Agenda item

Presentation by Donna Manson, Service Director Children and Young People, Scottish Borders Council.

7.1       The Chairman welcomed Ms Donna Manson, SBC's Service Director Children and Young People and Ms Liz Wharton, Senior Lead Officer to the meeting.  Ms Manson stated that the purpose of the presentation was to provide updated and additional information to the Forum in relation to attainment in schools across Berwickshire.  The documents which Ms Manson referred to in her presentation were circulated at the meeting.  Ms Manson explained that the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) was the Scottish Government’s official tool for identifying concentrations of deprivation in Scotland.  SIMD16 was the Scottish Government’s fifth edition since 2004 and was based on work conducted by Oxford University in 1999.  The SIMD could be used for comparing overall deprivation of small areas or neighbourhoods which were measured in statistical units known as datazones, ie neighbourhoods of at least 500 people, and usually around 700-900 people and worked well for urban areas and self-contained settlements of over 500 people.  The SIMD16 was built up of 38 indicators which covered 7 domains (topic areas).  Ms Manson explained how the information was measured, scored and ranked against a single Overall Multiple Deprivation rank.  The 7 domains were:- income deprivation and employment deprivation which attracted the highest weightings according to the Scottish Government's criteria; deprivation due to poor health and education and skills deprivation (medium weightings); geographic access deprivation to essential services (medium-low weighting); and deprivation due to inadequate housing and deprivation due to crime in the local area (lowest weightings).  Further explanation was given into how the SIMD information was interpreted, how it related to the Scottish Borders and how it provided a basis from which questions could be asked. Ms Manson also advised that there were limitations in terms of what could conclusions could be drawn from the data in the SIMD.  She observed, and evidence from the schools made clear that assumptions based upon SIMD should not constrain the ambition students nor inhibit their performance. 

7.2       The presentation identified the SBC profile within SMID16, the more detailed profiles relating to Berwickshire High School (BHS) and Eyemouth High School (EYHS) and showed comparisons with other High Schools across the SBC area.  Primary School comparisons within Mid- and East Berwickshire were also included.  Statistics relating to the three areas of reading, writing and numeracy within the National Improvement Framework were also detailed.  Ms Manson explained how SBC applied the Quality Improvement Framework (QIF).  Activities/actions such as visits to schools by senior officers from the Council's Children and Young People team; reviews and inspections; adherence to all the quality indicators, including leadership within schools; adopting a culture of continuous improvement; focussing on the learner journey; and in-depth analysis from each school contributed to continuous improvement.

7.3       Specific achievements during 2015/16 were highlighted, demonstrating where schools and individuals had attained improved and outstanding success and Ms Manson congratulated the schools in Berwickshire for their commitment to improving the education experience for young people.  Ms Manson and Ms Wharton concluded by answering questions and providing clarification on a number of points relating to: access to after school activities; designing, with input from student and parents, a learning journey specific to each young person; and "cross-learning" with High Schools (specific to Berwickshire).  The Chairman thanked Ms Manson and Ms Wharton for their attendance and presentation.

DECISION

NOTED the presentation.