To consider a report by the Education Cabinet Member on the above.
Minutes:
(a) The Cabinet Member for Education's
report was presented outlining the project to improve the conditions for
leadership in order to raise standards.
(b) Reference was made to the project’s aim
that would look at five specific fields, namely:
·
Commission a report on the leadership and
management conditions within the County’s schools and implement the agreed
recommendations
·
Monitor and challenge every school and use all
the available powers at the authority’s disposal to improve leadership and
management at underperforming schools.
·
Develop managers and prospective managers within
services and identify future leaders
·
Develop a strong school to school system and
ensure that arrangements are in place to share best practice and avoid
duplication; and
·
Ensure that capital investment leads to
improving leadership and management conditions.
(c) The
next steps were elaborated upon and the intention to conduct a further meeting
with Independent Consultants with international experience in the field and
they would welcome the opportunity to interview members of the Services
Scrutiny Committee as part of their research.
(ch) Members were given an opportunity to ask
questions and the following observations were made:
(i)
Do the problems with recruitment only deal with
a small section of the County and would joining with other Counties not be of
benefit when sharing expertise?
In response, it
was explained that the County’s geographical nature was huge and challenging as
the needs of different areas of the County were quite different. The intention
of the Education Department was to re-establish Area Offices in order to
conduct local discussions to satisfy the needs of the children. In terms of the
development of individuals as leaders, especially in the smallest schools, they
had to be given an opportunity to lead on strategic areas in order to show
experience in different fields for the NPQH qualification.
(ii)
Was there evidence that some schools compete
against each other for pupils?
In response, it
was noted that if there was joint-ownership of the project to improve
leadership and management then an eye should be kept to ensure that every
catchment-area was dealt with fairly.
(iii)
In terms of agreeing on the attainment levels of
pupils during the transition from primary to secondary it was noted that the
current information on any child had to be correct from the initial step
through the educational stage. It was noted further that assessment was a
continuous discussion, however, for a successful transition between primary and
secondary there had to be an understanding and the interpretation of the
criteria had to be clear.
(iv)
In response to concern regarding the findings by
parents that some schools were more Anglicised and as a result numbers were
reducing in some catchment-areas, it was noted that it was a challenge to
reconcile the implementation of the language policy. Again, in the same manner discussion could
be conducted locally in order to ensure that children have the same type of
experience and provision.
(v)
In the context of the federalisation of primary
and secondary schools in the future, it was noted that this would be part of
the investigation into leadership and alternative models. Although there were specific ideas within the
Service it was accepted that the response of the community regarding
arrangements and provision were important. In terms of organisation, infrastructure would
have to be ensured in order that children get the best results. In light of the
current financial climate, if leadership and school middle management were to
be improved, then other methods of working such as work sharing across the
catchment-area had to be considered.
(vi) In
terms of the current level of the recruitment problem, it was noted that
Gwynedd had a successful record last year as nine persons had managed to gain
the NPQH qualification and this represented nearly half the north Wales quota. However, a system had to be created that would
be viable and would give an opportunity for prospective leaders to show the
skills to be able to lead and manage. It
was further noted that some schools were too small to have a Management Team
that was more than just the Head alone, and therefore made it difficult for
individuals to gain experiences and a system had to be created to get
individuals to be future leaders. In the
context of the lack of recruitment across the County, it was noted that it was
getting more difficult and the culture had to change from being independent to
that of collaboration.
(viii) In response to concern regarding funding the
programme for schools in the twenty first century, it was trusted that the
Council could invest as much as possible in order to ensure that the buildings
would offer the best for teachers and young people.
(viii) In the context of the Schools Organisation
Team, it was noted that the Team had been established for specific work with
the schools in the twenty first century programme and was dependent on the
capital budget and the findings of the leadership investigation. Consideration
would have to be given to re-structuring within the Department to address wider
issues than organisation such as the role of supporting leadership in the local
area.
Resolved: (a) To
accept and note the contents of the report.
(b) To nominate the following members of this
Scrutiny Committee to meet with the Independent Consultants dealing with the
project to offer observations and recommendations on issues that require
getting to grips with.
Councillor
Beth Lawton – (Vice-chair of the Services Scrutiny Committee)
Councillor
Selwyn Griffiths
Councillor
Alwyn Gruffydd
Councillor
Elin Walker Jones
Councillor
Dewi Owen
Councillor
Hefin Williams
Supporting documents: