Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Contact: Wendy Binmore  01628 796251

Items
No. Item

37.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Lynne Jones.

38.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

Minutes:

None.

39.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 65 KB

To confirm the Part I Minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLU: That the minutes of the meeting held on 27 February 2018 be approved.

40.

Update on Early Years Pupil Premium Project

To receive the above presentation.

Minutes:

Clive Haines, Schools Leadership Development Manager provided a handout which illustrated the changes in the outcomes of pupils that received Pupil Premium (PP). Members noted the following key points:

 

Ø  Phonics standards for year one had increased and the Local Authority (LA) ranked 74th compared to 148th in 2016.

Ø  Only 9.2% of pupils were considered as PP which was considerably lower than other LA’s but, that presented challenges because with such a small cohort, it made the numbers seem larger in terms of percentages and averages.

Ø  In 2016, there were 182 disadvantage pupils that received PP, in 2017, that number had dropped to 173.

Ø  Two thirds of children receiving PP met the standards in reading.

Ø  The Royal Borough was ranked at 135 in 2017 for writing compared with 143 in 2016, and 127 in 2017 which was up from 119 for Maths in 2016.

Ø  Nationally, RBWM ranked 115th for attainment of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Ø  KS1 and KS2 next steps:

o   Phonics Screening – monitoring taken place with one PP child observed at each visit

o   PP Gap Analysis was still being monitored by Link Advisors with barriers to learning being explored.

o   PP Champions networks had started which enabled practitioners to share good practice and raise expectations for all pupils. The next meeting was due to take place on 20 September 2018.

o   Teaching School Bid for SK2 Literacy re-submitted and awaiting an outcome from the DfE. If successful, there would be a budget of £95k to spend on raising literacy standards.

Ø  Learning from others – next steps:

o   Discussions took place with Richmond and Kingston LA’s regarding reading and writing; after two hours, all three LA’s realised they were all doing the same thing but, the low numbers of PP children in the Borough made the numbers look like targets were not being met as well as the other LA’s.

o   A further School Improvement meeting was scheduled in Term 1 and was to focus on PP with Richmond and Kingston both taking part.

Ø  Example Cluster School Working:

o   Reason: Group of 8 schools working together in the MishMash Group put together a joint School Improvement Plan where there were common areas of development in every school. Where some schools had strengths in areas of weakness for other schools, those schools supported each other to improve in those areas. Every area on the plan was linked to PP focus – a lot of the work done was sharing good practice and what worked well. The groups looked at the whole school curriculum and discussed if it was fit for purpose.

o   Outcome: all schools undertook a survey which looked at common barriers to progress and achievement. The main barriers were:

§  Restricted range of experiences resulting in restricted range of language. The groups looked at having mentors in schools, having children help to mark their work with teachers which had a positive impact. Some data  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

41.

Pupil Premium Summer Camp

To receive the above presentation.

Minutes:

Clive Haines, The Schools Leadership Development Manager explained to Members that the aim of the Pupil Premium Summer Camp was to deliver a three day Summer Active Transition Camp for 85 young people in the SL6 postcode that met the PP criteria. The children attending would be ages nine to 11 years old and Maidenhead primary schools were invited to nominate children to attend. There was a mix of children that were nominated and children that were going to the same school in the following September were paired up. The camp had been funded by Spoore, Merry, Rixman Foundation.

 

The Schools Leadership Development Manager expected 130 children to attend the three day camp in the first week of the school holidays with a focus on physical activity, sport and healthy lifestyles and to develop leadership and team building qualities. The expected outcomes of the Summer Camp were:

 

Ø  To engage 135 young people from deprived backgrounds who would not normally experience a school holiday activity or family holiday – in three days of high quality sporting physical activity, promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Ø  To improve personal development skills – i.e. self-confidence, self-belief, determination, personal best, willingness to try something new.

Ø  An opportunity to mix with other pupils.

Ø  To improve awareness of health lifestyle choices.

Ø  To try new activities.

Ø  Breaking down breaking down barriers for transitioning between primary and secondary schools.

42.

Network Meetings for Pupil Champions Schools

To receive the above presentation.

Minutes:

Members noted that schools could only register to attend the Network Meetings if they had at least three PP children on role. The meetings had been very well attended and all but one type of setting attended. The feedback from the meetings was very positive with a lot of conversations which took place on how standards could be improved with a lot of collaborative work being planned.

 

Four specialists held sessions with reading and research and then those groups that attended those sessions could take their knowledge back to their tables to share with their groups. There was also a speaker in the afternoon that was very motivational and that resonated with the groups. Everyone that attended took something away with them to implement in their own settings. An action plan had been created for a similar event to take place in 2019.

 

Alison Penny stated the Borough was very interested in where the children were moving onto so that they could be tracked throughout their time at school, passports would be produced for PP children to help with transitions. She added that PP children changed and the numbers changed so in 2019, there might not be the same numbers in the PP cohort therefore, some settings might not be able to attend the meetings and the Borough was looking to see what could be done about that to ensure full participation wherever possible.

 

Lorraine Clark stated a lot of monitoring took place in Early Years Foundation Stage but, it was anecdotal so the Borough had been careful in asking how confident people were in raising children’s attainment. Alison Penny explained that language could be monitored, so some PP funding was used to upskill early years practitioners so they had a better idea on how to assess levels properly to see where improvements were.