Agenda item

MOTION ON THE THEME – SCHOOLS, STANDARDS AND PLACES (see pages 1 - 2 of the main agenda)

The cabinet member for children and schools, Councillor Victoria Mills, presented the motion on the themed debate.

Councillor James Barber, the majority opposition party spokesperson responded to the cabinet member’s motion and proposed Amendment A.

Following debate (Councillors Damian O’Brien, Evelyn Akoto, Lucas Green, Maria Linforth-Hall, Helen Hayes, Jasmine Ali, Hamish McCallum, Andy Simmons, Adele Morris, David Hubber and Peter John), the cabinet member for children and schools, responded to the debate.

Amendment A was put to the vote and declared to be lost.

The substantive motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.

RESOLVED:

That council assembly:

1.  Welcomes the good progress being made by the council in keeping pace with the increased demand for primary and secondary school places and in driving up standards for educational achievement.

2.  Recognises the incredible work of Southwark schools, where results and performance are rising and scores continue to be above the national average.

3.  Recognises the work that this administration has done to create new school places within the challenging context of the government’s free schools programme, working with communities and providers to open new schools that parents want in areas of high demand.

Standards

4.  Welcomes the increase in the number of schools in the borough that are rated either Good or Outstanding, which has risen to 91%, from 64% in 2010, with no schools in Southwark rated inadequate.

5.  Notes that:

·  Southwark’s performance is higher than the national and London averages at foundation stage is narrowing the gap with London average for Key Stage 1 performance

·  Southwark ranks in the top quartile nationally for Key Stage 2 results

·  Southwark is in the top quartile nationally for GCSE results and was ranked joint 20th in the country, an improvement of 43 places since 2013

·  Southwark is one of the most improved and high performing London boroughs at secondary level and continues to outperform other neighbouring boroughs in results at GCSE, English Baccalaureate and A Levels.

6.  Applauds Southwark secondary schools for record levels of improvement achieved in GCSE results and calls on cabinet to continue supporting schools and protecting school improvement work in the face of vicious government cuts, to achieve even more and meet the council’s ambitious target of 70% of our young people achieving five or more A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent by 2016.

Places

7.  Recognises that demand for school places in Southwark, particularly in the north of the borough, continues to rise. Following the Liberal Democrats’ admission that there was a ‘school places crisis’ when they ran the council, Council assembly welcomes the steps taken by this administration to ensure additional school places to meet this demand.

8.  Calls on the cabinet to continue the practice of the last five years of expert and well researched places planning, and investment in high quality education facilities in popular, well performing schools.

9.  Welcomes the work undertaken by the council to create 1,690 additional primary school places since 2010 and commends the current expansion programme, and the two new free school projects Belham and Galleywall, which will provide additional school places to meet forecast demand for September 2016.

10.  Also welcomes the council’s work to assist and facilitate expansion in oversubscribed secondary schools and to open a new Charter School in East Dulwich. Council assembly calls on cabinet to work with the community and providers to open an outstanding secondary school on the former Southwark Fire Station site, to meet demand for secondary school places in the north of the borough.

11.  Believes that there should always be a requirement to consult with parents about the school their child is attending. Council assembly therefore condemns the proposals in the Education and Adoption Bill, which will scrap the requirement for academy sponsors to consult locally on whether they should take over schools. Council assembly calls on cabinet to challenge the government to explain what possible benefits there are in forcing a school to go through the academy process at the moment they are rated inadequate, when local experience in Southwark shows that intensive support from a local authority can help a struggling school get back on track.

Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the cabinet for consideration.