Agenda item

Report attached.

Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Skills presented a report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the work being undertaken on performance in schools as a response to Covid 19.

Before providing information on the report, Councillor Tariq passed on his and the committee’s condolences to Head teacher Mr Ian Young who had suffered a family bereavement of his child earlier in the week.

The Covid 19 pandemic had resulted in a reset of the entire strategic programme for school improvement with all the associated safeguarding, intervention and Schools-led arrangements.

The planning framework from educational professionals would continue to

change and evolve as the national and the local situation changes.

Information was provided on the Covid Catch-Up Grant of £2.4 million to schools and the National Tuition Scheme to aid with support.

Future items that Overview and Scrutiny may wish to consider could include:

•        Attendance

•        Performance monitoring

•        Policy development

•        future activity

•        risk assessment

The report provided information on the school improvement agenda, distance and virtual learning along with a performance of Bury Schools in 2020.

The Chair commented on the recovery curriculum and other members of the committee raised concerns that they had not seen this document. Julien Kramer stated he would forward on a report (Recovering the Education System in Bury under Covid 19- Utilising HMI Expertise and Capacity) for other Members of the committee to view the information.

The Chair enquired about school inspections and it was reported that visits were not taking place during the autumn term to January 2021 due to covid and visitor rules in school.

Councillor Walsh talked about how primary and secondary school leaders were support the creating of online resources that teachers can readily access in a lockdown situation. It was reported that there was local expertise involved along with national support for distance learning online platforms. The Chair questioned why this had not been worked on earlier in the year during the spring lockdown and had concerns about the consistency of resources across the authority.

Councillor Susan Southworth had visited a school in her role as a governor and felt that a review would be needed in a couple of months’ time to see how protocols were working as schools had only been back since early September.

Councillor Walsh added on record that head teachers and the local authority were doing an amazing job and all the plans in place can change on a daily basis.

Councillor Walker asked about attendance figures and what percentage of pupils were receiving continuity of learning in schools as any cases meant a bubble or class may be off for 14 days.

The Chair asked about the government scheme to provide laptops to disadvantaged children and was the usage monitored. It was reported that around 850 laptops had been received in two batches and Bury was the first across Greater Manchester to distribute these. Julian Kramer added that no data was available at present and a new scheme had been made available and the Council would again be applying to obtain more IT equipment for children.

The Chair discussed results and the report attached to the agenda stated at this point figures for Bury were non-reportable. It was stated that there had been some discrepancies between school data and there had been a number of appeals.

The Chair asked did all schools in the borough open for children of key workers and it was reported that apart from one private school who had their own policies, the rest remained open until the summer holidays.

In summing up the report, the Covid 19 pandemic has presented significant

challenges to the Council and its schools whilst school leaders should be

applauded for the manner in which they have responded. Throughout the

lockdown, schools have continued to support their pupils in many ways and

endeavouring to minimise the impact on their learning.

The disruption to the lives of pupils, seen most in respect of examination

and assessment, would have an impact and the focus of the current

academic year was on re-setting the education system in Bury, and

ensuring that schools support pupils in catching up for lost time.

Looking at examination outcomes and Ofsted judgements would continue

to be important, but current context means the focus is very much on

recovery and how the Council and its schools can work together to achieve

this.

It was agreed:

That the contents of the report be noted.