Issue - meetings

(i)       to note the content of this report;

(ii)       to instruct the Interim Chief Officer – Education to continue to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings and schools to implement continuous improvement in keeping with the Quality Framework agreed at Committee in July 2023;

(iii)      to note that there had been a number of ELC settings where inspections had returned a variation of gradings;

(iv)      to reaffirm Aberdeen City Council’s commitment to providing the highest quality Early Learning and Childcare; and acknowledge with encouragement that there was an overall upward trend of improvement in inspections;

(v)      to acknowledge that there had been significant collaboration with officers and Head Teachers to work on improvement through the Collaborative Improvement model; and note that this provided a central monitoring role to allow wider team support for individual schools to provide quality teaching and learning; and

(vi)      therefore, to instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Education to continue to report to committee on the improvement journey; and continue to work closely with Head Teachers to ensure ELC settings were receiving adequate support to deliver high quality ELC provision for all children in Aberdeen City.

The Committee had before it a report by the Interim Director – Children’s and Family Services which detailed the outcome of inspection reports published by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) and The Care Inspectorate on the quality of Aberdeen City schools and Early Learning and Childcare settings since the last meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the content of the report; and

(b)      instruct Interim Chief Officer - Education to continue to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings and schools to implement continuous improvement in keeping with the Quality Framework agreed at Committee in July 2023.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that there had been a number of ELC settings where inspections had returned a variation of gradings;

(ii)       to reaffirm Aberdeen City Council’s commitment to providing the highest quality Early Learning and Childcare; and acknowledge with encouragement that there was an overall upward trend of improvement in inspections;

(iii)      to acknowledge that there had been significant collaboration with officers and Head Teachers to work on improvement through the Collaborative Improvement model; and note that this provided a central monitoring role to allow wider team support for individual schools to provide quality teaching and learning;

(iv)      therefore, to instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Education to continue to report to committee on the improvement journey; and continue to work closely with Head Teachers to ensure ELC settings were receiving adequate support to deliver high quality ELC provision for all children in Aberdeen City; and

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