Issue - meetings

Report CEF22002

The report provided the Committee with a regular update on the performance of the Virtual School for children in care and children previously in care, currently adopted or cared for under a Special Guardianship Order.

In response to a question, the Virtual School Head Teacher outlined the work being done to better engage young people with education.  The Committee noted that there were a number of factors affecting the persistent absentee data as, due to the pandemic, children had been in education for fewer days.  The periods of lockdown had had a greater impact on young people entering care later and who may have already been more disengaged with education.  Members noted that Primary School attendance was very good with foster carers going a good job of getting young people to school.  There was a greater focus on young people in Years 10 and 11 and engagement had been difficult because of the lockdowns that had been imposed during the last two years.

Advisors were now working in a different way and overseeing a specific cohort.  Weekly attendance was being monitored and every personal education plan quality assured.  Advisors were able to work with schools to identify suitable interventions and direct pupil premium funding in the right way.  A flexible approach was taken to the support provided but the key was to challenge schools to ensure that they were using every resource available to make sure that young people were encouraged to attend school, that the curriculum was appropriate and that adequate support was available to re-engage the young person.

The Virtual School Head Teacher explained that in terms of Covid Catch up for looked after children, each child and young person had a personal education plan which was regularly reviewed.  Three additional questions had been included on the personal education plan in relation to Covid.  The Service had also reorganised how the Pupil Premium Plus was distributed to schools.  Funding was given to schools termly and each term a pupil progress day was held to review the progress of each individual child.  This ensured that the Pupil Premium Plus was tailored to the barriers for the individual child.  It was not always about academic catch up but reviews could also consider aspects such as mental health and extracurricular activities.  For those children who were progressing well, the funding could be used to enrich their educational experience.  Schools were also challenged on how they were spending their Covid recovery funding and the appropriateness of the curriculum provided.

In relation to the impact of Covid in the longer term, the Virtual School Head Teacher explained that figures for the expected progress of children were lower than the service would want them to be, however the figures were also affected by the fact that children missed large periods of education when the lockdowns were imposed.  The Service had an awareness of the children who had been most affected and those who were struggling to engage.  There had been some successes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57