Powys education chiefs commit to having zero schools in Estyn follow up categories

Education chiefs have confirmed that a target of having zero Powys schools in an Estyn follow up category will be adopted next month.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills scrutiny committee on Thursday, October 15, councillors and independent lay member went through a performance report that looked at how services had been delivered against a number of targets.

The Corporate and Strategic Equality Plan Scorecard (CSEP) shows performance trends over time, along with further information about how the council has been delivering the ambitions of the plan through its well-being objectives and the supporting actions and measures.

Several of the targets in the report were around education and schools.

Two of these, measures 306 and 307 were brought up by Councillor Angela Davies (Liberal Democrat – Rhayader) for discussion at the meeting.

Measure 306 – is about the number of Powys secondary and all through schools in an Estyn follow up category – the target for quarter one was eight – with four schools in Estyn category.

Measure 307 – is around the number of primary and special schools in an Estyn follow up category and the target for quarter one was four, with four in an Estyn category.

Both measures were highlighted as green, which means that the target has been achieved.

Starting with secondary and all through schools Cllr Davies said: “I’ve raised this before and got agreement that the target should be nil.

“I accept that over the past few quarters the target has come down.

“We’re now on eight when the actual number of schools is four.

“That makes it look like we’re under target, but actually if we were honest and put nil there, we would not be on target.”

Cllr Davies then turned to the measure in primary and special schools and said “Again, last time you did agree that the target should be nil.

“We’ve gone from six to four and in the last quarter, we achieved four, should the target now be three if not nil and therefore red.

“I can’t let you get away with two greens there I’m sorry.

“I want to know what else we’re doing to get these schools out of an Estyn category.

Director of education Dr Richard Jones said: “I agree with you the target has to be zero in a follow up category.

“And with that target the committee need to be aware there will be points in the year where it’s impossible to reach that, given that the inspections haven’t happened yet.

“I’ve committed to altering that measure and will be taken forward when we bring our new IBP (integrated business plan) in November.

“Target will be zero and we will work to get there.”

Recommendations and comments from the committee will be provided to the cabinet.

Following a school inspection, education watchdog Estyn can give a school one of four categorisations.

These are: no follow up which means the school is doing well, Estyn review which means that there are areas of improvement needed which Estyn want to keep an eye on.

Significant improvement is a category that means that a school has important weaknesses that require rapid and substantial improvement.

The most serious category is – special measures – which is the highest level of statutory intervention, used when a school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and shows limited capacity to improve.