With the council term drawing to a close, many of Bridgend Council’s scrutiny committees are taking the opportunity to review the council’s progress over the last five years.
Today, a scrutiny committee will be provided with an extensive outline of how BCBC have followed or responded to the recommendations of the school inspectorate, Estyn (pdf).
The recommendations relate to the council as local education authority, not individual schools.
I’m not going to go over all of the points in the report, but there were four key recommendations for the council to consider.
1. Raise literacy standards in primary schools
BCBC and the Central South Consortium have ensured that where concerns about literacy standards have been raised, schools are offered appropriate support. A network has been set up so primary schools can share ideas.
There are concerns that children are starting school with literacy skills that are below where they need to be but, for the most part, pupils make good progress. All schools in the county identified as requiring extra focus on literacy improvements are said to be on track to meet targets.
2. Improve outcomes for post-16 learners/sixth-formers
The pandemic has made it difficult to declare like-for-like with previous years as assessment was changed to be teacher/school-based rather than external examiners. However, it’s said that post-16 learners have “exceeded expectations” with most being successful in university application.
Changes to how sixth-formers choose subjects at A and AS levels have increased access to courses offered by Bridgend College and talks are ongoing to develop hybrid/distance learning to limit travel between schools for students studying certain subjects.
The heads of sixth-form at each school meet every half term to discuss matters of interest. Due to concerns about access to work experience, apprenticeship opportunities and university research, secondary schools have been given access to Springpod to help students explore and consider their future options.
3. Increase the pace of improvement in schools causing concern
I’ve covered most of this in previous posts.
Since then, both schools have left special measures after being supported by the council and Central South Consortium.
4. Strengthen the role of the Welsh Education Strategic Forum
The forum now meets once a term and some working groups have been set up to consider the needs of Welsh-medium pupils and Welsh-medium childcare settings.
The council’s Welsh Education Strategic Plan was recently published. There are currently plans in place to replace two Welsh-medium primary schools with larger ones (Ysgol Y Ferch o’r Sger and Ysgol Bro Ogwr) and deliver three new Welsh-medium childcare centres.
