Agenda item

To submit the GwE Annual Report for 2022-23.

 

Submitted - GwE Annual Report 2022-23.

 

The Senior Regional Leader - Primary and Special Schools gave an overview of the contents of the report.

 

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. 

 

It was noted that it was wished to recognise and thank the classroom assistants for giving their time to attend training and for giving their all when undertaking the role at work every day.  In response, it was noted that it was agreed with the observation and that effective assistants added substantial value to a school.

 

It was noted that it was heartbreaking that experienced assistants with many years' experience and knowledge in the field were leaving to other jobs that paid a better salary.

 

It was noted that the report was full of complimentary adjectival language and that the first paragraph of the Executive Summary on the first page of the report was repeated word for word under the Introduction and Context heading.  In response, it was noted that the initial paragraph that appeared in the Executive Summary and in the report, itself was a quote from Estyn's findings on the service, not only locally in Gwynedd, but consistently across the 6 authorities in north Wales authorities.

 

It was noted that there was no disagreement with the main improvement priorities, but it was asked for assurance that the list of priorities would appear in the next annual report and that any progress against those matters would be reported.  In response, it was noted:-

·         In terms of the reporting system, that the elements identified as ones that needed developing would be incorporated in the business plans.

·         That these improvement priorities were included in the business plans that were currently operational, and when there would be an opportunity to report again within a year, these would be the grounds to show progress against the identified matters.

 

It was noted that there was no reference in the report to PISA tests and it was asked how GwE intended to respond to the test results.  In response, it was noted:-

·         Due to the nature and background of Wales, it appeared that Wales had been more adversely affected coming out of the Covid period than several countries that were similar to us.

·         That PISA tests were one of the Government's national indicators as something that showed how effective the education system was, but there was a risk in making statements on international tests.

·         If PISA tests would become a national indicator that was counted and measured against, that a clear national strategy needed to be in place which was supported from a government level for services such as GwE, and also to a school level to ensure that our most able pupils received the opportunities to show their ability.

 

It was asked how important good governors were for a school to progress and what were GwE's expectations of governors.  In response, it was noted:-

·         ⁠That the role of a governor was to be a critical friend who worked in partnership with schools.

·         There was always an invitation for governors to join in some of the work undertaken by GwE in the schools, with the headteacher's cooperation, e.g. how we reached an opinion on different things, what evidence we examined, how well a school knows itself (which also included governors), what were the priorities and what was done about them.

·         The natural order would then be to scrutinise these matters in the governing body to identify the priorities and how to improve.

·         Should there be a wish to hold specific workshops for governors in that role specifically, this could certainly be arranged in cooperation with the Head of Education. An opportunity would also be needed to guide councillors through the information in the new School Improvement Framework in terms of what were the responsibilities and how to deliver the role in a way that slightly changes as we progress.

 

It was suggested that the annual report would be much clearer if it was much more concise and GwE was asked to take this into consideration for the future.

 

It was asked whether GwE would be part of the work of monitoring the new Welsh Language Charter.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That this was not yet known as Welsh language funding, which used to come to GwE, had now been entirely in the hands of the authorities for a year.

·         In terms of the new Welsh Language Charter framework, the monitoring work would be carried out by the Gwynedd and Anglesey Welsh Language Charter Coordinator and the Welsh Language Team in the authority. However, this would be a considerable challenge given the number of primary and secondary schools across the whole of Gwynedd and the fact that the Coordinator divided her time between Gwynedd and Anglesey.

·         That the Department was currently working with the Welsh Government to examine the financial implications in terms of the Welsh language entirely in terms of the Welsh Language Education Bill so that it was possible to calculate and propose expenditure projections of what impact introducing the Bill would have in the hope that the Government would earmark a sum of money to correspond with this.

·         Should the Authority deem that there was a commission role for GwE in terms of undertaking the monitoring work alongside the Authority, or on behalf of the Authority, it would be possible to have a discussion about this.

 

The opinion was expressed that the report was very superficial, especially the important evaluation sections under the 'Getting to grips with further improvements’ heading, and that some of the improvements, such as 'continuing to identify how progress looks in order to wilfully plan the next steps over time', was very vague.  It was also asked to what extent GwE monitored slippage data and progress in the Welsh education provision, and how it supervised this.  In response, it was noted:-

 

·         That GwE did not monitor data and progress in the Welsh education provision as things currently stood.

·         In terms of a previous observation during the meeting about seeing the recommendations in the next annual report, it was possible, once again, that the length and breadth of what GwE could offer would be much less as we moved forward, and this was a discussion to be held over the next few weeks and months.

·         That an observation had been made more than once during the meeting regarding the ambiguity of the report's language, but in terms of the length of reports, providing a much more concise report would be a small matter.  However, this would raise the question in terms of the value the Council received in having such a short document, bearing in mind that there was also an external audience, namely the inspectors.

·         The right balance would have to be struck to be able to show the length and breadth of the span of service that GwE provided to the schools.

 

RESOLVED to accept the report and to note the observations.