The Board will receive a verbal update from the Chair of the Virtual School Governing Body.
Contacts:
Councillor Carole Pattison
Janet Tolley, Virtual School Head Teacher
Minutes:
Janet Tolley, Head Teacher of the Virtual School presented a verbal update in relation to the last meeting of the Virtual School Governing Body which was held on 9th June 2022. It was highlighted that:
· The Governing Body firstly received a staffing update, which advised that a SEND Lead was recently appointed to the Virtual School.
· There were also changes to the Senior Leadership Team as a result of the new duty placed on the Virtual School which included supporting all young children with a social worker.
· Since the introduction of the new duty, the virtual school had adopted a new SLT model on a temporary basis.
· This was decided as the best approach to take forward and since the governing body meeting a permanent Virtual School Headteacher had been recruited to work alongside the Executive Virtual School Headteacher.
· The specific role of the Executive Headteacher was to work strategically across services and the education provision.
· So far work had included raising awareness of the new duty, and the roles that providers and services play in terms of safeguarding and supporting attainment.
· Wider work involved the development of a ‘Vulnerable Children’s Dashboard,
· The Head Teacher update was considered by the Governing Body.
· Whilst nationally attendance performance data was strong, there were still attendance concerns particularly post pandemic in relation to Persistent Absence (PA) and unauthorised absence.
· Arising from the discussion, the Governing Body requested that interrogation of the data for PA, exclusions and suspension breakdowns be undertaken and compared with other local authorities.
· A Finance Overview and Update was presented to the Governing Body.
· It was noted that investment was being used to commission services that schools could not commission alone and for targeted individual support.
· Presentations were considered in respect of Post 16 and 17 work.
· It was also noted that the virtual school’s was now working with young people from 2 -18 years old and providing support from nursery onwards.
The Board commented that the work undertaken to explore how to work strategically across services to implement the new duty was encouraging. The Board asked if there was any national longitudinal work ongoing in respect of understanding the impact on attainment outcomes for the cohort of students impacted by the disruption to education arising from the covid-19 pandemic.
Janet Tolley responded to advise that there was no specific work yet but agreed it was interesting to consider how this cohort of students was tracked across all areas. Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director for Learning and Early Support further advised that Kirklees’s Outcomes Report would be presented to Cabinet towards the end of this month and would provide a good baseline source of information in respect of specific groups of children. It was noted that it was important to start to track longitudinal information going forwards and agreed this was to be discussed at a future meeting of the governing body.
The Board welcomed the work being undertaken by the Virtual School in response to the new duty and agreed this information was relevant to this Board requesting that the Executive Virtual School Headteacher be invited to provide regular updates and appropriate times throughout the municipal year.
RESOLVED: The Board noted the Virtual School Governing Body update and agreed that:
1. Board members be invited to a briefing about the work of the Virtual School and a meeting of the Governing Body.
2. It was important to track longitudinal information in respect of the cohort of students impacted by the covid-19 pandemic and for this to be discussed at a future meeting of the Governing Body.
3. The Executive Virtual School Headteacher be invited to the Board to provide updates at appropriate times during the municipal year.