Issue - meetings

That the report be noted.

6.1       Angela Scattergood, Director of Education Services, introduced the report to the Committee. In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         More information was being requested from the high-performing schools to understand what factors were contributing to their success. One factor could be the quality of their interventions - using data to identify need and thinking about barriers for individual children.

·         The figures listed for 5 year olds were the Department for Education published figures based on the teacher assessments of the 17 early learning goals. 78% of children achieved a good level of development in 2017 in Lewisham. The phonic assessments in year 1 also showed above national achievement. The achievement gaps between ethnicities were narrow at this stage.

·         Paragraph 10.9 in the committee report listed measures that had been found to have an impact on improving outcomes for Black Caribbean pupils from academic research.

·         The London Borough of Hackney had undertaken a borough-wide review of its curriculum to make it more culturally relevant and inclusive.

·         Excellent early years provision, effective leadership and groupings of schools had been successful for improving and maintaining high standards and achievement in Primary provision in Lewisham.

·         The Director of Education had rercently met with the group Parent Engage and had also met with Lewisham Education Group. A member of the Committee felt that these groups should be allowed more contact with schools directly.

·         There was not currently a detailed understanding of the lower attainment at Key Stage 4 for dual heritage White/Black Caribbean young women. More needed to be done to understand this, in particular, looking at the impact of disadvantage, such as the numbers on free school meals, within the groups. Involvement of the community and mentoring was key.

·         The community was a resource that could be used to help, such as through positive role models and through partnership and collaborative working.

·         BAME mental health in schools was a key priority. The impact of interventions was monitored by the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Director of Education would be able to provide this information to members of the Committee.

·         The Joint meeting of the Children and Young People Select Committee and the Healthier Communities Select Committee had made a recommendation to the Health and Wellbeing Board around reducing disparity of outcomes and ensuring the robustness of the ethnicity data used.

·         The Executive Member for School Performance and Children’s Services commented that it was of great concern that there was race disparity nationally with Black Caribbean people 3 times as likely to be excluded; 10 times as likely to be stopped and searched and 4 times as likely to be arrested. He felt Lewisham should join with other local authorities to demand action from national government.

6.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.