Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Ann Holmes, The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Peter Estlin, Alderman Nicholas Lyons, Deputy Keith Bottomley,  Deputy Philip Woodhouse and Tim Campbell.

The Chairman declared an interest in item 8, Governor Appointments Update, as it proposed his re-appointment to City of London Academy Islington. The Chairman requested that someone else chair this item. It was agreed that Alderman William Russell would take the chair for item 8.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 23 May 2019.

A Member asked whether the Board would see a version of the sports strategy in advance of the Member Briefing. Members briefly discussed that this piece was undergoing more work and that the Board would be consulted in due course.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 23 May 2019  were approved as a correct record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk regarding public outstanding actions of the Education Board. The following matters were raised:

·         Actions 14/2018/P and 3/2019/P were noted as completed and closed as they were covered in items 14 and 6 of the agenda.

·         With respect to action 5/2019/P, Members heard that Officers were planning to hold a briefing in October 2019. Initial focus was on inviting livery companies that had an education focus, but it was hoped that other companies might be involved in due course.

·         With respect to action 7/2019/P the Chairman suggested that whilst the matter was specifically addressed and closed under item 15, the Board may hold a Culture and Creative Learning broader Creative Learning meeting in November 2019. Tim Jones, Culture Mile Manager, had been invited in anticipation.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted

To receive the minutes of the Education Charity Sub Committee Meeting held on 3 July 2019.

Members received the minutes of the Education Charity Sub Committee. Veronica Wadley informed the Board of an interest in the London Music Fund (application ref. 15439).

The Town Clerk noted the following amendments:

·         Reference to ‘overspend’ in the general fund had been revised to ‘overcommitment’; and

·         Reference to the overspend of the expendable endowment fund within the resolution at item 4.3 was corrected to ‘overcommitment of the unrestricted general fund.’

In light of these amendments, the Town Clerk explained that the financial recommendations needed to be approved before recess but the policy recommendations would be coming back to the Board for consideration in September 2019.

A Member asked whether the over commitment created any fiduciary implications for Members or for the City of London Corporation. The Chamberlain advised that there would be no implications as the short-term deficits would be resolved by the necessary funds within the Trust being transferred in order to make up for the loss.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The proposal to carry forward a deficit on the City Educational Trust’s unrestricted income fund to 2019/20, be approved;

·         Further 2019/20 funding round applications for both the Combined Education Charity and the city Educational Trust Fund, be closed.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding an education activities update.

A Member asked whether, in respect of Appendix 2 (memo of in-principal invitees to Education Board funded events), the Board would be invited to the various upcoming skills forums. It was agreed that Education Board Members be involved in the skills forums.

The Chairman thanked Caroline Haines for closing at the City Schools’ Subject Dinner (Creative Arts) on 27 June 2019.

RESOLVED, that

·         The update on recent events and activities across the three strategy areas, be noted;

·         The calendar of forums and events over the 2019/20 academic year in appendix 1, be noted; and

·         The memo of in-principle invitees to Education Board funded events in Appendix 2, be approved.

Joint report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services and the Chamberlain.

RESOLVED, that the spend to date and forecast outturn for the 2019/20 Education Board Budget, be noted.

Mark Jarvis left the meeting.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding Governor appointment updates.

Following the earlier declaration of interest by the Chairman for this item, it was agreed for Alderman William Russell to take the Chair. Henry Colthurst abstained from discussion on his re-appointment to City of London Academy Islington.

Members noted that in the case of the City of London’s two co-sponsored academies, Sponsor Trustees also acted as Governors.

At its recent meeting of 11 July 2019, the City of London Academies Trust approved the following appointments subject to the Education Board’s endorsement:

·         Paul Barry, to the City of London Primary Academy Islington for a four-year term; and

·         Shravan Joshi, Nihar Mehta and Leanne Werner, to the City of London Academy Southwark Local Governing Body for four-year terms.

With regard to Appendix 1, current governing body membership of the City Family of Schools, Members noted a few updates including:

·         Natasha Lloyd Owen’s appointment, as noted by the Board at its meeting on 23 May 2019, to the City of London Academy Islington;

·         Veronica Wadley’s appointment to City of London Academy Shoreditch Park; and

·         The process for appointing to vacancies for the City Academy Hackney, as a co-sponsored academy, was underway following Vladimir Savic’s resignation.

RESOLVED, that

·         The renewal of the appointment of Henry Colthurst as City Corporation sponsor trustee (and governor) at City of London Academy Islington from 1 September 2019 after the expiration of the current term ending 31 August 2019.

·         The appointment of Paul Barry to the City of London Primary Academy Islington for a four-year term, be endorsed;

·         The appointment of Shravan Joshi, Nihar Mehta and Leanne Werner to the City of London Academy Southwark Local Governing Body for four-year terms, be endorsed;

·         That Veronica Wadley’s appointment to the City of London Academy

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding the 2019/20 action plan.

