To receive any apologies for absence.

None.

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

None.

To confirm the Part I Minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2017 be approved.

To receive the above update.

Kevin McDaniel, Director of Children's Services explained to the Forum that Clive Haines, School Leadership Development Manager would be the lead officer for the School Improvement Forum. He stated that two colleagues, Rita Vasa and Bronwyn Hamilton Brown had left the Borough due to an ending contract and retirement and that that meetings reports were based on the work they had carried out. The School Leadership Development Manager was leading on work on schools for 2017-2018 as there was no longer a need for a large contract focusing on pupil premium. Schools were being invited to the next meeting of the Forum with the School Leadership Development Manager taking the lead on the area covered. The Chairman expressed his thanks and appreciation to Rita Vasa and Bronwyn Hamilton Brown for all their hard work, he commented they spoke with passion and dedication in improving the outcomes for children in the Borough.

The School Leadership Development Manager gave the forum an update on the outcomes of the summer camp that came about following work done by Bronwyn Hamilton Brown. The Borough felt it needed to bring children together to enjoy experiences that they might not have been able to do if the summer camp had not run.

The decision was made not to run a residential summer camp and run the trial in Maidenhead only; 30 children attended over three days. The 30 children attended summer camp and Woodlands and they loved it; it was set up like a forest style school. On the second day, St Edwards School carried out sculpting, spray painting and body casts at the summer camp and on the third day, the children enjoyed an outdoor centre where they took part in canoeing and kayaking. Feedback received from a head teacher on the three days was very positive. The School Leadership Development Manager had also received positive feedback from a parent and child.

The outcome was that 30 children made friends from similar backgrounds away from their own schools. The schools selected the pupil premium children that were likely to most benefit from the summer camp and who would not normally be able to access those activities.

The Chairman stated the summer camp was something concrete that came into fruition following the previous meeting of the School Improvement Forum which took place in June 2017. He added the Forum needed to look at rolling out the activity across the Borough. It sounded like the activity was right and that it was good to have at the start  of the summer holidays but, it could also work later in the holidays too. The Director of Children's Services stated it worked to have it at the start of the school holidays as it fit well with the youth workers. In 2018, his team wanted to build on this year’s successes further and extend the camp to children that were known to Youth Services. Schools were happy for the Borough to lead on the camp but, he wanted to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

To receive the above report.

Kevin McDaniel, Director of Children's Services, and Clive Haines, School Leadership Development Manager, provided Members with a brief overview of the Pupil Premium Report for the academic year 2016-17. Members note that the Royal Borough had commissioned a Pupil Premium lead for the academic year from September 2016 to July 2017. Between those dates, all schools across all phases were offered one day support, from their core allocation, which aimed to improve academic outcomes across the curriculum and also improve the life chances for those children from families on a low income or from a disadvantaged background.

In addition, the role encompassed developing cross school working to share good practice, analyse common barriers, develop workable and sustainable strategies to overcome, eradicate or reduce those barriers, develop workable and sustainable strategies to overcome and to eradicate or reduce those barriers using available expertise from within the local authority and the school themselves. Training was held to raise awareness of the Borough’s academic situation to help understand the characteristics of pupils who were financially impoverished, and their subsequent life chances, and to provide practical ideas were taken up; and training took place in a number of schools across the Borough. The training was also made available to new teachers and School Direct trainees.

Whilst the outcomes for the Borough’s most vulnerable pupils at an Age Related Expectation (ARE) was well below their peers, the fact was that good or favourable outcomes for the more able disadvantaged was exceedingly low. The figures for combined reading, writing and maths at greater depth in both key stage one and two was below 2%, which was dramatically less than their peers. It appeared that there had been a drive to improve standards to attain ARE; however, that drive had not been extended beyond that to attain at the higher levels. Data analysis for groups of schools in the Windsor and maidenhead areas showed that was a common issue.

Many of the children who were eligible for Pupil Premium funding were from homes with less than £17k per year income. Often, because of that, they were less likely to experience opportunities that enrich their lives, which limited the experiences they could draw from which, in turn, limited the knowledge and understanding they could bring to some aspects of the curriculum notably, writing. Activities such as the summer camp event and an Aspiration event were organised in the summer term for those judged to be the most in need of enrichment by their schools.

The School Leadership Development Manager stated that the team had been analysing school websites for data and with the school leadership teams. A lot of schools were working on their pupil premium strategy and were looking at gap analysis; moving forward schools needed to recognise the need to keep their focus on pupil premium. The School Leadership Development Manager added it had been decided it was best to apply for funding through the School Improvement Fund which targeted pupil premium children and looked at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

To receive a verbal update on the action plan.

The School Leadership Development Manager stated Rita Vasa worked with a group of professionals to develop children in an Early Years setting. Books were distributed to all pupil premium children. The School Leadership Development Manager had reached out to teaching nurseries and schools and they were looking at barriers and how to overcome them. He met with teaching schools the previous week and located pupil premium children. Officers were then allocated to their settings and they would be attending future meeting after forming an action plan which would then update the Forum.

The School Leadership Development Manager confirmed he was working with private and state maintained nurseries and child minders. Speech was a major issue so officers targeted that but, it was also about upskilling professionals so he was looking at training such as speech and language skills and getting Pupil Premium Champions in those settings. The director of Children’s Services said the team had carried out work in schools and larger settings which focused on speech and reading. Now they needed to reach other settings such as child minders; he was hoping teaching nurseries would reach out.

The Director of Children’s Services stated the SEND Fund for Early Years would be tabled for the next School Improvement Forum agenda to find how nursery settings helped to improve and recognise additional help and those masked by poverty. In terms of when Cabinet would be updated on the work being carried out, there was a streamlined performance management framework that summarised the work and the results and that would be taken to Cabinet. March 2018 would bring the review of exam results and that could also be included in the performance management framework.

Members thanks officers for their work and noted progress made.