Agenda item

All the secondary schools, or their Academy providers, have been invited to attend the meeting. They have been invited to comment on the review the committee is conducting into the council's role with maintained, academy and free schools and to comment on the following issues:

• Exclusion policy & rates, alongside comment on good practice & challenges
• Admissions policies
• Publishing and providing performance information

A report on Exclusions has been prepared by the council’s Director of Education.

6.1  The chair  welcomed Southwark secondary school representatives: Sophy Blakeway ,  Director of Education,  and Kate Oliver, Projects Director, from ARK Schools academy chain  (who sponsor The Globe, Walworth Academy and All Saints Academy);  Mr John Martin, head-teacher, Bacon’s College; Mr Tony Searle, head-teacher, Compass andMr Mahon, deputy head,St Michael’s Catholic College. It was explained that Mr John Martin was also attending in his capacity as chair of Southwark’s Secondary Head-teachers Forum. Apologies were received from the head-teacher of Charter School, Mr Hicks, and the chief executive of Harris Federation academy chain, Sir Daniel Moynihan. The chair invited Merril Haeusler, Director of Education, to briefly present the paper circulated.

6.2  The chair commented that it was frequently remarked that the press have power without responsibility, whereas it seems the council have responsibility without power. He then invited the secondary school representatives to comment on the council’s relationship with secondary schools. Ms Katie Oliver , project director, ARK responded that ARK feel the relationship should be very strong and commented that they thought that they were well supported with exclusions and in turn ARK considered that their schools took their fair share of managed moves. She added that the cohort of pupils in Southwark includes many complex and challenging students – and ARK has accessed funding to provide programmes such as Place2be. ARK added that the academy chain is looking to develope partner primary schools.

6.3  Mr John Martin head-teacher of Bacons College, and chair of the Secondary Head-teachers Forum,  commented that he had worked in many places, and was pleasantly surprised at the warmth of welcome. He added that schools are increasingly realizing the moral imperative of engaging with the council and he congratulated the council for being nimble on its feet in a difficult financial situation.

6.4  The chair asked the representatives and Director of Education what they thought of the proposal by government that there would be a regional board to oversea schools, comprised of head-teachers and chancellors. The Director of Education responded that she would need to hear the detail before coming to a conclusion. Mr John Martin voiced concerns that the proposals could be knee jerk reaction to problems; some schools are part of chains and some stand alone, however a few had abused their autonomy. He said that generally schools would not welcome another layer of bureaucracy.

6.5  The chair then turned to the data on fixed and permanent exclusions and inquired about the data sources and accuracy and asked representatives to comment on the variations across schools.  Mr John Martin commented that there are some problems with the data from Department for Education as there is a significant time lag from their publication and the data provided in the annual school census. Southwark council has put in places measures so more up to data is available.  He explained that exclusions benefit from a degree of moderation from Ron St Louis, who deals with exclusions at the council, but fixed term exclusion are used with more autonomy and are part of schools armory in managing behavior.

6.1  A member commented that she was surprised to see the scale of the variation. The Director of Education said that some schools offer a wider variety of intervention to reduce fixed terms exclusions, for example time out.

6.2  ARK representatives commented that the data on permanent and fixed term exclusions is not correct and they will be working with the council to get the data sharing protocols right, and also suggested that figures that gave a percentage of the roll would give a more accurate refection of the scale of school exclusion, as some schools are much larger than others; The Globe is a very large school.  Kate Oliver said that she thought the council would see a reduction in exclusions and that there are a variety of initiatives that have been started to promote inclusion, including a project funded by the GLA. She acknowledged that fixed term exclusions are part of the schools armory, but she said that ARK Schools  do want to keep children in school. The Director of Education said The Globe has a new head and she was impressed with the good work being undertaken.

6.3  St Michael’s Catholic College deputy headMr Mahon commented that his school have an inclusion method; the despised 3 hours Saturday detention. He added that his school also work with Ron St Louis on exclusions.

6.4  The chair commented that he looks forward to receiving more accurate figures and percentages of rolls. A member requested figures for the numbers of pupils in Pupil Referral Units (PRU) and excluded from primary schools. Ron St Louis explained that there are no permanent exclusions from primary school, however there are some fixed term exclusions.

6.5  A member commented that she has been looking at Harris Schools’ exclusion data and noticed that it was quite high but appears to have gone down. She said that she would like more information on managed moves including the amount of time spent in PRU and how successfully pupils were re-integrated. Ron St Louis responded that at key stage three every effort is made to re-integrate to mainstream school provision, but at stage four there is an emphasis on a more vocational curriculum. One important output is the number progressing to college, and he reported that there are less NEET young people progressing from PRU than schools.

6.6  The member asked about the council policy on managed moves and the PRU. She asked if children tend to return to the same school from a PRU or a different school.  Ron St Louis said it tends to be a different school; the council also does termly dual arrangements.  A member asked about the schools’ obligations to engage in managed moves and he explained that there is no statuary obligation - but this is a reciprocal arrangement so there is a vested interest in schools engaging. A member asked if all secondary school engage and he said that they did. 

6.7  A member asked if children with a statement are harder to place. Ron St Louis said that a statement would follow, however no pupils had been permanently excluded with a statement for a number of years. Mr John Martin commented that there are two types of pupils who get excluded; those who gradually ‘gain points on their license’ and those who are excluded because of a serious ‘one off’ incident. He explained that the ‘one offs ‘are harder to manage. He added that schools pay close attention to children with statements and ‘looked after’ children and make particular efforts to try and support the child, so these cases are rarer. The member commented that this is reassuring - many boroughs do not do so well.

6.8  The chair thanked the secondary school representatives and officers for attending.

RESOLVED

• The council and schools will be asked for corrected figures for fixed term & permanent exclusions, and for these to also be expressed as a percentage of the school roll. 

• Schools will be asked for their intervention policies and practices for fixed term & permanent exclusions

• The council will be asked to supply more information on managed moves  & re-integration into the mainstream school provisions

• Secondary schools will be invited back.