Agenda item

To consider and discuss a report from the Head of Education Services on the support provided to the school and progress made since the core Estyn inspection in May 2022 (copy enclosed).

10.10am – 10.45 am

The Chair reminded members of the reason for presenting the report stating the report outlined the progress achieved to date by Christ the Word Catholic School since the last report presented in January 2023 in relation to improving standards.

The Lead Member for Education Councillor Gill German introduced the update report (previously circulated) to Members. The information was in addition to the previous information presented to the Committee. She informed members numerous multi- agency meetings had taken place at which she had been present. Members also heard two monitoring visits from Estyn had taken place.

The Head of Education expanded on the Lead Member’s introduction stressing to the Committee that realising improvements at Christ the Word Catholic School was a priority for the school and the Education Service as a whole. He offered his thanks to all parties for their part in supporting the school.  Work undertaken by officers, teaching staff and external partners was all aimed at addressing the recommendations set by Estyn.

There had been extensive work completed at the school since the initial inspection and first update report presented to the Committee in January 2023. A high degree of scrutiny of the work had taken place, Estyn as the regulators regularly scrutinised the developments along with the multi-agency school approach with the Governing Body, the Diocese and GwE reviewing the progress made against the 5 recommendations.   Further work was required against the 5 original recommendations. To date the improvements were in line with officers expectations.

The Chair thanked all organisations in attendance for their support to secure improvements at the school along with their commitment to progressing the improvements further and sustaining them for the future.  Following the introduction Members were invited to raise any concerns or questions and the following points were discussed in more detail:

·         Work to ensure support available was the right support at the right time. All stakeholders that supported the school were in agreement that the support accessed and provided needed to be timely, focused on the right areas and conducted in the right priority order. Discussions and support would be ongoing with the school as with all schools in Denbighshire.

·         As in any school the biggest and most important resource was the staff. Having all staff working together was essential for success as was securing their support for any changes and improvements.

·         The working party of staff started as a behaviour committee. School staff across the board and from all levels were included in the group. It was to discuss and review the behaviour of pupils in the school and what measurers required to be implemented to support improvement. The group naturally progressed from not only behavioural aspects but to lessons and how the tone could be set correctly in each lesson. Expectations were established for both staff and pupils for each lesson. The expectation for staff had been to follow a pattern to establish consistency through the whole school. Members were provided with some of the expectations of staff, such as treating all pupils with respect, meeting students at the door and providing clear instructions on all learning activities. Those expectations set the tone for each lesson and informed teaching staff of the procedure for each lesson and the expected outcome. To monitor those expectations, monitoring processes were established within the school. GwE attended the school and looked at this area when they conducted observations of lessons. Feedback was provided on how the interventions had been implemented. Every monitoring cycle the school had scheduled would look at the expectations and considered whether they were working effectively.

·         Members congratulated all involved with the hard work that had taken place at the school since the issues arose and from the initial report presented to the Committee. Concerns were raised that once the recommendations had been reached and completed the school would see a decline in the monitoring of the improvements and would fall back to previous ways of schooling. However, it was stressed that the school had to be open to receive any support or guidance from Denbighshire or external partners at any time, similar to all other schools.

·         A summary against each recommendation had been included for Members reference. It was made clear that attendance rates and behaviour had to be separated. Attendance had seen a considerable improvement at the school. Attendance was not an issue Christ the Word School had in isolation, it was a national issue following the pandemic. It was felt the school was suitably aspirational with regards to attendance.  The school had accepted all the support from officers with regards to improving attendance at the school.

·         It was confirmed behaviour had not been included as part of the initial recommendations, it had been recognised by the school that behaviour had to be supported and understood in order to encourage pupils to learn. The behaviour issues identified were not unique to Christ the Word school, they were wide spread across Wales. When Estyn visited and communicated with staff, the majority of issues around behaviour were around pupils being off task or not focussing on the task in hand. To improve behaviour, along with the support group a dialogue with Denbighshire County Council officers to support staff to identify behaviours and offer suggestions on how to improve class behaviour.  A day on trauma informed schools had taken place for all staff members to attend and to educate staff on understanding trauma and how to manage those situations if and when they arose.

·         The school through GwE were working with Bangor University on a piece of work entitled positive, readiness for learning behaviour project.  Two behaviour analysts were currently working at the school on an analysis of behaviours and why children behave in certain ways, with a view to devising proactive measures to address behaviour challenges and getting the pupils to reengage with learning.   

·         Members heard if a child had been permanently excluded from 2 schools, a third school would not have to accept that child. After one permanent exclusion any school would have to accept that child if the school had space.

·         It was stressed the staff at the school were 100% committed to making the improvements needed at the school and supporting the pupils during their education at the school. Staff morale was key; the importance of ensuring staff were happy was vital in then supporting pupils. Support provided by the Authority, GwE, Diocese and others for staff with any concerns had been greatly appreciated.

·         The biggest cost to Denbighshire County Council had been officer time. Officer time spent to support the school and staff had been essential in order to secure progress and improvement. No funding had been sought from other schools’ budgets. Budgets were delegated to schools for the Governing bodies to use to run and support their school. Additional support had been provided to the Governing Body in the way of external training which incurred a small charge. Officers stressed that no funding had been transferred from other schools to support Christ the Word school. The Lead Member highlighted the staffing and practical support received from surrounding schools in Rhyl. She offered her thanks to the other schools for the added support provided.

·         Governance in schools had changed over recent years.  Schools were accountable to their governing bodies and were regulated by Estyn. Denbighshire County Council had followed the statutory process in appointing governors at the school and had appointed additional members with specialist skills to support the Governing Body. Officers of the Authority and GwE had attended numerous governing body meetings to support if required. Training events for governors were regularly offered. It was hoped that by the end of the term the governing body would be at its full capacity.

·         The new Chair of the Governing Body commended the support that he had received from the local education authority.  He emphasised that the Governing Body was now nearing full complement, with members bringing an extensive range of competencies and experiences with them to the Governing Body that would be invaluable to it in its role of governing and supporting the school to move forward.  

·         The next expected visit from Estyn would be at some stage prior to Christmas.

Following an extensive and in-depth discussion the Committee:

Resolved:  subject to the above comments and observations –

(i)   to acknowledge the progress made to date in delivering the action plans and improve standards across the school; and

(ii) requested that a further progress report on the delivery of the Post Inspection Action Plan and the joint local authority and GwE school support action plan be submitted to the Committee at the end of the current academic year, in July 2024.