Agenda item

Report RES12052

On 27^th February 2012, the Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People approved proposals for the Bromley Seed Challenge Scheme, funded through the Capital Maintenance Grant.  The decision not to support the scheme proposed to improve ICT provision at Alexandra Junior School has been called in by Councillors John Getgood, Peter Fookes, Kathy Bance, Mrs Anne Manning and John Canvin, and the Committee was asked to consider what action should be taken in response to the call-in.

The grounds of the call-in were as follows:

“On behalf of and with the support of Cllrs. Peter Fookes; Kathy Bance, Mrs Anne Manning and John Canvin, I am writing to call in the decision of the Portfolio Holder for Children & Young People of 27^th February 2012 that the list of schemes set out in the Appendix to Report DCYP12030, The Bromley Seed Challenge Scheme, be approved. 

We believe that the school’s proposal was a well considered scheme.  It would have allowed for an upgrading the school’s outdated, fixed IT provision to match that needed for teaching a modern curriculum while at the same time freeing space to enable the school to move a Year 5 class out of an unsatisfactory mobile classroom into the main school.  Members were able to see the importance of this scheme for themselves on a recent Members’ visit.   We are calling on the Portfolio Holder to support the Alexander Junior School application in the scheme on the following grounds.

We believe that greater weight should be given to proposals which have a direct effect on teaching and learning, especially while money for schools is tight.    Alexandra Junior School has a newly appointed Head Teacher who is working hard to bring the school out of the Ofsted category of “Satisfactory”, a priority for both this council and the Government.  The new Head of Ofsted is proposing to do away with the 'satisfactory' category and replace it with 'needs improving'.   Surely want to do everything we can to stop Bromley schools falling into this category.  The proposed improvements at AJS will have a direct impact on standards, which is a key component to any Ofsted judgement. 

It has been suggested that the scheme was not recommended for approval because IT provision should not qualify as part of a capital provision scheme.  We believe this argument fails to distinguish between ad hoc IT provision and this scheme, which involves an extensive system replacement and development project, which should be considered as a capital requirement. 

It has also been proposed that the school should apply again next year.  Unfortunately, this is not practical as the school is expecting an Ofsted visit in the autumn and needs to improve its provision now.  If the AJS scheme is not supported, the school will have to start on a less efficient and less effective scheme instead.   We believe the decision did not give sufficient weight to the timeliness of the application. 

We appreciate that at this stage, despite the strength of the application from Alexander Junior School, it would be difficult for the Portfolio Holder to reverse a decision affecting another school.  However, given the significance of the Alexandra Junior School scheme, we ask that the Portfolio Holder supports a request to the Executive to make the sum of £23,000 available out of last year’s £2,000,000 under spend, so that the significant needs of Alexandra Junior School can be met. 

This call-in supports the Building a Better Bromley priority to expand the curriculum opportunities for children and young people in Bromley schools to further improve educational attainment.” 

Councillor Mrs Manning had supported the call-in.  However after receiving further information from officers she was satisfied with the Portfolio Holder’s decision and withdrew her support.  As the call-in was no longer supported by 5 Members, and with the agreement of Councillor Getgood, the call-in was withdrawn. 

RESOLVED that following the withdrawal of the support of Councillor Mrs Manning from the call-in, it is withdrawn.