Agenda item

Robin Crofts (Lead for Education, Cambridge Education) and Julian King-Harris (Head of School Improvement) introduced the report and stressed the focus of the borough’s schools on improvement, particularly in relation to raising the aspirations and achievements of vulnerable groups.

The Panel discussed:

• the need to celebrate the success of Slough’s students in 2013, with a rise of 5.3% in attainment at Key Stage 4, bring Slough up to 7^th in the country out of 152 local authorities for results;
• that at Key Stage 2, Free School Meal (FSM) students were achieving around the national average, and significantly higher than the national average at Key Stage 4.  However, there was still a distance to go in terms of closing to the gap when compared with non-FSM students;
• the need to ensure that the Pupil Premium funding was spent in a focused way to benefit effectively the individual it is attached to, and discourage schools spending it on more broad provision.  It was felt this would then drive closing the gap;
• that the council closely monitors the areas of scrutiny from OFSTED, and that looking at the quality of teaching included close review of the accuracy of assessments of need;
• that individual schools assess what curriculum they enter their students for, which can distort the entry figures for such subjects as GCSE science;
• the need to improve the offer to teachers, and encourage them to come to, and stay in, Slough.  The Panel received additional information from Lynda Bussley providing a summary of the key findings from the Department for Education Workload Survey 2013, with working conditions and pay being a serious barrier to staff recruitment and retention nationally.  The Panel suggested that there might be cross-service learning from the work stream in Children’s Services looking at the recruitment and retention of social workers; as well as work to bring the schools together in a collective recruitment programme to market Slough on a bigger scale; the council should also consider the effectiveness of key worker housing at retaining staff.

Resolved – to congratulate the borough’s schools’ and students’ excellent results in 2013.