Agenda item

To consider a joint report (copy attached) by the Principal Education Manager and GwE’s Senior Challenge Advisor which seeks the Committee to review the performance of schools against previous performance and external benchmarks that are currently available, and identify any potential areas for improvement.

9.40am – 10.10am

The Head of Education introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide Performance Scrutiny Committee with the information regarding the performance of Denbighshire’s schools in recent teacher assessments and external examinations.

The Senior Challenge Advisor, GwE (Conwy and Denbighshire Hub), summarised the report which detailed the result of final teacher assessments for 2015/16 and the provisional external examination results for the same period. 

During the introduction, he:

·       detailed the data contained within the report;

·       confirmed that the + / - figure for Ysgol Brynhyfryd in the unverified external examination results table should read plus and not minus 4.8%;

·       advised that Denbighshire’s results were demonstrating an overall improvement on the previous year’s results, nevertheless the majority of schools had not met the very ambitious targets they had set themselves;

·       performance in Welsh Language skills had declined in all stages of teacher assessments and because of this, GwE would be monitoring this area very closely for the foreseeable future.

Discussion took place and responding to Members’ concerns and questions, the Senior GwE Advisor, Lead Member for Education, and other senior officers:

·       advised that the number of pupils who did not achieve Core Subject Indicator (CSI) in each stage and who had not been identified as having Additional Learning Needs (ALN) were reducing.  This was because the County had detailed data on every pupil and were able to intervene at an early stage in their education.  This provided the support required to ensure that they did achieve the CSI;

·       confirmed they did have concerns with respect to the potential to lose a number of pupils from the Welsh medium sector to the English medium sector during the transition from primary to secondary education, and during the early stage of their secondary education.  Officers would be supporting pupils identified as “at risk” at this stage.  The Lead Member for Education cited Ysgol Dinas Bran’s Welsh-medium stream’s success in supporting pupils to achieve better results and outcomes;

·       outlined the process followed by schools when setting targets, emphasising that the targets were extremely ambitious and were unlikely to be met.  If a school achieved within 5% of the set target it was regarded as having met its target;

·       the majority of schools had achieved within 5% of the target they had set themselves, with Ysgol Brynhyfryd exceeding its set target by 4.8%.  However, three schools had missed their target by more than 5%.  The three schools were:

Ø  Prestatyn High School

Ø  Denbigh High School, and

Ø  Blessed Edward Jones High School.

Blessed Edward Jones High School had missed their target, despite showing a 15.4% improvement in performance on the previous year.  GwE would be working closely to support these individual schools;

·       a new Headteacher had recently been appointed to Prestatyn High School.  He had been working alongside the former Headteacher for a period of time and would be applying similar teaching strategies as the new Headteacher of Ysgol Brynhyfryd had been utilising.  The Lead Member and Officers were, therefore, confident that Prestatyn High School results would improve considerably in the future;

·       detailed GwE’s school categorisation process, where schools were given either a Red, Amber or Green (RAG) status.

The Head of Education and Members both registered their concerns about the potential detrimental effect of the RAG system.  They felt that schools awarded “green” status were at risk of not achieving their targets in future as all support from GwE would be channelled to the “red” and potentially some “amber” schools.  There was a collective feeling that all schools should receive an element of support in order to achieve continuous improvement.

Prior to the conclusion of the discussion, Members commended Ysgol Brynhyfryd’s excellent achievement, particularly bearing in mind that the new Headteacher had only been in post for two full terms.

It had also been noted that a number of pupils across the county received extra tuition outside school hours in order to achieve their excellent grades.

At the conclusion of the discussion it was:

RESOLVED, subject to the above observations:

(i)              to congratulate the county’s pupils on their educational achievements this year as outlined in the report, and the county on its performance against external benchmarks; and

(ii)             that all schools should be supported accordingly with a view to achieving the best possible outcomes for their pupils.