Decision details

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to the uptake of Early Talkboost and Talkboost Training and the need to better understand the issues to develop a more robust plan to address this area at the earliest opportunity, to note that an update on this would be provided in the Education Improvement Journey report due to Committee in November 2021;

(ii)       to note the content of Appendix A, outlining the post review outcomes from the 2019/2020 Senior Phase, released through the Insight Tool, the Service’s 2020 2021 Self Evaluation Report (Appendix B) and initial pre-review outcomes Available from the 2020/2021 SQA examination diet (Appendix D);

(iii)      to instruct the Chief Officer - Education to submit the Self Evaluation Report and the Aberdeen Council National Improvement Framework Plan 2021/2022 (the Plan) to the Scottish Government as soon as reasonably practicable;

(iv)      to instruct the Chief Officer – Education to implement the proposed Aberdeen City Council National Improvement Framework Plan for 2021/22 (Appendix C);

(v)      to instruct the Chief Officer – Education to maintain a review of the content of the 2021/22 Plan in light of any impacting national legislative and policy provisions such as the Scottish Government response to the OECD report, and advise Committee of any required changes in due course;

(vi)      to instruct the Chief Officer - Education to liaise with all schools in Aberdeen regarding COP26 being held in November, exploring what new initiatives and ideas the Council could look at introducing as a means of tackling climate change within their school and beyond;

(vii)     to instruct the Chief Officer - Education to bring forward a report of any new initiatives and /or ideas brought forward by the schools to the committee in January 2022 in order for the Council to consider any further exploratory work before any agreed implementation;

(viii)    to instruct the Chief Officer - Education to undertake a separate evaluation of education among care experienced young people, taking into account the individual and often complex needs of looked after children; and report back to committee with recommendations on how to improve outcomes and attainment among care experienced children and young people in Aberdeen City; and

(ix)      to agree that transparency around data is very important in driving improvement; and acknowledges the positive work already undertaken by our Education and Data Analytics teams within Aberdeen City Council in working to achieve this.