Quality of Education Meeting 03.12.24
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Quality of Education meetings for academy trusts represent a way for trustees, governors, and school leaders to have oversight as well as improve the quality of education for pupils in our schools.
The Quality of Education Meeting on 3rd December 2024 was attended by Chair of Trustees, Mary Foreman; CEO, Lorraine Greco; Local Governors, Janet Warren and Thomas Musson; headteachers, Becky Ford, Colin Marks, and Neil Reilly; and executive deputy headteachers, Trevor Goakes and Nick File.
The aim of the meeting was to discuss the education taking place in each school compared to each school’s SIP and to analyse the data to see the progress schools are making.
We do not just consider end-of-year data in core subjects but also work to ensure all pupils receive a high-quality education with a rich, broad and engaging curriculum that does not solely focus on English and Maths. Trustees and governors seek to ensure our children leave us for the next stage in learning equipped with the knowledge, skills and qualities to fulfil their true potential.
In this recent meeting, we explored the impact of our directors of learning in their roles as well as challenging our trust executive deputies about the effectiveness and impact of their roles.
Trustees and governors alike were concerned about the impact of persistent absence on outcomes for children – which is a national agenda. In our schools, we have several children with attendance that is far below that expected and this has a negative impact on their academic performance. We discussed how we could have greater knowledge and understanding of how persistent absence affects the outcomes for children in OWN schools.
The meeting started with a review of the minutes from last time before moving on to PiXL update including the implementation of it in each school. This ranges from small groups to whole class teaching using the PiXL resources (therapies). Colin gave an update on school performance comparing OWN Trust schools with PiXL ones in Reading, Maths, and GPS. All OWN Trust schools will be using PiXL from Spring 2025.
Each headteacher then gave an update on their individual School Improvement Plans (SIP) encompassing the Autumn term work that has taken place. Each school is working hard to achieve the targets they have set.
Each school has had an audit from Early Excellence and Pentagon, this is to establish if any improvements can be made to our EYFS areas both in and outside. The trust is still waiting for costings to come back from each company but is looking into external bids to help with potential funding.
The Education Team gave an update about the impact of the team on the schools within the trust. A strong focus is in on Y6 outcomes in each of the schools. PiXL is being used where appropriate to support. The trust has appointed another ECT and Nick has time to help support all ECTs across the trust.
Throughout the evening there were challenging questions from governors and trustees to ensure that there was a robust review of the education provided for children who attend OWN Trust schools.
The trust will be focussing on alignment of data across the schools in the next two terms and with PIXL being used across all three schools we will be able to have a far clearer knowledge of how children in each year group and school compare against national benchmarks. PIXL is a partnership of thousands of schools across the country that not only facilitates regular assessments of pupil performance but also provides very effective interventions to narrow gaps in individual pupil performance.
In this meeting, we also discussed how each school has worked to develop bespoke SEND provision for children with physical and cognitive challenges which means they find it very difficult to access what is available within a mainstream classroom. In our three schools, in line with the national picture, this has become a significant issue. Our schools have provision in place to help meet the needs of our SEND children who have extreme struggles to access mainstream learning even if they have an EHCP, and Neil Reilly, our headteacher at Nene Valley Primary School will be working with our schools to ensure this provision is the very best it can be.
At this meeting, we said farewell to Sarah Levy who has acted as a part-time school improvement consultant for the trust. Sarah has worked hard to develop our schools, especially in the work she has carried out with our trust executive deputies. Although we will miss working closely with Sarah over the rest of the school year, her impact will be long-lasting and trustees will look forward to working with her again.
By Mary Foreman, Chair of Trustees and Acting Chair of Quality of Education Committee and Trevor Goakes, Executive Deputy Headteacher, OWN Trust.