Agenda item

Consider report by Service Director Children and Young People.  (Copy to follow.)

EDUCATION BUSINESS

Present:-         Ms A. Ferahi, Mr G.Jarvie, Mr I. Topping, Mr M. Armitage and Mr L Mendoza.

            CHAIRMAN

Councillor Hamilton chaired the meeting for consideration of the Education business. In her welcome to the meeting, she reminded those present that the Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Partnership had launched the first Scottish Borders Healthy Lives Week.  The new campaign asked people to play their part to make the right choices to keep healthy and active.  Members were invited to visit the display in the Council’s reception area and to make a personal pledge to improve their health.

1.1       There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director, Children and Young People, providing a summary of progress in Educational standards of attainment and achievement across early years settings, additional support needs provisions and schools in the Scottish Borders. The report also presented a summary of progress in relation to the expectations set out in the National Improvement Framework (NIF) which set out the national priorities for Education and expectations regarding the key drivers of improvement: school leadership, teacher professionalism, parental engagement, assessment of children’s progress, school improvement and performance information.  The key priorities for school session 2018/2019 were set out within the drivers and these set the context within which all education settings based their improvement plans.  The progress made in school session 2017/18 was contained within the Education Standards and Quality Report attached as Appendix 1 to the report.  The Service Director drew Members’ attention to progress in the Scottish Borders within the four key priorities set out in the NIF and in particular to improving attainment in literacy and numeracy. For school leavers, significant improvement had been evidenced with an increase of over 4% in National 5 English and an increase of 3% of S4 pupils achieving a literacy award; an increase of 9% in National 5 Maths and an increase of 4.5% S4 pupils achieving a numeracy award.  As detailed in the Education Standards and Quality Report and with respect to the percentage of pupils gaining awards at all levels, the Scottish Borders was doing well in comparison to the national average and comparator authorities.  There was a focus on improving inclusion, equality and health and well-being in all Scottish Borders education settings.  In terms of areas for improvement there was further work to do on closing the attainment gap through targeted interventions with support through the Pupil Equity Fund particularly where the attainment gap was most persistent: writing and numeracy in Primary 4 and all aspects of literacy and numeracy in Primary 7.  In the senior phase a key priority was to develop a young workforce through partnership working and provision of a robust and meaningful curriculum to create different pathways and broader opportunities which could be tailored to the needs of the young person.

1.2       Members welcomed the positive progress in the four NIF priorities as evidenced in            the Scottish Borders Council Education Standards and Quality Report for 2017/18.         With reference to the 95.83% of school leavers in 2016/17 being in a positive     destination, which was 2% above the national average, a question was asked about             what percentage of the young people remained in or returned to the Borders.         Members were advised that this was very difficult to quantify, as Further Education   destinations were included in the statistic. However officers would liaise with Skills        Development Scotland and drill down through the figures for further information about      this.  In this regard, the Council was working with partners to identify skills gaps in the   Borders and look at what could be done to develop opportunities within schools. In           response to other points raised, the Service Director emphasised that there was a             strong budget commitment from the Council for partnership working with youth     groups and organisations in the third sector, recognising that these groups brought   forward a different voice and alternative space for young people. Further information     was provided about the development of digital learning, the aim being to put a digital         hub in each High School and establish interactive distance learning with tutors.  For      the last two years, to address the deficit in staff to teach certain subjects, the Council            had been growing its own teacher workforce, in partnership with the University of         Highlands & Islands and more recently the University of Dundee.  In 2018/19 the   programme was being extended to include Primary Education and Teachers of          Science, Technologies, Engineering and Maths. In answer to questions from Mr           Topping information was given about the establishment of a ‘virtual school’ to track           and monitor the impact of targeted actions on progress of pupils in deciles 1 and 2 and the establishment of a post as single point of ownership to track and support the    Authority’s Looked After Children.  With regard to benchmarking within schools,             secondary teachers continued to use Insight (Scottish Government Senior Phase benchmarking tool) to analyse Senior Phase data.  Twice yearly Senior Leaders     engaged with officers about this data and areas for development.  The Chairman        thanked officers for their presentation.

DECISION

(a)        NOTED the overall positive progress being made by the Education    Service in delivering the National Improvement Framework in         Scottish          Borders Council Early Years settings and schools.

(b)       AGREED the improvement priorities and action plan for improvement in       school session 2018/19 as detailed in Section 5 in Appendix 1 to the          report.