. The DfE is considering precisely how schools will have to account for the way in which they have spent their pupil premium, but it is clear that they will have to include it in their annual report. Information and recommendations which relate to the Pupil Premium can be communicated between the Council and schools through bulletins and meetings.	CB/Schools	ongoing
9. That Summer schools and Easter revision sessions are made available for high schools and sixth form centres in the borough.	Accepted	It is the responsibility of schools to organise these activities – only schools are eligible to apply to the DfE for funding to help with the costs of summer schools. Information and recommendations which relate to such sessions can be communicated between the Council and schools through bulletins and meetings.	Schools	ongoing
10. That future parental consultation should focus on both, parents’ expectations of their child’s potential to achieve and satisfaction with the school.	Accepted	The majority of schools carry out regular consultations with their parents to find out the areas that parents are pleased with and those that they feel need to improve. This is also a focus of Parent View, the Ofsted parent questionnaire site. Many teachers talk to parents about their expectations of their children during parent consultation evenings. It would be the responsibility of individual schools to organise their parent consultation evenings and to determine the form of these.	Schools	ongoing
11. That in cases of poverty local integrated services should work together to raise parents skills, employment prospects, and awareness of possible benefit entitlements to raise household incomes.	Accepted	Tameside has four Area Programmes underway (in Smallshaw Hurst, Hattersley, St Peter’s and Denton South) where the aims are to integrate services and provide this sort of support to parents. This way of working is seen as the way that services should be provided to all families in difficult in the future. Programmes such as the Troubled Families Programme, Multi-systemic Therapy, the Work Programme and the Family Intervention Programme all seek to work in this way.	CB	April 2013
12. That the Council and schools develop strong partnerships with universities.	Accepted	Strong links already made: University of Salford working with Ashton Sixth Form and University of Manchester with MMU in schools promoting STEM subjects, master classes, and Easter and summer schools. All universities have a Widening Participation programme as part of their funding conditions to encourage students who are capable but least likely to go to university - university visits, mentoring, advice about finance, student life, working with student ambassadors. TMBC commissioned University of Huddersfield working with Looked After Children: 12 weekly sessions at the Oldham campus. Aimhigher Associate in place one day a week: supporting schools to deliver their own university access programmes, and develop network links with HE institutions; visits to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Universities of Chester and Salford, UCLAN and Huddersfield: Foundation Degrees available at Ashton Sixth Form and Tameside College including Creative and Media, using the new Media City (ASFC) in Salford, and Facilities Management, with Carillion as a private sector partner (TCOT). Salford University, Carillion and the LA, developing new access to HE offer: generic, accredited programme offering bridging courses to residents for those returning to higher learning, or in employment who need higher levels of professional development. Uses a digital platform as an alternative to face-to-face tuition. The University is also contributing to the delivery of adult learning in the Smallshaw Hurst area. Many of these developments are encapsulated in the term ‘Tameside’s Community University’.	JS
13. That the Council promotes the good practice as identified by The Greater Manchester Challenge.	Accepted	The Greater Manchester Challenge ended in April 2010. The key success of the Challenge was the development of school-to-school support, which the Council now uses as its key school improvement strategy.	AB	ongoing
14. That schools consider that staff inductions should include information around educational attainment to set expectations and to develop equality across all groups of pupils.	Accepted	Individual schools are responsible for staff induction. In well-run schools, all staff are aware of levels of educational attainment and they set high expectations for all pupils. This good practice will be spread through the self-improving system.	Schools	ongoing
15. That programmes to improve young children’s literacy and numeracy should also focus on parent’s confidence and skills in these areas.	Accepted	The need to provide support in developing parents’ literacy and numeracy skills will vary from one school to another. Individual schools will decide how much resource they can afford to dedicate to this area. Many schools undertake family learning.	Schools	ongoing
16. That the Council supports schools to participate in school self-improving systems such as ‘By Schools for Schools’.	Accepted	This is already in place.		complete
17. That all schools aim to support self-improvement systems based principally on school to school support.	Accepted	School-to-school support is now the approach promoted by School Improvement Officers to all schools in Tameside at every opportunity.		complete
18. That plans be put into place to ensure that the school improvement team, governor support services, human resources and schools are working co-operatively and in collaboration to ensure head teachers and governing bodies are competent in delivering excellent standards of teaching to raise educational attainment.	Accepted	This is how we currently operate. Working together in a collaborative approach is part of how we do things in Tameside.		complete
19. Extend existing training on raising standards of teaching, taking a proactive approach, targeting ‘lower achieving’ schools or identified cases of underperforming pupils from vulnerable groups.	Accepted	Our limited capacity within school improvement means that support and training to improve the quality of teaching is already targeted on the lower achieving schools in the borough. It is the responsibility of schools to secure this for themselves.	Schools/AB	ongoing
20. That the Council promotes early year initiatives to instil confidence building.	Accepted	This is done through Children’s Centres.		complete
21. That the Council and schools better promote and progress initiatives helping parents and families to progress with basic skills, financial management, parenting and general life skills.	Accepted	This is also the way that Children’s Centres work		complete
22. That schools continue to develop strategies to invest in training staff. This will build capacity and flexibility in the school’s teaching staff.	Accepted	All schools must use 5 days a year specifically for staff training. In addition, schools will use regular staff meetings and other opportunities to invest in staff training to develop skills and expertise.	Schools	ongoing
23. That Tameside Council monitors attainment in all BSF schools across all ages and groups to explore the effects of new facilities on attainment over the long term.	Accepted	We can monitor attainment in BSF schools at the end of KS4 for all groups by using RAISE online data. Monitoring attainment for other year groups requires schools to provide the data. Tameside’s academies have agreed to share their data at the end of KS4, although they are not obliged to do so. This may form part of the policy and Intelligence function, arising out of the current review into this area of work.	CB	ongoing
24. That BSF schools are encouraged to share resources with other schools.	Accepted	Tameside’s high schools have formed themselves into self-improving clusters, which contain both BSF and non-BSF schools. The purpose of these clusters is to support each other in practical ways to raise attainment and aspiration.	Schools/AB	ongoing