Issue - meetings

(i)       to note that updates on Harlaw Academy would be provided every second meeting, as per the updates on Northfield Academy;

(ii)       to note that the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning would issue a service update to Members outwith the meeting on what individual schools were implementing or had implemented in respect of mobile phones in the classroom;

(iii)      to note the content of the report;

(iv)      to instruct the Chief Officer -  Education and Lifelong Learning to continue to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings and schools to implement continuous improvement in keeping with agreed Quality Improvement Frameworks approved at Committee in July 2024;

(v)      to support and encourage the Harlaw Academy improvement journey, instruct the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning to issue a service update to Members in early to mid January 2025 with information on the timeline for actioning the three priorities; and agrees that this information will be incorporated into the scheduled inspection reporting update to Committee on 18 February 2025;

(vi)      to note that Education Scotland said in their letter of 19 November that  “There have been very few improvements across the school since the last further inspection.” This was despite intensive support from the central education team. And to instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to review where opportunities were missed to identify the lack of progress, whether changes needed to be made to processes, procedures or the quality improvement framework and to report this back to Committee as part of the reset of the Quality Improvement Framework in July 2025; and

(vii)     to note that “Young people are achieving at lower levels at Harlaw Academy across almost all national measures compared to learners with similar needs and backgrounds across Scotland” and that the action plan identified reducing the number of presentations for young people at S4 from 8 to 6 courses to improve attainment and bring in line with national guidance.  In light of this, to instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to issue a service update on the curriculum structure across the senior phase within secondary schools on attainment of the two year / eight course model across the city and consider whether there was a need to issue guidance to all local authority secondary schools.

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Families and Communities which detailed the outcome of inspection reports published by His Majesty’s Inspectors of Education (HMIe) and The Care Inspectorate published since the last meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the content of this report; and

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to continue to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings and schools to implement continuous improvement in keeping with agreed Quality Improvement Frameworks approved at Committee in July 2024.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that updates on Harlaw Academy would be provided every second meeting, as per the updates on Northfield Academy;

(ii)       to note that the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning would issue a service update to Members outwith the meeting on what individual schools were implementing or had implemented in respect of mobile phones in the classroom;

(iii)      to note the content of the report;

(iv)      to instruct the Chief Officer -  Education and Lifelong Learning to continue to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings and schools to implement continuous improvement in keeping with agreed Quality Improvement Frameworks approved at Committee in July 2024;

(v)      to support and encourage the Harlaw Academy improvement journey, instruct the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning to issue a service update to Members in early to mid January 2025 with information on the timeline for actioning the three priorities; and agree that this information will be incorporated into the scheduled inspection reporting update to Committee on 18 February 2025;

(vi)      to note that Education Scotland said in their letter of 19 November that  “There have been very few improvements across the school since the last further inspection.” This was despite intensive support from the central education team. And to instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to review where opportunities were missed to identify the lack of progress, whether changes needed to be made to processes, procedures or the quality improvement framework and to report this back to Committee as part of the reset of the Quality Improvement Framework in July 2025; and

(vii)     to note that “Young people are achieving at lower levels at Harlaw Academy across almost all national measures compared to learners with similar needs and backgrounds across Scotland” and that the action plan identified reducing the number of presentations for young people at S4 from 8 to 6 courses to improve attainment and bring in line with national guidance.  In light of this, to instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to issue a service update on the curriculum structure across the senior phase within secondary schools on attainment of the two year / eight course model across the city and consider whether there was a need to issue guidance to all local authority secondary schools.