Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel held on 22 March 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Head of North Ormesby Primary Academy will present information on the successful and proactive strategies and solutions used to prevent and tackle bullying.

At the meeting, the scrutiny panel received further evidence in respect of its topic of Behaviour, Discipline and Bullying in Schools.

The Head of North Ormesby Primary Academy (NOPA) was in attendance to present information on the successful and proactive strategies and solutions used to prevent and tackle bullying.

It was advised that NOPA was a Centre for Excellence for Inclusion and was also in the running to be an Inclusion Quality Mark flagship school.

The Head of NOPA advised that the school had 250 pupils on its roll, just over 60% of pupils were eligible for Pupil Premium funding and approximately 40% had English as an additional language (EAL) or were an international new arrival (INA). It was commented that, some INAs may not be eligible to claim benefits, therefore, those pupils would not be included in Pupil Premium data. It was envisaged that, if INAs had been included, approximately 85% of pupils would be eligible for Pupil Premium funding.

The school had just over 17% of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). In terms of annual mobility, that was approximately 70%, taking into account the pupils that started or left the school within a year.

Members heard that over the past 5 years, there had been three fixed-term exclusions, two of those had been for the same pupil who was now attending Holmwood School. No pupils had been permanently excluded.

The scrutiny panel was advised that there were three values at the school, which encompassed everything the school did and those were:

·        Tolerance and Acceptance - tolerating, accepting and celebrating everyone’s differences;

·        Innovative and Immersion - providing innovative and immersive learning for all; and

·        Scholastic Excellence - promoting scholastic excellence through the all-round development of each and every child.

The Head outlined the NOPA teaching approach, which included:

·        high expectations for children;

·        striving for depth in learning;

·        creativity and innovation, including children taking leadership and ownership;

·        independence and interdependence, being able to work alone and in groups;

·        a balanced diet;

·        an offer for all, which was crucial when considering behaviour and discipline;

·        a love of learning and a love for challenge; and

·        teaching excellence.

The school had a remarkable offer, which included:

·        Teaching and learning support e.g. every child would have access to - challenging activities, becoming an expert in e-safety and leadership roles etc.

·        Pastoral support e.g. every child would have access to speech and learning support, a magic breakfast club, CAMHS, Social Services and the Bungalow Project etc.

The scrutiny panel was shown several images of classrooms at NOPA, which included creative and interactive displays for the children. The classrooms were set up to coincide with the topics that were taught, ensuring that children were excited to learn, e.g. a Victorian living room and a seaside theme that included a boat, sand and a parasol. Each classroom also had flexible seating arrangements and learning environments, which included breakfast bars, reading lofts, exercise bikes, standing desks, bean bags etc.

There were areas in school that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/40

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide a verbal update.

As part of the update on Covid-19 recovery, the Head of Access to Education and Alternative Provision provided information on the Vulnerable Children’s Attendance Project. Members heard that the project was a pilot being delivered by Children’s Services to trial an innovative approach to protecting children and improving attendance at school.

The project was aimed at those children open to social care, i.e. Children in Need, Children in Need of Protection and Children in Care. There was a need to ensure that those children did not miss out on their education as they may have become exposed to a greater risk of harm, as attending school was a protective factor.

To proactively manage the attendance of those vulnerable pupils, the Local Authority had commissioned an external company, Welfare Call, to track the attendance of all children in the target groups every day. That data would then be made available to social workers and their managers via a cloud based portal. Real time and robust attendance data/information, and the ability to report on attendance trends of individual children and schools would enable social workers to intervene more quickly and in a more informed and targeted way.

The scrutiny panel was advised that an Education Welfare Officer (EWO) would be employed to engage directly with children, families and schools. The EWO would build relationships, unpick problems and breakdown the barriers that were preventing attendance. The EWO would also be able to get ‘eyes on’ the child to carry out the initial welfare check.

In terms of timescales, schools would be briefed and the EWO would start work the week commencing 19 April 2021. It was planned that Welfare Call would ‘go live’ by 4 May 2021.

A Member queried why the service was not going to be provided in-house. In response, the Head of Access to Education and Alternative Provision advised that Welfare Call had a web-based portal, which was a specialist application and allowed data to be stored, controlled and monitored securely. Welfare Call would provide the attendance data to enable the Local Authority to provide a robust and rapid response to attendance instantly, however, if the service was to be provided ‘in-house’ there would be a delay with its implementation.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services explained that the tracking and monitoring of attendance of vulnerable pupils was a significant focus of the Department of Education.

A Member commented that, following the implementation of Welfare Call, it would be beneficial for the scrutiny panel to receive an update on its impact.

In terms of Covid-19, the Executive Director of Children’s Services advised that the Local Authority was moving into the recovery stage. Currently, five members of staff and 14 pupils were isolating from one school.

NOTED

The Chair will present a verbal update on the matters that were considered at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 8 April 2021.

The Chair advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Board last met on 8 April and at that meeting the Board had considered the Executive Forward Work Programme, Middlesbrough Council's Response to COVID-19, an Executive Member Update from the Executive Member for Communities and Education, the Strategic Plan 2020-23 - Progress at Quarter Three 2020-21, the Revenue and Capital Budget - Projected Outturn Position as at Quarter Three 2020/21 and updates from the Scrutiny Panel Chairs.

NOTED