Agenda item

Victoria Banks, Head of Virtual Schools, will present the Interim Annual Report 2020/ 21.

The Head of Virtual schools was in attendance to provide information in relation to the Virtual Schools Interim report. The Boars were advised that all Virtual Schools Heads were expected to present an Annual report, which will be submitted in March 2022.

The Interim report was not a statutory requirement, however it was felt Corporate Parents should be informed how children looked after are academically progressing prior to March 2022.

The Head outlined some of the highlights from the report:

·        Work of the staff within the virtual school must be recognised

·        Middlesbrough schools should also be congratulated for ensuring our children looked after receive the best possible education. All Children looked after have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) and the Virtual schools tried to ensure that they are present at every review meeting so that the PEP can be challenged and support schools to provide the best education.

·        In terms of PEP completion, 100% of children had a plan within the timescales provided

·        Children received many challenged in 2020, especially in relation to social, emotional and mental health and it was recognised that support young people and  support schools.

·        Headstart (managed by Wendy Kelly) provides an excellent service, however virtual schools wanted to ensure they knew what support children were receiving. The Virtual schools commissioned ABC counselling to ensure children looked after were fast tracked to receive the correct mental health support. The virtual schools also offers the attach, aware and trauma informed programme. 2 schools had completed the programme and a further 6 schools had signed up to complete this.

·        Online training has continued and we offered more indepth support by ensuring PEP advisors contacted schools weekly to offer additional support if required.

·        Middlesbrough Virtual Schools is rare in that it offers an Intervention Centre, which offers 1:1 tuition to children who are not meeting academic levels and who can assess the provision.

·        The Virtual schools also celebrate success and were able to take a group of young people to Darlington Hippodrome to see Horrible Histories. It has been rare over the past year to do face to face activities and enrichment so this was a lovely experience for the young people and staff involved.

·        In terms of academic outcomes, it was difficult due to the variables which need to be taken into consideration. The Head of Virtual schools outlined that normally there would be national and local benchmarks for children looked after and children not looked after. These benchmarks were not currently available.

·        There had been a dip in Key stage 2 and within early years, but at key stage 4, outcomes appear to be higher than pre covid. However the Board were made aware that making year on year comparisons was difficult to make good inferences. Many factors affect the academic achievement of a child looked after all affect the outcomes.

·        In terms of the gap at key stage 2, all children looked after are given £1,000 grant for their transition to key stage 3 (secondary). For those children not meeting targets, the virtual schools meet with secondary schools and individuals are offered 1:1 support within the intervention centre. The areas of concern are also identified within their PEP and monitored regularly.  This key stage cohort, struggled with transition and had historical attendance records and well as a high level of SEN.

·        There have been 0% looked after children permanently excluded from Middlesbrough schools in the past 4 years.

·        Through Covid, it was also noted that children looked after do better academically with higher adult ratios.  Fixed terms exclusions deceased during covid for children looked after, however increased when all children returned to school.

·        A Care leaver also congratulated the service in securing laptops for all children looked after during the lockdown, as this tackled digital inequality.

·        Attendance for children looked after was higher than children not looked after.

·        It was important to celebrate achievement of children looked after. During Care leavers week, the Virtual School worked with colleagues in Children’s Services to ensure that all children received a package in the post with a gift and a personalised card noting how we, as corporate parents are proud of them for their individual achievement. Individual achievements are celebrated through awards and there is an attendance award for any child looked after who had 100% attendance.

The Board noted the excellent achievements of Key stage 4, but had concerns that these were teacher assessed grades (TAG) but these were potentially over inflated, and therefore these may vary when the routine GCSE papers return to be externally marked.

The Head of Virtual schools also outlined that the service had been successful in receiving Post 16 pilot bid of £64,000, which meant post 16 could continue with their next stage of education.

The Head of Virtual schools was thanked for her presentation.

AGREED- That the information be noted.