Agenda item

The Board will consider the Virtual School Draft Headteacher Report September 2023.

Contact:

Louise Hallas, Virtual School Headteacher

The Board considered the Virtual School Draft Headteacher Report (September 2023) presented by Louise Hallas, Virtual School Headteacher. The draft report outlined the virtual self-evaluation for 2022-23 and the outcome data (to be validated as of September 2024) for 2022-23 as well as the improvement priorities for 2024.    It was highlighted that:

• Under self-evaluation, Kirklees Virtual School rated themselves as good overall with some outstanding features and some areas for development.
• A Personalised Approach was taken and every young person in care was allocated to a member of the experienced Virtual School Team.
• This ensured that their attendance, progress and attainment was reviewed to enable challenge and support in a timely manner and for relevant interventions can be put in place.
• The Virtual School completed 100% of Personalised Education Plans (PEP’s) within the termly timescale.
• This ensured that every young person’s had at least one PEP each term.
• In the previous year, 99% of initial PEP’s were completed within timescales.
• The electronic PEP system enables the Virtual School to monitor the completion and quality assurance of PEPs.
• This process is used to challenge schools and providers to support pupils’ individual needs and is quality assured by the team managers.
• Completed PEPs are recorded in Liquid Logic and uploaded to Wisdom.
• There were robust systems in place to ensure the Internal and External Scrutiny of Data and Systems,
• A monthly report is produced, analysed and reviewed as a leadership team and presented to Governing Body, Corporate Parenting Board, Scrutiny, Quality Assurance Panel and shared across service
• This allows us to react quickly to developing patterns of need and work proactively as a team to embed creative solutions
• or example, we can see every suspension that takes place and ensure that we are working with professionals to prevent any further suspensions and highlight any patterns in the data.
• This has resulted in a decrease in the number of suspensions this year with the number of days lost reduced from 455.5 to 307, with pupils with more than 1 suspension down from 37 to 29 demonstrating the positive impact of data scrutiny.
• There is an established Governing Body that meets regularly, with a cross section of representation that holds the Virtual School to account through supportive and challenging meetings.
• In early years support, the majority of children in care aged 2 to 4-years-old access their entitlement to funded early education and care.
• Where they are not accessing their entitlement, the reason is known, and the validity checked by a lead social worker.
• The percentage of young people achieving a Good Level of Development has been consistently strong over the last three years
• The percentage of KS1 pupils reaching expected or higher standard for Reading, Writing and Maths and RWM combined is above the national average for children and young people in care 2022
• The progress for those that achieve at least expected at Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 achievement is good, positive that maintain trajectory of achievement
• Attainment and Progress at Key Stage 4 has been consistently strong and the latest validated results (2022) show Kirklees Children Looked After in quartile B for attainment, progress and 9-4 English and Maths and these were all above regional and national data.
• Participation and progression remain strong in Post 16 despite the remaining challenges following the pandemic, with 99% of young people participating in some form of learning 16-18.
• This was an area the Virtual School hoped to increase into the 19-25 cohort.
• Kirklees College have also been successful in being shortlisted for the Alex Timpson ARC Attachment Award for their strong commitment to attachment and trauma informed approaches across the organisation.
• Collaborative working was a particular strength of the virtual school,
• The Virtual School Leadership team work strategically across service with numerous partners including Heads of Service in Children Looked After, Assessment and Intervention, Children With Disabilities Service, Youth Engagement Service, Multisystemic Therapy (MST) team, Sufficiency, Careers, Health and One Adoption
• We collaborate well with other professionals including Social Workers (SW), Designated Teacher’s, Carer’s, Special Educational Needs Assessment and Commissioning Team (SENACT), Education Psychologists (EP) to provide the best for our young people.
• There has been no permanent exclusion of a child and young person in care since the Virtual School established
• This was trend that had continued since the virtual school had been established.
• In relation to special education al needs, All staff have received SEND specific professional development opportunities to increase knowledge and understanding of how we better support our young people with SEND.
• We have established links nationally with LA SEND teams to reduce drift and delay regarding statutory assessments and EHCP linked processes.
• We have developed our structure to integrate the work for Children with a Social Worker into the work of the Virtual School.
• we are developing a joint action plan to enhance social work practice and ensure detailed education targets are in place and reviewed in all Child in Need and Child Protection Plans.
• Areas for improvement included; attendance (to increase static 88% going forwards) attainment (particular focus on Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4), EHCP / Access to Appropriate Provision, School Moves (minimising changes wherever possible).
• Development work included;
  •  Developing partnership working with the care leavers team and SAPT, to work with all young people if remaining in education / training to 25 and ensure care planning is linked as young people approach 18.
  •  Enhanced the provision to support UASC young people for the full year.
  • Further develop partnership working and support and training for Early Years providers to maximise potential and impact of earlier intervention.
  • Embedding the work for Children and young people with a social worker so that it becomes system led and system wide throughout the authority and education system.

The Board noted the update and expressed thanks to the Virtual School for their work. The Board particularly welcomed:

·         The news that there were no permanent exclusions.

·         The 100% PEP completion rate.

·         static in performance in absence data (in comparison to a national decrease).

·         Further work to close any gaps in attainment where possible.

In response to a question from the Ex-Offcio in relation to Ofsted inspection, Louise Hallas advised that within the ILACS inspection there was a school’s Ofsted inspector who reviewed the work of the virtual school. Previous feedback from inspections had always been very positive. Responding to a further question from the Ex-Offcio in relation to the way in which virtual schools operate Louise Hallas advised that all virtual schools may work to the same performance indicators, but the delivery and operation of Virtual schools differed across Local authorities.

In response to a question from the Board in relation to unauthorised absence data, Louise Hallas confirmed that sickness absence was not recorded in this information. However, Louise further noted that lates had to be recorded as unauthorised which impacted the data. The Board noted the response and requested that a breakdown of recorded unauthorised absence be provided to help provide clarity around the data.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the Virtual School Draft Headteacher Report, and it was agreed that a report showing a breakdown of recorded unauthorised absences be provided to the Board.