02 June 2015 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Funding for Collaborations and School to School Support

At the recent meeting of the Schools Funding Forum, it was agreed to allocate £1.2m in the coming year to support further improvements through school to school support. The Forum considered the attached report (PDF, 256.0 KB) on the progress achieved to date and welcomed the impact of schools supporting each other's improvement.

There is an expectation again that the funding will focus on school collaboration that prioritises increasing the number of good and outstanding schools, supporting schools out of an Ofsted category, closing achievement gaps and raising attainment at all key stages.

As this is the fourth year of funding, the Forum expects to see schools contribute more of their own funding to this work to sustain school to school support in the future, as the SFF funding reduces.

The Forum also wished to see greater attempt to secure more systematic evaluation of the impact of the funding, and schools will be asked once again to provide a report on outcomes at the end of this school year. There will be a further round of bidding for new funding in the early autumn to the Area Boards of the Kent Association of Headteachers. 

This is good news overall for further development and financial support for school collaborations and partnerships.  

School Survey

Earlier this year we circulated a short survey to gather the views of schools about the services, and support, provided by the local authority. There was a low response.

While I understand it is always a chore to complete surveys I would ask that you give it another go, and let us have your views, to make the findings meaningful and useful to us. I attach the brief survey which I hope you can take a few minutes to complete, if you have not already done so, and send back to us.

During the past three years we have worked hard to improve what the local authority does and its partnership with schools.  We have re-organised our services, developed what we think are clear strategies for improvement and devolved more resources to localities to support vulnerable learners, for example through the LIFT process, our SEND changes, the PRU reviews and the development of Early Help services into district teams.  We have also committed to supporting school collaboration and allocated funding through the KAH Area Boards.  We hope these are making a positive difference.

However we will be more effective and achieve more improvement if you tell us what we need to do better. So I hope very much that you will complete the survey.  We have deliberately left it anonymous but if you care to name your school in one of the comment boxes that would be helpful. 

Headteacher Meetings June 2015

I would like to remind you that the Headteacher Briefings this term are as follows:

• Tuesday 16 June, Ashford International Hotel, 9.00-12.00

• Thursday 18 June, Mercure Hotel Hollingbourne, 9.00-12.00

The agenda will include items on VSK and Pupil Premium Funding for children in care, future developments in school collaboration and funding, the roll out of new arrangements for Early Help and Preventative Services, the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the next stage of the Education Commissioning Plan for expanding provision further in Primary and Secondary schools.  I hope you will be able to attend.

To book yourself a place, please email eypssupportteam@kent.gov.uk

 Educating the 'Most Able' Students - Recent Reports

Ofsted published Schools not doing enough to  support most able students in March 2015 prompting much comment and recognising that this a serious issue. This is OFSTED's second report on the topic in less than 2 years. Also in March this year, the Sutton Trust published Subject to Background – What promotes better achievement for bright but disadvantaged students?, which outlined research by Oxford University focusing specifically on what seems to promote high achievement for able students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

These reports describe existing barriers to higher attainment for the most able, and factors that seem to help these students, particularly those from a disadvantaged background, to succeed. They are helpful to schools in reviewing approaches to personalised learning and support for the most able pupils, as well as their approaches to addressing social mobility and equalities for less advantaged learners.

2016 MoD Education Support Fund

The Ministry of Defence has recently launched its 2016 Education Support Fund, which aims to provide schools that educate children from families in the Armed Services with access to grant funding to alleviate the effects of exceptional pupil mobility.  Full details are on the MOD website. Please note that the deadline for schools to apply for grant funding is 30 September 2015.

Application packs can be downloaded from the DCYP website from 1 June, Directorate of Children and Young People, Portacabin 8, Office 10, Trenchard Lines, Upavon, Wiltshire, SN9 6BE. DCYP-MOD-ESF-Mailbox@mod.uk

Patrick Leeson 
Corporate Director Education and Young People's Services