Cabinet considered the report regarding the progress of academic attainment for the Academic Year 2020-21.

The Lead Member for Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health informed Cabinet that the period covered by the report had been very challenging for schools and pupils due to the pandemic and periods of lockdown as schools and settings were closed from March to June 2020 and again in January to

March 2021 to all pupils except for children of critical workers, pupils known to social

care and those the school leaders deemed otherwise vulnerable.

Remote learning had been put in place for all pupils not attending school, Ofsted

inspections were postponed and the Department of Education cancelled all primary

SATs testing and, in secondary schools, A-levels and GCSEs were teacher assessed.

The report set out the progress across the Borough’s schools during the pandemic,

summarising the available qualitative and quantitative data that was contained in the

Education Pack 2020-21 and other appendices. Attainment data had not been published nationally for specific groups of pupils and the results were not

comparable to pre-pandemic years.

The Lead Member highlighted section 2.17 of the report regarding FUEL which was a Department of Education funded free holiday activity and food project. It offered qualifying participants the opportunity to take part in a range of fun activities and receive a nutritious meal during school holiday periods.  This had been successfully rolled out throughout the borough.  It was also highlighted that schools being rated as either good or outstanding had increased from 94% to 97% of our schools.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services informed that the report had been considered by Overview and Scrutiny who went through the report in detail.  The Lead Member had covered a lot of detail within the report but he wanted to highlight that the Royal Borough were involved with teacher training and this had been successful with 100% of the regular 30 participants remaining within the borough, they were discussing with the government increasing this to 60 teachers and a report would be brought to Cabinet.

There were some risks within the report especially the consultation by government to stop a core school improvement grant, he was glad to report that since publishing the report the Schools Forum had met and agreed to continue with the scheme and would support it next year whilst looking at other alternatives.  The other risk highlighted was the Parent Careers Forum, this had been successful but in main because of two parents who had been very active, they were now stepping down do the Director asked for any interested parties to come forward otherwise there would be no forum. 

Cllr Baldwin said he supported the paper but was concerned about the high level of exclusion of pupils with SEN, Education Health Care Plans and those from the traveller community.  The Director informed that they were aware of this level of exclusion from these groups and work was being undertaken to get early intervention to help prevent exclusion being needed.  With regards to the traveller community this was hard to resource due to the small numbers but SENCO were looking at individual cases.

Resolved unanimously:  that Cabinet notes the report and:

               I.         Congratulates local schools on their continued success

              II.         Endorses the key priorities set out in section 2.59.