Agenda item

Cabinet Member – Councillor Cemlyn Williams

 

To consider a report on the above  (attached).

 

Submitted - the report of the Cabinet Member for Education:-

 

·         Detailing the performance for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years;

·         Summarising the Education Department's response to the Covid-19 Pandemic;

·         Outlining the Education Department's Priorities for the 2020-21 academic year.

 

The Cabinet Member set out the context, thanking the headteachers and staff at the schools for all their hard work and their commitment during the pandemic, which had been made possible with the support of the Education Department, GwE, the governing bodies and the parents.  He added that it was important to note, in the context of well-being, that there had been close collaboration with the Council's Children's Department also, not forgetting the way in which the majority of children and young people had coped with the situation.

 

The Head of Education Department reiterated these observations noting that the period had been an unprecedented challenge and the Department and the schools had had to respond very differently to ensure the continuation of education for children whilst also ensuring that appropriate attention was afforded to the well-being of learners and staff at the schools.  He further noted:-

 

·         That the Chief Inspector of Estyn's letter to Gwynedd Council's Chief Executive (sent separately to committee members) highlighted Estyn's positive opinion on the Department's response in supporting schools and referral units during the first lockdown and also from September onwards.  He added that the response of the schools, with the support of the Department and GwE, was evident in the letter, and he thanked everyone from the bottom of his heart for the way they had coped with the changes to continue with children's education and well-being. 

·         That Covid had sought to impose restrictions on education, but that the children and young people and their resilience and enthusiasm towards the continuation of education had proved that education did not recognise any boundaries.

·         This period had also seen the further strengthening of regional collaboration, which had occurred in several fields across the six north Wales authorities, and with GwE also.

·         At all times, they had sought to simplify Welsh Government's guidance for schools to make it appropriate in the context of risk assessments, mitigation measures in light of Covid etc.

·         Also, regular meetings had been held with the unions, locally and regionally, to update them on our plans, and the unions had agreed and supported the work of not only supporting the learners but also the education workforce.

 

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and make observations.  During the discussion, the following observations were noted:-

 

·         The Cabinet Member and the Head of Education Department's gratitude to headteachers, staff and school governors for their heroic response to the enormous challenge they were faced with was reiterated.

·         The fact that so many chromebooks had been distributed to families without access to technology was welcomed.

·         It was noted that it was heartening to see how much work had taken place, and that it was obvious from Estyn's letter and the Head of Education Department's presentation and report that our partnership work was being recognised as a strength.

·         It was noted that Estyn's letter also highlighted that the work in Gwynedd was pioneering throughout all of Wales, and that this was an important point to convey to the teachers.

 

In response to questions from members, it was noted:-

 

·         In relation to distance learning, the schools were keeping an eye to see to what extent the children were involved with the school experience, and there were robust and thorough arrangements in place to ensure that schools offered regular guidance and encouragement to children who were experiencing difficulties, and their families. Also, the welfare officers had been supporting the schools through doorstep enquiries over the first lockdown period in an attempt to increase engagement with families.  During the current lockdown, there had been fewer referrals to welfare officers, as the schools were able to see the children on screen, but the cases that were referred to them were ones that required more attention.

·         We were likely to see some additional children entering the ALN category on the lower levels of need.  The Carlam grant would target these children who had fallen behind, and who needed additional encouragement due to the lockdown.

·         In terms of early intervention, it had been sought throughout the period to continue with the referral arrangements, the contact with schools and identifying children as soon as possible.  Consequently, there had been no delay in terms of any statutory assessment procedures, etc.  It had been seen during the autumn term that the increase in referrals was not as significant as expected, and it was believed that this was because of the contact with the schools during the spring and summer terms and the invitation for vulnerable children to attend school during lockdown.

