Agenda item

That the report be noted.

4.1       Angela Scattergood, Director of Education Services, introduced the report to the Committee. Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director, Children and Young People and Councillor Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, were also in attendance.

4.2       The Chair invited Susan Rowe from Lewisham Education Group and Nicky Dixon from Lewisham Parent Exchange to join the meeting and take part in the discussion.

4.3       During the discussion the following key points were raised:

·         Lewisham Learning had supported the improvement of schools at Primary and was now starting to be increasingly involved with secondary school improvement. At secondary there had been an improvement in Ofsted ratings and the provisional KS4 exam results for 2022 were looking positive.

·         Support was provided to schools on their marketing and media strategy. There had been a very successful Lewisham Secondary School Fair at the Civic Suite on the 6^th September 2022 with 300 parents present as well as the Council’s school admissions team.

·         Last year saw a 10% increase in applications for Lewisham secondary schools.

·         There would be an annual plan attached to the strategy with detailed targets including a focus on attainment particularly in English and Maths.

·         In 2019, KS4 results in Lewisham were below London and National average. In 2022 they looked like they would be approximately national average.

·         A member of the Committee commented on the balance between encouraging schools to improve performance and increasing pressure causing other issues such as increased exclusions or changing the qualifications students were encouraged to do.

·         The Committee heard that young people wanted a relevant curriculum that prepared them for life.

·         Although nationally the government encouraged academisation, 65% of maintained schools governing bodies had no interest in becoming an academy. In Lewisham there seemed to be no desire for this from schools at this time.

·         96% of schools in Lewisham were Ofsted rated good or outstanding. 

·         Following a question on what adjustments to places planning were made in response to the reduction in numbers of children, the Committee heard that there were some changes to published admissions numbers.

·         Changes to the National Funding Formula would mean schools in Lewisham would be under increased pressure financially and would have to make prioritisations decisions.

·         A member of the Committee commented that in terms of recruitment and retention, officers should look at the Workload Charter and also the CYP Select Committee’s review into Recruitment and Retention of School Staff published in 2017.

·         The report showed that 7% of school leavers were either Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) or data was unknown. Focusing on understanding more about that group and also on ensuring data was joined up with apprenticeship data was important.

·         Lewisham Parent Exchange had run a number of workshops on the transition to secondary schools for local parents.

·         Councillor Luke Sorba thanked Susan Rowe and Nicky Dixon for attending and contributing to the discussion and also for their work supporting young people and families in Lewisham.

4.4       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.