Agenda and Minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and particularly thanked the representatives from Hampshire County Council for their attendance. The meeting had been arranged to discuss the performance of local schools in detail following the presentation on the Children and Young People’s Partnership in June where this topic had been raised as there were some concerns.

Councillor David Kirk, Executive Lead for Children’s Services at Hampshire County Council provided an introduction advising that the County Council was the third largest education authority in the United Kingdom with 537 schools including 71 secondary schools. The general trend in the country had been for school results to level off or drop for 2008/09 but in Hampshire schools had jumped ahead. Councillor Kirk reported that despite this, the County Council was not being complacent as some schools could be further ahead of the national average than they were. He felt that in order to assess schools it was important to not only look at GCSE results but to also consider contextual value added figures and Ofsted reports.

Angela Wedgewood, District Manager, Children’s Services, circulated a variety of statistics relating to key stage 2 results and GCSE results for the schools in the Borough.

Where primary school exam results were low compared to other primary schools in the Borough the Partnership felt that it would be helpful to see analysis of why this was happening and whether there were outside influences. This could help the Partnership to ascertain whether there were any areas they could be involved in to help these schools.

It was AGREED that the details regarding why individual schools were not performing as well as they should be examined and recommendations for potential involvement by the Partnership be brought to a future meeting for consideration.

Angela Wedgewood circulated absence and exclusion statistics for all the schools in the Borough. The Partnership discussed these figures asking for clarification on various details.

Angela Wedgewood distributed details regarding the number of vacancies on governing bodies in the Borough and agreed to send more details to various partners.

Angela also circulated a proposed report card for schools which would show all the key performance information for each school. This was not yet available but it was anticipated it would be place in 2011 at the earliest.

It was AGREED that information regarding vacancies for governors be circulated to the Local Area Co-ordinators at the Borough Council.

Tony Lee, Service Manager (Children & Families), circulated statistics for teenage pregnancy advising that this issue was now within the remit of the Children and Young People’s Partnership. Tony also gave an update on activities taking place to tackle drug and alcohol use by young people.

The Chair thanked the representatives from Hampshire County Council for their attendance and presentation to the meeting.

There were no other items to discuss.

The dates for meetings of the ESP are shown below. All meetings will take place at the Civic Offices.

·    9.30am on 16 November 2009 – Executive

·    9.30am on 12 January 2010 – Executive

·    9.30am on 2 March 2010 – Executive

·    6pm on 15 March 2010 – ESP

If you would like to receive a hard-copy of any of the cited documents, please contact: Alison Wright, Legal & Democratic Services, Eastleigh Borough Council. Telephone: 023 8068 8111. Email: alison.wright@eastleigh.gov.uk.

Please note that the ESP website (www.eastleighstrategicpartnership.org) holds a range of ESP-related information, including the minutes and agendas.

If you would like to submit items to be considered for inclusion in future meeting agendas, circulation to ESP members or posting to the ESP website, please contact Vince Johnston, Change & Development Team, Eastleigh Borough Council. Telephone: 02380-688077 Email: vince.johnston@eastleigh.gov.uk.

The dates of future meetings were noted.