Victoria
Banks, Virtual Schools Head will be in attendance to provide the Board will an
update.
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed the Virtual Schools Head to
the meeting to present the interim Virtual schools annual report to the Board
and to provide an update on Covid.
The Head outlined that although the final annual
report will be brought out in March, publishing the interim report meant that
any issues and challenges could be addressed sooner. It was noted that due to
COVID end of Key Stage results are not to be published therefore this year they
will limited additions made to the interim report.
The Head advised that normally the main focus of
the annual report was to report on the end of year results (SATS and GCSE) , however due to covid, these results will not be
reported. However we do know how our Children looked after achieved and this
has been reported in previous CPB meeting.
Therefore the Head discussed some of the strengths and some of the key
areas of development :
The key strengths were as follows:
·
98.6% of looked after children have an up-to-date Personal education
plan (PEP). The Head advised that in 2014 30% of PEPs were up to date and
carried out within the statutory timeframe of 6 months. This is a great
achievement. |
·
Arrangements were in place for the termly review of PEPs. |
·
Actions and activities recorded in the PEP were carefully monitored,
ensuring they are implemented without delay. All PEPs are held on a live
system called Welfare Calls, which provides good monitoring of attainment and
progress. |
·
Where a Required improvement school is used the Virtual school head is
confident of the school’s ability to support the child. |
·
Attendance was monitored and evaluated (through the welfare call
system). There ae regular meeting with Social care partners to plan for individual
children and to put in place system changes when needed. |
·
Progress and attainment are monitored and evaluated (through welfare
calls and schools submit a weekly attendance records) |
·
Attainment, progress and attendance are reported regularly to the
Governing Body. The virtual schools is held accountable and this is good
practice. |
·
Details of all educational settings are up to date (this is a
statutory responsibility) |
·
The Pupil premium + policy is published. |
·
Appropriate training was available for: Designated teachers school
staff, social workers and carers and Independent reviewing officers. The
Virtual Head advised that attendance at the training has increased during the
pandemic with the move to virtual training. |
·
In the event of an suspension (exclusion),
arrangements for the child’s on going education are made. If more than 1 day,
the virtual schools will arrange for a tutor, and the Board were advised that
we believe Middlesbrough Virtual schools was the only virtual school in the
Country to have a dedicated CLA intervention centre. |
·
There have been no expulsions (permanent exclusions) Main areas of developments: |
·
Continue to improve the quality of PEPs- when Ofsted came Middlesbrough
were 55% good or better in quality of PEPs and the virtual head advised that
every month she will do a random audit of 20 PEPs and Middlesbrough were
68-80% good or better in quality. Middlesbrough has also tweaked the quality
assurance tool for PEPs which is robust and challenging. Middlesbrough was
looking at introducing additional quality assurance for PEPs e.g. Paula Jemson and they were looking at
introducing another Virtual school head to audit the PEPs as an external eye.
The Virtual Head also advised she was looking to introduce a peer review from
the National Association of Virtual school Heads ,
as this was a key area of development. |
·
In an emergency placement ensure the PEP is initiated within 10
working days of a child becoming Looked After. The Head reported that
Middlesbrough Virtual schools was now the best in the Country at sighing off
PEPs in good time scales. |
·
In emergencies ensure a new educational placement is provided within
20 school days and avoid drift and delay in providing suitable education.
Covid has brought challenges in terms of bubbles in schools, however the
virtual schools have introduced online learning so there is no gap in
learning for that child. |
·
For 16 – 18 year olds, liaise with the child’s Personal Advisor to
ensure educational goals and needs are understood. There is now a new post 16
policy in place. |
·
Ensure all children are receiving their appropriate entitlement to
education, and continue to work creatively with SEND and Social Care to help
achieve this. |
·
Work with partners including social care to improve school placement
stability. Middlesbrough now have a
school move process, however we have issues when the case is in Court. |
·
Work creatively with schools and carers to continue to improve academic
outcomes at all key stages. Virtual schools work more collaboratively with
foster carers by attending foster carer coffee mornings and there is a
virtual school foster care pack being developed. |
·
Increased attendance at training for social workers. There has been an
issue in the past with caseloads of social workers, however we are now seeing
more social workers attending training and the new Virtual Head was working
closely with the Principle Social Worker to put a programme of training in
place. |
·
Improve attendance and reduce ‘Persist Absenteeism’. |
·
Reduce the number of fixed term exclusions. Over the past few years
there has been a steady decline. |
·
Increase the number of children accessing mainstream schools. It is
becoming apparent that when children get to Key stage 4, they are going into
alternative provision where GSCEs are not available and therefore the Virtual
school is looking at further ways to keep them in mainstream school. |
·
Decrease the number of NEETs. The virtual head further went to provide an
update in relation to covid; which covered 3 main areas: ·
Attendance: at the start of the third lockdown there was contradictory
guidance issues; on the one hand the Government was encouraging vulnerable
children to attend, and on the other offered parents the option of keeping
them at home. In the case of looked after children
Middlesbrough's expectation was that all children looked after should attend
unless there was a very good reason not to (medical_, and this reason had
been discussed and agreed with the social worker and Virtual School. ·
Laptops- all Foster Careers were contacted to ensure
children have appropriate ICT equipment. ·
Foster carer support- it was evident that for those children at home
with foster carers, it was important to support the foster carers during this
time. Due to this, the following occurred: 1. Weekly coffee mornings have recommenced. 2. Regular “in the know posts” including how to support mental health
needs are available (via social media) 3. Virtual School contact reminder and support offer has been sent to all
Carers. 4. Updated online recourses available. Following
the presentation, a board member asked what mechanisms were in place by the
virtual school to challenge exclusions. In response, the Virtual School Head
eluded to a young person who had been excluded for smoking in a teachers face
and they were suffering from anxiety surrounding returning to school after
lockdown. The school excluded the young person for 5 days, the Virtual schools
challenged the school/governors and provided them with the virtual school
protocol to ensure they were provided the correct support for that young
person. Following that challenge, the exclusion was reduced and it avoided a
permanent exclusion. Schools are aware of the Virtual School policy and if a
child looked after is excluded for more than 5 days, the Virtual School Head
will notify the schools governing body. A
question in relation to children being placed out of the area for school was
also raised and the Virtual School Head advised that their education and
support would not differ and the main focus was to ensure the educational
wellbeing of that child. The Virtual School Head that when a student is
placed in an emergency it can be a challenge to identify and go through the
admission process of finding a new school out of area, however education via
1:1 tuition will always be provided until the student is on a school roll.
School transport was also raised and the Virtual school head outlined that
when a child required transport, the service would contact 'home to school
transport' and ensure this was arranged appropriately. The
Chair thanked the Virtual school head for her presentation. AGREED-
That the report be noted. |
Supporting documents: