Agenda item

The Board will consider the Virtual School Headteacher Report on how the Virtual School has been working during the academic year 2020-21.

Contacts:

Janet Tolley- Virtual School Headteacher

The Board considered the Virtual School Headteacher Report for the academic year 2020-21 presented by Louis Hallas, Virtual School Team Manager, Sara Hions, Virtual School Team Manager and Janet Tolley, Virtual School Headteacher. The following key points and challenges were highlighted:

·       The Covid-19 pandemic had placed increased pressure on the Virtual School to respond to the additional needs of young people as their education had been disrupted.

·       The Virtual School had continued to ensure that resources were in place to minimise the impact to young people and had continued to deliver a full educational service throughout 2020-21, to meet the needs of young people as well as fulfilling statutory duties.

·       Working virtually had enabled the Virtual School to increase involvement in coordinating and leading all PEPs (Personal Education Plans) for all young people.

·       This had increased the quality of these discussions as well as achieving 100% PEP completion in all terms.

·       PEP meetings involved looking at the individual education of each child.

·       Each young person should have at least 1 PEP meeting per term, or more if their individual needs require it.

·       The pandemic had increased the need for more PEP meetings, all of which were attended by virtual school staff.

·       Key strengths of the virtual school included:

o   An experienced and effective team.

o   Strong partnership work and the improvement of relationships with key partners throughout the year.

o   Raising the profile of PEPs across the service, and the completion of all PEP’s and initial PEPs within the statutory timescales,

o   Strong and robust processes enabled the virtual school to know the young people they support and to obtain accurate data to help inform key priorities for improvement.

o   Outcomes for young people were in line with national outcomes for children and young people in care (2019 validated data).

o   There were no permanent exclusions and low numbers of fixed term exclusions because the Virtual School worked proactively with educational providers.

o   Progression post 16 remained positive and the monitoring of attendance by the virtual school remained strong.

o   Any unavoidable school moves were effectively supported in partnership with social care colleagues, schools, and educational providers.

o   There was clear evidence that Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) funding was used efficiently.

o   An established Governing Body, with a cross section of representation, continued to meet regularly to hold the Virtual School to account through support and challenge meetings.

·       Key challenges and opportunities going forward included:

o   To continue to support young people in the recovery from the pandemic.

o   There was an increasing number of boys in the school cohort, and it was important to ensure that steps were taken to have the greatest impact on attainment.

o   It was important to continue to decrease the number of young people not accessing education on full time basis.

o   Continuing to support stability and transitions where a school move was unavoidable.

o   Being proactive to extend the age range of children working with the virtual school to include Year 13 and Care leavers.

o   Historically, the outcomes for Kirklees Children Looked After (CLA) at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6) were poorer than for all CLA nationally, for both key outcomes: attainment and progress.

o   Improving outcomes for KS2 included the need to understand key contributors to this data to make improvements. To address this, included undertaking work at a strategic, cohort and individual level.

The Board noted that transitions between schools was a challenging issue and asked what steps were in place to manage school moves.

In response, Sara Hions explained that at the last PEP, procedure included inviting the Secondary School Headteacher to the discussion to help manage the transition and ensure a strong handover.  Where there was a requirement for enhanced support the Virtual School would advocate for work to start early to ensure transitions were as smooth as possible.  The young person would then continue to be monitored into year 7.  The Board commented that this was good practice.

The Board welcomed news that there were no permanent exclusions and requested to know how the challenge of the KS2 outcomes was being addressed. The Board highlighted those transitions had been managed well but asked for reflection on the number of schools moves an individual young person has had.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the Virtual School Headteacher Report and it was agreed that:

1.             A report showing how the challenge of KS2 outcomes were being addressed be provided to the Board.

2.             That work be undertaken to reflect and consider where an individual young person has had a number of school moves.