Agenda item

To provide an update on the work of the Tendring Education Strategic Board.

RESOLVED that the work of the TESB and associated priorities/projects, as listed within the Portfolio Holder’s report, which will continue to be supported in the 2023/2024 academic year in alignment with the Corporate Plan priorities, be endorsed.

Cabinet considered a report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder (A.5), which provided it with an update on the work of the Tendring Education Strategic Board (TESB).

Members were reminded that, established in 2020, the TESB aimed to work in partnership to raise the aspirations, attainment and skills levels of children and young people (CYP) across the District.  The Board sat within the North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance to support their work as a system to ensure that: “children get the best start in life (Start Well domain),” as well as contributing positively to tackling the wider determinants of health.  

The purpose of the TESB was to:

•     Raise educational outcomes for the children and young people of Tendring

•     Positively impact on the wider society of Tendring through improvement of education

•     Influence other programmes to specifically support CYP and their families

•     Connect with other organisations to target funding and initiatives towards Tendring e.g. lottery funding, commissioned contracts

•     Identifying and delivering collective solutions which increase the consistency of best practice and offer for CYP in Tendring

The Board met quarterly, however priorities (set for the academic year) were progressed through the work of Task & Finish Groups.  Memberships of those groups included school representatives, Board members and relevant partners, supported by ECC/TDC officers and partners.

During the 2022/23 academic year, the TESB had worked on the following agreed priorities:-

•     Speech, Language & Communication

•     Reading

•     Skills

•     Social, Emotional Mental Health

•     Pupil Attendance

It was recognised that there were many strategies already in place within Tendring District schools which were having a positive impact on C&YP, however, the TESB aimed to identify the gaps and work collaboratively to address common identified areas of need. 

Highlights of progress to date included:-

In its first year, the TESB had worked with the Department for Education (DfE) funded ‘Opportunity Areas Programme’ to deliver a Twinning Partnership Project in Tendring to support the delivery of its aims. The Tendring Twinning Partnership had been established to share delivery activities that had seen positive impacts in the Norwich and Ipswich Opportunity Areas.  This partnership had brought additional funding into Tendring, and work continued into this academic year.

The Tendring Twinning project had two priorities, namely:-

•     To improve language and communication development.

•     To strengthen professional development and deployment of Teaching Assistants to support pupils’ learning behaviours and emotional literacy

Using DfE funding, to date, progress had been made in delivering those priorities by facilitating:

•     2 Communication Hubs Schools

     ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ primaries with an EYFS are funded to undertake the Elklan accredited Communication Friendly Setting (CFSe) Primary (5-11 yrs) Award, becoming centres of excellence in speech, language and communication.

•     Communication Champions

     Over 100 Teachers, TAs and EY Practitioners are funded to undertake Elklan Speech Language and Communication Level 3 accredited training (3-5 yrs or 5-11yrs) to become Communication Champions.

•     15 Teaching Assistants across 9 schools have undertaken Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) training to become Learning Behaviour Leads.

•     29 TAs have undertaken specialist training from Educational Psychologists to become Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs).  Schools will then fund yearly costs for their ELSA to have ongoing ½ termly 2-hour group supervision sessions facilitated by two EPs.

Skills

It was reported that this was a newly formed Task & Finish Group operating since October 2022. The work of this group had developed significantly recognising the need to work collaboratively across a wider network of partners, increasing capacity and to ensure the delivery of a broad spectrum of skills and development opportunities for C&YP.

The aims of the skills group was to:-

•     Support young people in Tendring to reach their potential through good career guidance and inspiration and activities that support employability and the development of skills for local employers.

•     Ensure good career guidance is available with effective pathways to facilitate Tendring jobs for Tendring children. 

•     Support the long-term Levelling Up ambition to increase household incomes by ensuring Tendring residents can access high value jobs provided by local employers.

•     Work with external partners to develop a bespoke offer of support for supporting attainment through inspiration with links to our local employers and growth sectors to avoid gaps between aspiration and opportunity for young people in Tendring.

•     Support Careers Leader development and information

Progress to date:

•     Establishing new Task & Finish group and membership and key linkages to other Boards/strategic groups e.g. Tendring Regeneration Board

•     Planning for the delivery of the Future Skills Programme over the next 2 years, with the possibility of extending this for another 2 years beyond that (following a review).

•     Mapping of what offers are currently in place and available, to identify gaps and what should be supported via the Future Skills Programme

•     Planning for a hands on career/skills events for both Primary and Secondary schools working with partners who are keen to support the area e.g. Greater Essex Careers Hub, Into University, Make Happen, University of Essex, ECC Skills Team, Tendring District Council, NHS North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group & Freeport Skills Partnership Board

Pupil Attendance

The TESB Task & Finish group was working on a number of aspects relating to pupil attendance. Membership of the group had been extended to include partners who supported vulnerable children, young people and families e.g Family Solutions.

The group had produced and circulated a survey for school staff across Tendring schools to gain feedback on attendance issues.  In addition, the group had engaged with parent/carers to gain their feedback and a greater understanding of their experiences and issues.  Analysis of those results was ongoing.

In addition to the above, the group had sought to gain feedback from pupils on their experiences of being absent from school, and those who had managed to return to school following a period of absence to help inform actions going forward. The group was planning for a home school liaison pilot – this role would build links between the school and families (this would be targeted to an identified number of schools and rural areas of the District) and help children return to the school after a period of absence.

In order to provide continued support from Tendring District Council for the work of the TESB and its priorities:-

It was moved by Councillor Placey, seconded by Councillor I J Henderson and:-

RESOLVED that the work of the TESB and associated priorities/projects, as listed within the Portfolio Holder’s report, which will continue to be supported in the 2023/2024 academic year in alignment with the Corporate Plan priorities, be endorsed.