The Committee be invited to appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

On a motion by Councillor Moira McLaughlin it was:

Resolved – That Councillor Wendy Clements be appointed Chair of the Attainments Sub-Committee.

On a motion by Councillor Wendy Clements it was:

Resolved – That Councillor Moira McLaughlin be appointed Vice Chair of the Attainment Sub-Committee.

Councillor Wendy Clements welcomed all present to the first meeting of the attainment, noted apologies and gave a brief introduction to the work of the Sub-Committee.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Councillor Wendy Clements declared a Non Pecuniary interest by virtue of her employment in an early years setting.

Members considered the objectives of the Attainment Sub-Committee which was to support the Council and its partners in

• raising the aspirations of young people, and in particular to raise overall attainment, especially of vulnerable groups;
• improving the outcomes for children and young people in terms of their education, training and their social and economic wellbeing;
• ensuring access to all for early years childcare and education, primary and secondary education and lifelong learning;
• ensuring that children and young people’s views and voices are evidenced in and integral to all of the above objectives.

Members also considered the draft terms of reference that the Attainment Sub-Committee would provide oversight, support and challenge to the activities of Wirral Council and its partners in relation to the following areas:

• Demonstrating the attainment of all young people aged 0 -19 (or 25 for those with a learning difficulty / disability);
• Driving forward the attainment of young people in vulnerable groups in order to ‘narrow the gap’;
• Examining the performance of all schools and colleges in the borough;
• Ensuring there is a prioritised response to schools undergoing Ofsted inspections and those in special categories;
• Improving participation levels of 16 -18 year olds in Education, Employment and Training
• Enhancing lifelong learning provision
• Monitoring Local Authority performance against its statutory duties

Members then considered the proposed working practices of the Attainment Sub-Committee and it was;

Resolved – That the objectives, draft terms of reference and proposed working practices of the Attainment Sub-Committee as outlined in the report be agreed.

Sue Talbot, Strategic Service Manager, presented the Attainment Sub-Committee with a stock take of results from Early Years to Post 16 and responded to members questions.  Members were informed of each of the Key Stages including information relating to gender, pupils in receipt of free school meals, pupils with special educational needs, looked after children and crucially the key areas for development.

Councillors Moira McLaughlin and Tony Norbury left the meeting.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Presentation.

Sue Talbot, Strategic Service Manager, gave a presentation to the Attainment Sub-Committee with the outcomes of Ofsted Inspections since September 2012 and responded to Members questions. Members were informed of changes to the Inspection process and received a pack of published results relating to Wasp, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Wallasey, Pensby High School for Boys, Bebington High Sports College, University Academy of Birkenhead, Grove Street Primary and Nursery School, Woodslee Primary School, Woodchurch CofE Primary School, Stanton Road Primary School, Pensby High School for Girls, Greenleas Primary School, Kingsway Primary School and St Anselm’s College.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Sue Talbot, Strategic Service Manager, presented a report relating to Pupil Premium in Secondary Schools and responded to Members questions. It was reported that Pupil Premium had been introduced by the government in April 2011 following work by John Dunford, the retired leader of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), who had urged governments to provide schools with extra money to educate disadvantaged pupils. John Dunford was now the Pupil Premium Champion (July 2013) tasked with talking to schools about the most effective ways of using the extra money and feedback issues raised by school leaders to ministers and civil servants. It was reported that from September 2013 schools would be held to account by Ofsted for the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and the progress they made with particular emphasis on closing the achievement gap with other pupils. Schools judged by Ofsted as ‘requiring improvement’ where the concerns were raised about the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils would take part in a Pupil Premium review.  These schools would be supported by an experienced Headteacher from another school, with the aim of developing a strategy for using pupil premium more effectively. The report contained the methodology of information gathering, the key findings and included the following recommendations:

Ø  The progress of free school meal pupils continues to be monitored regularly, schools are actively encouraged to learn from best practice, and schools will be held accountable for outcomes for children in receipt of free school meals, with a particular focus on schools in Band 3 and Band 4.

Ø  An HMI Ofsted signature event regarding the use of Pupil Premium to improve children’s outcomes to be organised by EQ (Education Quality).

Ø  The Ofsted Pupil Premium Analysis Tool (Reference 130045) to be distributed to schools for their use.

Ø  An Annual report to be prepared for the Attainment Sub-Committee

Ø  An Annual report to be shared with schools at Schools Forum after consideration by the Head Teacher consultation groups (Primary Head Consultation Group and Wirral Association of Secondary Head teachers)

‘The Pupil Premium – How schools are spending the funding successfully to maximise achievement’ and ‘The Pupil Premium Analysis and challenge tools for schools’ were attached to the report as appendices.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

The Attainment Sub-Committee considered a report on the potential items for the Sub- Committee work programme and discussed further work items for consideration, including Pupil Premium, closing the gap in attainment for Looked After Children and RADY – Raising the Attainment for Disadvantaged Young people.

Resolved – That the report be noted and the suggested items be included in future meetings of the Attainment Sub-Committee.

Resolved – That the next meeting of the Attainment Sub-Committee be held in March 2014 on a date to be confirmed.