Issue - meetings

(i)       to note that the Chief Officer – Education would clarify to Members outwith the meeting if the wellbeing project at Northfield Academy was due to run through to Summer or if it would end at Christmas;

(ii)       to thank all staff involved in delivering the Afghanistan resettlement scheme for their hard work in making the scheme a success;

(iii)      to note the content of the report which presented the pre-review outcomes from the 2021 Alternative Certification Model, releases provided through the Insight Tool, and Attendance and Exclusion information;

(iv)      to note the content of Appendix A, outlining the progress of actions supporting the Education Improvement Journey;

(v)      to agree the data trends submitted within the report against the various measures were positive, whilst pupil attendance remained high in comparison to national and urban benchmarks; and

(vi)      to agree the approach taken to presenting the data within the report met with the Committee’s approval.

The Committee had before it an interim tracking report by the Director of Customer Services for the 2020-21 academic year, against the suite of Educational Improvement Journey Key Performance Indicator measures, supporting the Excellence and Equity agenda within the Aberdeen City Council National Improvement Framework Plan.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      note the content of this report presenting the pre- review outcomes from the 2021 Alternative Certification Model, releases provided through the Insight Tool, and Attendance and Exclusion information;

(b)      note the content of Appendix A, outlining the progress of actions supporting the Education Improvement Journey; and

(c)      provide comment on the approach taken to presenting the data within the report to inform future reporting styles.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the Chief Officer – Education would clarify to Members outwith the meeting if the wellbeing project at Northfield Academy was due to run through to Summer or if it would end at Christmas;

(ii)       to thank all staff involved in delivering the Afghanistan resettlement scheme for their hard work in making the scheme a success;

(iii)      to agree the data trends submitted within the report against the various measures were positive, whilst pupil attendance remained high in comparison to national and urban benchmarks;

(iv)      to agree the approach taken to presenting the data within the report met with the Committee’s approval; and

(v)      to otherwise note the report.

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.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which (a) provided information on data from the 2020 SQA exam diet (post review) derived from the final data release through Insight, the Education Service Self Evaluation process and initial 2021 SQA outcomes and (b) sought approval to implement the refreshed Aberdeen City Council National Improvement Framework Plan for 2021/22 following submission of the Plan and Self-Evaluation to the Scottish Government.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      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);

(b)      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;

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

(d)      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.

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 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;

(iii)      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;

(iv)      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;

(v)      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; and

(vi)      to approve the recommendations contained in the report.