Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be found here.

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 20 January 2021 for approval.

In relation to Article 3 (Minute of Previous Meeting), the Convener advised that the service update which had included the requested information on children who had been excluded on more than one occasion had been re-sent to Councillor Mennie as requested; and in relation to Article 7 (Early Learning and Childcare Expansion) a service update had been circulated to advise if the 23 remaining capital projects were still on budget and on schedule for completion by August 2021 as instructed at the last meeting.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it the committee business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance. 

Members asked a number of questions of officers in respect of item 27 on the planner (School Estate Plan).

The Committee resolved:-

(i)              to note that the Committee Annual Effectiveness report would now be presented to the November 2021 meeting to enable sufficient data to be collected due to the cancellation of meetings in 2020;

(ii)             to note the comments from officers in respect of the school estate including that an update would be provided on Bucksburn later in the year, and in respect of the query from the Parent Forum about an update on Countesswells, to note that this would be included in the Community Campus report due to Committee in November;

(iii)           to note that the Chief Officer – Education would take back to the school placings team the comments made by Mr Rafferty in respect of the reasons given in school placing appeals around capacity in schools; and

(iv)           to otherwise note the planner.

With reference to article 5 of the minute of its previous meeting, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which presented an update on the status of key performance measures relating to the Education Operational cluster.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee note the report and provide comments and observations on the performance information contained in the report Appendix.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Operating Officer which sought approval for the dates of two ‘assessment and moderation support days’ for secondary schools to support successful delivery of the Alternative Certification Model in place for session 2020/2021.

The report advised that an additional two days had been set aside by the Scottish Government for teachers to engage with the assessment, moderation and quality assurance process required for awarding National Qualifications.   The two days would be additional in-service days specifically for assessment, moderation and quality assurance purposes, and could be deployed at the discretion of the Local Authority.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the Alternative Certification Model timeline in place across the city; and

(b)      instruct the Chief Education Officer to make a formal request to the Scottish Government for two ‘assessment support days’ on 28 May and 4 June 2021.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

-      COUNCILLOR M. TAUQEER MALIK, Convener