Agenda item

The Slough Teaching School Alliance (STSA) had 3 member institutions, which were employed as hubs to create a sustainable support network. These schools had to meet nationally agreed criteria to be members, and then took on different strategic priorities to ensure the best possible coverage in the area. Given the size of Slough, this was a high number of accredited teaching schools and provided a solid base for improvement.

The School Improvement Fund had also raised the profile of Slough schools; it was an innovative scheme, and SBC were unaware of any other authorities running such an initiative. The encouragement of joint bids to maximise available funding had also bolstered dialogue between institutions, whilst a head teacher had been seconded for 2 days a week to assist co-ordination between SBC and the STSA.

The Panel raised the following points in discussion:

·  As well as the general positive feedback, SBC had been commended by the Regional Schools Commissioner for the School Improvement Fund. Recently, £49,500 had been dedicated to this to top up the existing funding. However, after this had been allocated then there would be no further money for the initiative under current plans.

·  Bids were assessed on a range of established criteria and funding allocated accordingly. Visits to schools to talk to staff and students were also part of the process once projects were underway.

·  Given the nature of the funding available under the School Improvement Fund, bids tended to be joint applications from a number of institutions. When funds had been awarded, updates on each project would be collected and circulated every half term, with a full report presented to SBC and the Regional Schools Commissioner once a term.

·  Both the geography of the schools involved and the nature of the projects being funded (e.g. special educational needs, higher ability students, nursery children and GCSE candidates were amongst those who were the subject of funded initiatives) ensured that children across Slough were receiving the benefits of the School Improvement Fund. It was hoped that these successes would encourage a high number of bids for the new funding available.

·  The School Improvement Board had held 2 meetings so far. The Board had been created to provide a strategic overview and conduct an Annual Risk Assessment. It was building on SBC’s established relationships with academies across Slough, and was receiving an encouraging level of support from local head teachers.

·  Funding was recognised as an issue; the centrally retained element had been abolished, meaning that consultants now had to be financed through the General Fund. As a result, this could be affected by changes in SBC’s corporate priorities, and the model may need to be adapted accordingly. Present systems would be in place for 2018 – 19, but guarantees beyond this date could not be given.

·  The National Funding Formula was starting to take effect, and was having an impact on all schools (including academies). Initial estimates indicate that the impact on Slough may be greater than that experienced by other authorities; this could place pressure on the level of support staff in schools. However, class sizes would not be affected (although this could have an impact on teacher workloads).

·  Slough had 12 Multi Academy Trusts (MATs); however, these tended to be small in size (2 – 4 schools) whilst Department for Education advice was that MATs needed to incorporate 12 – 16 schools to be financially viable in the future. As a result, there may be some alterations to the local picture in coming years.

·  Sponsored academies were those which took over local schools deemed to be under performing. These had generally had a good impact, and also worked well with SBC (despite there being no legal compunction to do so).

(At this point, Cllr Chahal entered the meeting)

·  Whilst there had been national examples of under performing schools struggling to find sponsors, this had not happened in Slough. In addition, there were no such examples in Berkshire as a whole.

Resolved:  That the report be noted.