Bradford South Minutes 10 November 2010

							                               Minutes of the Meeting of
                       BRADFORD SOUTH GOVERNOR BRIEFING
                  Wednesday 10 November 2010 at Wibsey Primary School



Meeting commenced at 6.04pm

Present: J Haddock (Wibsey Primary School), J Murray (Home Farm Primary School),S Furniss (Low
Moor CE Primary), L Fiddahan (Shibden Head Primary School), A Tait (Hill Top CE Primary School), B
Ellison (Worthing Head Primary School), J Radcliffe(Shibden Head Primary School).
Out of 34 schools invited to attend, 7 were represented by 7 governors

Speakers:
Chris Whiley, Bradford Council. Assistant Director, Localities.
Anne Munro, Education Bradford, Director for Access and Inclusion.
Pam Khan, Bradford Council, Parental Involvement Co-ordinator.

In attendance: Helen Griffiths (Senior Area Acheivement Officer, Education Bradford), Brian Anderson
(Director of SERCO), Pat Elcock & Imtiaz Shahid (School Governance and Workforce Development
Team, Education Bradford).

Apologies: Brent Fitzpatrick (Reevy Hill Primary School).

Welcome to the meeting
Pat Elcock welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

Election of Chair and Vice Chair.
Pat Elcock asked for nominations from the floor for Chair, there were no nominations, although absent
Brent Fitzpatrick (Reevy Hill Primary School) had nominated himself to continue as Chair. Using a show
of hands this proposal was passed. Pat explained the importance of having a Chair and Vice Chair as
they are also the Governor representatives for this area. Nominations for Vice Chair were then invited,
John Haddock (Wibsey Primary School) nominated himself and this was accepted by all Governors.

Education Bradford & Bradford District Council Updates - Anne Munro amd Chris Whiley.
Questions were invited at any stage.
Anne Munro gave details of key issues including:
    KS1 L2+ results remain below the National Average but have an upward trajectory. The gap
       between these results and the National Average is closing.
    KS1 L2B+ results again show an upward trajectory, an emphasis has been placed on writing and
       this shows in the results.
    KS1 L3+ results also show an upward trajectory.
    KS2 test results, the DfE have not published any results as this year a number of schools
       nationally did not submit KS2 results, because of this, teacher assessment is being used,
       moderating has shown these results to be reliable and again an upward trajectory is shown.
    It was mentioned that if you are in a school likely to be inspected, OFSTED will ensure teacher
       assessment, Learning and Teaching, and Leadership Management is scrutinised to be robust and
       accurate.
    KS2 L5+ results show an issue with Science which is being looked into.
    KS4 results are not validated until January and the figures shown are the lowest possible
       outcome.
    There have been improvements with Bradford Secondary Schools, 2 schools have a 10%+
       improvement, 10 schools have a 5%-10% improvement, and 4 schools have risen above Floor
       Target.
    Secondary persistent absence shows a reduction of more than half the number of children absent
       in the last 5 years.
      Autumn and Spring attendance, particularly Primary schools, suffered with attendance problems
       on snow days. The new guidance introduced will improve this.
      Bradford District Raising Achievement Strategy 2010-2015, this was put together by the Council,
       Schools and EB as a raising achievement strategy through 3 main strands, Language for
       Learning, Powerful Learning and Leadership for Learning.

At the Governor conference on December 3, the Raising Achievement Strategy will be discussed.

Q Regarding the Headline results for KS1 L3+, these are abysmal, two thirds of the national average in
every subject, what is being done about them? What strategy is in place?
A We accept these results are not in line with the national average, Bradford is a diverse community with
different starting points for children. We are working together to close the gap, we want parents and
carers to be involved at an early stage to help Early Years provision catch up on starting points. Looking
at value added is not as bad as looking at raw figures.
Q Are we failing the children?
A We want to improve the life chances of children, we know that due to language acquisition some
children are 18 months behind at age 3, we need to get together with Health Visitors and Children’s
Centres.
Q Children’s Centres are being closed.
A Children’s Centres are not being closed, but Childcare subsidies are not available.

Comment There is a worry that the loss of Childcare will put added pressure on the Early Years
provision, the L3+ higher achievers at the end of KS1 have shown improvement from entry is Value
Added. Raising Achievement and Language for Learning show that language is key at KS1.

Q Early Years are crucial, funding for every child has always been available, why hasn’t provision been
made in Bradford but has nationally?
A Not all of the Children’s Centres are open yet, we do know with the Foundation Stage we are trying to
get to grips with parents and to be engaging with schools.

