The Sub-Committee heard from Ms Brenda Landers, Headteacher at Swanlea School and Mr Kabir Miah, Deputy Headteacher. They reflected on how students from varying backgrounds succeed in attaining a good set of grades.

The main points to note from the presentation of Ms Landers and Mr Miah were:

• The school had a Leadership Development programme, whereby it identified future leaders from its cohort of teachers and worked with THEP (Tower Hamlets Education Partnership) to develop skills of teachers/leaders.
• Children who attend Swanlea School came from a wide range of backgrounds with 5.5% from disadvantage backgrounds, who go on to Russell Group universities.
• The school instils a positive learning attitude to give students social confidence and doesn’t use disadvantage backgrounds as an excuse to success.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

• Ms Landers confirmed they shared best practice with other secondary schools as well as primary schools, via the THEP partnership.
• Ms Landers said that whilst the school had a traditional academic pathway, it also supported young people via the vocational route. Through its SEND Department it identified young people/carers who may require additional support to learn life skills such as independent living and financial awareness courses. Mr Miah added the arts and crafts faculty at the schools helped to build social confidence of students who had varying needs.
• Ms Landers stated she was incredibly proud of the achievement that her school had made. She said that the bottom 25%, through progress 8, meant that every student counts. She said the intake of the school as a comprehensive school depended on parent choice however 94% of students achieved a grade 4 or above in English. Of the 6% that do not make the grade, she said was important to recognise this and support them through alternative pathways.
• She said it was a laudable objective and aim to get youngsters to think about attending Russell Group Universities however many lack the confidence to think about attending Oxford/Cambridge Universities. She said this attitude needed to change and aspiration to attend university ought to be instilled in youngsters from a primary school age. Ms Landers said she believed it was too late leaving this until a child had entered secondary school education. She said these conversations ought to be happening at an early stage, in order to build confidence in a young person that they are just as able to attend prestigious universities.

The Chair thanked Ms Brenda Landers and Mr Kabir Miah for their presentation.

The Sub-Committee then heard from Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Lead for Education, Youth and Lifelong Learning who introduced the presentation given by Mr Steve Nyakatawa, Director of Education.

Mr Nyakatawa referred members of the Sub-Committee to the presentation in the supplementary pack and said that as part of the Council’s Strategic Plan priorities, the ambition was ‘Every child achieves their best in education.’ Mr Nyakatawa explained the performance tables for each Key Stage and said for KS1 and KS2, the borough was doing reasonably well however there were dips in performance because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Nyakatawa said the A level results on page 14 of the supplementary pack showed the borough was not doing as well when compared to other London Boroughs.

In response to comments and questions the following was noted:

• Mr Nyakatawa explained that the ‘A’ level results were lower than that of other boroughs as many students go across to other boroughs to attend sixth form and further education colleges. He said they were looking at best practice and were working to retain students within the borough.
• KS1 and KS2 results had decreased partly due to the pandemic however measures are in place to ensure results in reading, phonics and maths improve with increased monitoring and evaluation being done.
• Mr Nyakatawa said they work with schools to drive improvements and those that do not fall within the remit of the Local Authority, such as maintained schools or academies, then they are directly contacted via the London Director.
• In reference to Ebacc, Mr Nyakatawa said this gave students a boarder range of subjects to study and students who studied for the Ebacc were better placed for further and higher education. He said he’d like to see the performance figures improve for Ebacc study.

The Chair thanked Mr Nyakatawa for his presentation.

Lastly, Ms Aelswith Frayne, Head of Employment & Skills, Mr Colin Eaton from Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Mr Asnan Mojumader, Apprenticeship Generation Manager gave a presentation on how they are assisting young people into employment and career opportunities.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

• The Council Internship for young carers is being revived and there is a programme to offer 12 internships from January 2023. Funding for the pilot project needs agreement by the Corporate Leadership Team.
• Consideration is also being given to Services converting job vacancies into apprenticeships in hard to fill services/professions such as housing, planning and finance.
• Ms Frayne said the Employment and Skills Service did have performance targets to get people into work of 4 per month which was monitored corporately.

The Chair thanked Ms Frayne and her colleagues for their presentation.