Archived decisions

Item 3

AT A MEETING of the EDUCATION ADVISORY PANEL held at The Castle, Winchester on 16 April 2008.

PRESENT:

Councillors: Mrs P.A. West (Chairman); D.R. Blampied; B.D. Dash; K.D. Evans; K.L. Gill; Jo Kelly; R.J. Kimber; Mrs S.A. Wheale.

Co-Opted Members: Hon. Alderman S.W. Juniper; Mr D. Mews; Mr J. Schofield.

Also in attendance: Councillor D.A. Kirk, Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education)

1 APOLOGIES

    Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs E.M. Byrom and Mrs C.A. Leversha. Councillors Jo Kelly and Mrs S.A. Wheale left during the meeting in order to attend a meeting of the Regulatory Committee. Councillor Mrs S.A. Wheale returned shortly afterwards.

2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally at the time of the debate declare their interest, and having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code.

There were no declarations of interest made by under this item.

3 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman welcomed Members to the first meeting of the Education Advisory Panel and thanked Mr J. Schofield and Mr D. Mews, the teacher co-opted representatives, for attending this particular Panel. It was noted that future meetings of the Panel would be attended by Mr J. Gawthorpe (Teacher Liaison Panel Secretary), Mr D. White (Teacher Liaison Panel Chair) and a third co-opted member with experience of the matters under consideration at that meeting.

4 DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations made under this item.

5 ENSURING A HIGH QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN HAMPSHIRE

The Panel considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 5 in the Minute Book), which set out how standards were monitored in schools by the Local Authority (LA) and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and introduced the work of School Improvement Partners (SIPs). SIPs formed the main contact between school and LA, and were the first layer in the framework of challenge and support to schools; by supporting and challenging the school's process of self-evaluation, schools were able to reach a more accurate judgement of standards and areas for improvement. Ofsted carried out short notice inspections of schools on a three year cycle, using data about a school's performance (such as results and `Value Added') to form hypothesises about the performance of that school, which would then be tested via inspection. Should a school be found to be inadequate, Ofsted had powers to give notice to improve, or apply Special Measures to that school.

    Members agreed that it would be helpful to have some of the school performance data used by Ofsted as part of a case study to facilitate a greater understanding of this issue, and requested that, if possible, a SIP could attend a future meeting of the Panel to discuss their role.

    The Panel debated the issues raised by the report and generally welcomed the news that the well-being of the pupils and community of schools was being given increased importance. Whilst recognising academic results as a key determination of success, Members felt that a whole-systems approach, which included the community and wellbeing of pupils, had a significant impact on educational attainment and the attitudes and perception of education within communities.

    Members suggested that, as an extension of the issues raised within the debate, that it would be helpful to have further information on social cohesion, the `Rights, Respect and Responsibility' and on the latest position on the 14-19 agenda at a future meeting of the Panel.

    RESOLVED:

    That the report be noted.

6 UNICEF REPORT "AN OVERVIEW OF CHILD WELL-BEING IN RICH COUNTRIES"

    The Committee considered the presentation of the Director of Children's Services (Item 6 in the Minute Book) on Child Well-Being in Rich Countries. The slide on twenty-first century schools was highlighted to Members. Members noted that `Rights, Respect and Responsibility' and UNICEF work were a vital part of developing and improving social cohesion.

    Members felt that it would be helpful to have further information on the Children's Plan at a future meeting of the Panel.

7 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

    Members noted that the next meeting of the Panel was due to be held at 9.00 a.m. on 23 May 2008 at The Castle, Winchester.

      Note: The intention was for the Panel to meet three times a year during each school term (e.g. September, January/February and May/June). The Clerk would be arranging future meetings on this basis and so as to ensure any future items requiring decision were reported to the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) Decision Day meetings held in October, March and July respectively.