Comment Parents are responsible for the Language and Learning of their child and this should be
encouraged, parents need support in being the first educator in their child’s life.

Presentation for Governors
BSF and Comprehensive Spending Review – Key points
    Phase 3 has been suspended awaiting further development, it was aknowledged there is a
      problem for places within Bradford.
    Some delays have been experienced with new builds, schools will not now open until Easter. A
      concern in moving at this time is that it could be unsettling for students sitting exams, but money is
      also an issue with duplicated costs.
    A total of £81bn spending cuts by 2014-2015.
    Headteachers to have more flexibility in how they use their budgets.
    Letter from Michael Gove confirms responsibility will go back to councils.
    Local authorities are determined that education will be kept a priority and are committed to raising
      achievement.

Q The pupil money mentioned is not new money?
A No, it will come from an existing fund.
Q Why will Headteachers have control of the budgets?
A Flexibility of the budget will be given to schools but the wording is not yet clear, not aware of
Headteachers taking over control, should say schools to have more flexibility.

Comment Academies will be controlled by the Government. LA Achievement Partnerships may cushion
the impact of funding issues.


Q Only a few schools have become Academies?
A Academies see themselves as a family of schools and have full commitment to being a part of LAPs.
They are aware that if schools are responsible for budgets they need to see if they can share purchases
and decide on the best deployment of resources needed.

Parental Participation Strategy – Pam Khan
Key Points

Firstly to clarify what is meant by Parental Participation, it is having conversations with parents to
establish a structure allowing parents to shape services for themselves and their families, and make
positive changes.

      These are already running and successful. At a recent Parents Participation Strategy event there
       were 250 attendees, a Market Place of services, carousel of workshops, consultation exercises
       and other events. In Bradford South parents are involved in the Resilience Programme in which
       parents have delivered workshops to other parents and spoken at national conferences.
      There is a transition programme for parents in the district to be mentors for other parents.
      Bradford South has it’s own action plan which includes easier access to information services for
       parents, opportunities for families to do things together, appeal for money for the Arts.
      Introduce a journal to help parents working towards an accreditation at a later date or for use on a
       C.V.

Q Is parental participation just going to be done by the willing ones who come to schools anyway? What
are we doing to reach the parents of vulnerable children?
A Many schools now have a Parental Involvement worker to target parents who are not engaged, by
offering across-the-board provision, then targeting involvement we have found we have a better
approach. Schools also need to make parents feel welcome within the education environment, some
parents may have negative thoughts of school.

Comment We need to think of parental engaging activities for parents of young people (ie 5-year-olds),
and work at convincing parents to encourage and engage with their children in the early stages. Some
programmes have been introduced eg; Stay and Play.
Comment A Governor mentioned that at his school each classroom has a new outside door and from
2.30pm the school has an open door policy and parents are allowed to come and join in, playbags are
also hung by the door for families to borrow and play together.
Comment It was agreed this was a good idea but security must always be the main priority.

Update of Education Review – Chris Whiley

It is felt that lessons have been learnt with the way things have been done in the past and fears exist.
Elected members are happy that control for education services is going to return to the Local Authority but
they are going to scrutinise activities, in their determination to make a success of this transition. It is not
yet clear what the content of the White Paper will be, but it is clear we will need to work together.

Comment Originally services were run with no overall management. With the arrival of Education
Bradford there was the concern that there was not sufficient scrutiny by the Council of what they were
doing. We need to make sure the council will make sure the same services are delivered and controlled.
We need to avoid pre-2001.

Q Will the Bradford Education staff who transfer to the Council be the same staff who have failed our
children?
A We have to look at what we do differently now to the way we did it 10 years ago, eg the idea in which
we engage with parents has changed dramatically. It is a different world now, steps will be in place to
prevent it but there will be no guarantees.
Q In 2001 the Schools Forum was dominated by Headteachers and they exerted a lot of power. Why
should Headteachers have that level of control?
A The Public Forum for Education is clear, it wants input from all levels of the school.

Single Funding Formula for Early Years – Chris Whiley
Key points

      Introduction of a single formula for the free early education entitlement.
      Funding must be on the basis of participation.
      Keep high quality settings.

Nursery classes could see funding fluctuate throughout the year as it is calculated on a term by term
basis.



Pat Elcock thanked the speakers for their presentations and thanked Governors for attending. Special
thanks were given to Imtiaz for his help with IT support and the presentations.

Meeting closed 7.34pm.