Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Service Director, Legal and Governance which provided the provisional 2016/17 key stage exam results in Southampton.

Councillor Paffey, Lead Member for Education and Skills, Councillor Jordan, Lead Member for Children’s Social Care, Hilary Brooks, Service Director, Children and Families Services, Jo Cassey, Service Lead – Education and Early Help, Derek Wiles, School Improvement, and Jane White, Service Lead – Children’s Social Care were present and with the consent of the Chair addressed the meeting.  In discussions with the officers, the Panel noted the following:

·  The data in the report was provisional and would be verified in December.

·  The provisional results were largely in line with expectation.

·  There had been a lot of change at Key Stage 4 with changes made to grades awarded using a numerical scale and the Education Baccalaureate.

·  The Attainment 8 Progress data had not been released in time to be included in the report.

·  The Virtual School, Social Workers, Foster Carers and the Corporate Parenting Committee were working hard to improve the educational attainment of Looked After Children in Southampton and to close the gap between Looked after Children and their city peers. Progress had been made but there was more to do with this cohort.

RESOLVED that:

  (i)  A breakdown of Key Stage 2 performance by school in Southampton be circulated to the Panel, including trend data where possible;

  (ii)  The recently published provisional Key Stage 4 Progress 8 results for Southampton schools were circulated to the Panel;

 (iii)  Officers should investigate:

a) The thresholds being applied by the local providers of post 16 education with regards to accepting Level 4 or Level 5 attainment, and;

b) The support that was being offered by local providers of post 16 education to students who were awaiting the outcomes of Key Stage 4 appeals;

 (iv)  The finalised Key Stage exam results for Southampton, including the performance of Looked After Children, were presented to the 25 January 2018 meeting of the Panel.  It was requested that the presentation referenced the work that was being undertaken to support Key Stage 4 attainment at schools in the east of Southampton;

  (v)  In preparation for the Panel’s scheduled post 16 education discussion in March 2018, consideration should be given to a suitable measure of progress for Key Stage 5 providers /results;

 (vi)  For future Key Stage 5 Executive Summary reports, attempts were made to obtain and report vocational outcomes alongside A-Level results;

(vii)  Anonymised destination data for the 2016/17 Key Stage 4 Looked After Children cohort was appended to the Educational Attainment report requested for the 25 January 2018 Panel meeting;

(viii)  To evidence the commitment to improve educational outcomes for Looked After Children, the Panel were, at the 25 January 2018 Panel meeting, provided with anonymised case studies showing how the performance of Looked After Children was being tracked, and how targeted support was being provided to Looked After Children to help them to achieve their potential; and

 (ix)  In addition to Key  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13