·         The Department had accepted a commission to coordinate inter-departmental and multi-agency work to ensure that we dealt with the well-being and attainment gap for all of our children and young people, including children with ALN needs and children who were open to inclusion packages, so that the engagement was appropriate and correct, and the best it could be.  Three work streams had been identified in this field, and this included bringing together all the work that had taken place in education, the economy, children, public health and GwE, to see how the gap could be reduced further.  The identified streams were the early years (as there was evidence that the greater the contribution from the Department and the schools to the younger children, the better they were able to benefit from their educational experiences when progressing through school), and the post-16 field, (to ensure that this time did not hinder their ability to proceed to the next steps of their career).   Work had been commissioned to look at an attainment baseline to secure clear data to demonstrate the situation, and over the coming weeks the Department would coordinate the work of implementing a strong work programme to respond, even more, to these needs, to be able to report to the Supporting People's Well-being Board on the work the Council and its partners could do to keep an eye on the gap, and reduce it as much as possible.

·         As a responsible employer, the Council was duty-bound to recognise that the period had put the workforce under immense stress, and to address this.   Regional work had been undertaken to offer staff well-being sessions and since the start of the lockdown, the Education Department, with the support of the Human Resources Department, had been pro-actively offering well-being sessions to all staff.  There were systems in place to enable staff to report their concerns, and the workforce had responded very positively to the well-being sessions arranged for them.  As staff had to work on a rota during last year's Easter holidays to ensure continuation of the childcare provision, it had been arranged for them to have a fortnight's holiday within a four-week window.  Every supply teacher had been invited individually to contact the Department if they had lost employment due to the situation, and the Department had appropriate plans and procedures in place to compensate these people for the work they would have otherwise received under normal circumstances.

·         In terms of IT, a system had been put in place to broker devices from schools during the initial lockdown.  The Department had a stock of chromebooks in the primary sector, and some in the secondary.  During the first wave, over 1,200 devices were distributed to learners, and this covered the primary and secondary cohorts.  There were more desktop devices in the secondary sector, and more laptops in the primary sector, and the primary loaned to the secondary, in order to ensure that the devices were available to everyone who needed them.  During this latest lockdown, there was greater focus on education (as opposed to well-being in the first lockdown) and this wave had been slightly easier for the Department.   During the Summer term, as part of the Digital Strategy, 2,700 new chromebooks were distributed, which provided enough stock for the primary sector to distribute, with more stock available in due course to be shared with the secondary.  The brokerage work was continuing and the numbers were increased by more than 300-400 during the last month.

·         That the teachers needed the best possible devices and networks to be able to teach remotely, but this did not always work.  This was why a digital learning strategy was needed. It was known before the pandemic that there were weaknesses, but the situation over the last year had made this even more apparent. The Department was innovative and had put the strategy in place, however it was frustrated that the emergence of Covid had delayed the availability of devices.

·         In addition to the chromebooks that had been distributed already, more than 3,500 laptops had been ordered, one for every teacher in the county, and one for each Year 10 and Year 11 pupil in the county.  There were 2,500 more chromebooks on the way also, along with more than 1,000 ipads.

·         In terms of the different platforms, Hwb was central to the strategy.  The teachers needed the flexibility to use the platform that in their opinion was best suited to the children, given their age, ability and IT skills.  Hwb enabled them to that, but it did not restrict teachers to use one software over another.  Hwb was continuously evolving also.  Therefore, the schools were supported to use the software available on Hwb, and not to divert from this.  

·         That Estyn's national report had noted that the partnerships across north Wales were very strong.  It was not appropriate to make comparisons with the rest of Wales, but there was enough in the report that to paint quite a clear picture. 

 

At the end of the questioning, the Head of Education noted his wish to draw attention to the report regarding the Welsh language in the report.   He noted that:-

 

·         The cameo from the Estyn Thematic Report on the Local Authority's work to support latecomers had highlighted how the Authority had succeeded in working with GwE and the language centres staff to create alternative provision during this period, and to reach more children.

·         That questions had arisen lately regarding to what extent non-Welsh speaking parents could support their children.  The Arfon Education Officer and the Gwynedd Secondary Education Officer had been in a regional meeting with GwE Officers recently where this had been raised, and consequently, a decision was made to pool the best practice across the north Wales counties and put together a package to support non-Welsh speaking carers to do their best to support the education of their children.