Members noted that key events/milestones that appeared to come at a nil expense, were listed as such because the cost of the event/milestone had been included under costs incurred for other events/milestones. In future reporting it was proposed that key actions and events/milestones be grouped by their funding, so Members could more easily see the costs associated with each.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members considered a report of the Town Clerk regarding the outreach and partnerships reports of the three City of London Corporation Independent Schools.

There was discussion about the independent schools taking on pupils from academies within the City’s Family of Schools. Whilst it was felt that there should be more pupils within the Family benefitting from the bursaries available at CLS, CLSG and CLFS, there was trepidation expressed by Members and the Heads that the most able students were not perceived to be being poached from the academies. It was agreed that Heads of academies were in the best position to recommend pupils they felt would not only qualify for admission at one of the schools with a bursary and would uniquely benefit from receiving their education within an independent school and/or boarding environment.

Members commented on the report’s three appendices.

RESOLVED, that

·         the report and its appendices, be noted; and

·         the Board of Governors of the City of London School, City of London School for Girls and the City of London Freemen’s School be invited to commission their annual Outreach and Partnership reports for their March round of Board meetings.

The Headmistress of the City of London School for Girls (CLSG) introduced her report, the following matters were raised:

·         The Robotics Club led by Year 12 CLSG students for Year 5 & Year 6 girls from Sir John Cass Primary School, had been a resounding success and would be continuing into the next academic year.

·         CLSG were looking at how they advertised their bursary opportunities and had also introduced a new contextual admissions process which provided a greater opportunity for applicants who experienced some form of disadvantage.

·         The CLSG Director of Music had been seconded to deputise for the City of London Corporation’s Cultural & Creative Arts Forum. Members highlighted that, when done correctly, these opportunities for partnership were also of significant benefit to staff who were gaining experience working on different projects and with other schools.

·         The Headmistress explained that better cost and impact reporting would benefit this area of the work of CLSG.

·         The Chairman, with the support of the Board, thanked the Headmistress for her outstanding contribution to CLSG and wished her all the best in her next endeavours.

The Headmaster of the City of London Freemen’s (CLFS) introduced his report, the following matters were raised:

·         Located outside the City, CLFS worked in partnership not only with the Family of Schools, but also with those within its local area.

·         The Head had initiated the Achievement for All, Counterpoint Programme. As part of this piece of work he had tasked himself to measure, across two years, the short- and long-term impact of the programme on vulnerable pupils of both the state schools and independent schools involved.

·         The School now had a 35 hour per week Community & Partnership post; they had moved away from using the term “outreach”.

·         Conversations were taking place in respect holding the successful residential Easter revision course for students of three of the City’s academies again. This course not only helped academically, but exposed pupils to the university-like boarding environment that CLFS is uniquely able to offer within the City’s Family of Schools.

·         The School had commenced conversations to organise an event with the Royal College of Surgeons for students in the City’s Family of Schools who were looking toward careers in medicine.

The Head of the City of London School (CLS) spoke to his report and the following matters were raised:

·         The reference to the ‘Samaritans’ in the appendix should have read the ‘Salvation Army’.

·         With the CLS providing a stable rehearsal place for the London Youth Choir, the Youth Choir were able to focus its energies on other matters such as expanding its membership by encouraging young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get involved.

·         A short video about the Virtual School 10-week partnership programme of activities was shown. The success of the partnership was celebrated by the Board, who collectively felt that the programme had been a resounding success by, amongst other things, demonstrating how many of the Education Board’s aims within its strategies could be met within the boundaries of one project, including combining actions generated by the Adult Education Service, the City’s Independent Schools, the City of London Academies Trust, Culture Mile Learning and beyond.  Members of the Education Board queried how the long-term benefits of this programme would be measured. The Head acknowledged this would be difficult due to the lack of Government Policy supporting the consisitency of placement of young people and the fact individuals who had taken part may consequently move to a different Local Authority. The School and the partners did, however, monitor where they could and maintained relationships where possible with holiday programmes and trips.

·         The Head wished to put an emphasis on the “partnership” aspect of CLS’s work rather than “outreach” which possibly did not reflect the experience gained and lessons learned by CLS pupils and its staff taking part in its partnership work.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding an update on recent inspection results.

Members expressed their congratulations to all staff of City of London Academy Islington; Galleywall Primary School and Sir John Cass’ Foundation Primary School for their Ofsted and SIAMS inspection results. Congratulations were also extended to the CEO of the City of London Academies Trust in relation to Galleywall Primary School.

RESOLVED, that

·         The May 2019 Ofsted inspection of City of London Academy Islington (CoLAI), be noted;

·         The May 2019 Ofsted inspection of Galleywall Primary School (Galleywall), be noted; and

·         The May 2019 Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) inspection of Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School (SJC), be noted.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

NB this item includes two non-public appendices.

Members considered a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding the City Premium Grant 2019/20 Allocations to Academies.

RESOLVED, that

·         The release of City Premium Grant funding to City Academies for the academic year 2019/20 as per Schedule 1 (below), be approved; and

·         The proposal that City of London Academy Southwark repurpose an underspend on their 2018/19 City Premium Grant, granting an extension of the delivery period to December 2019 and receiving the 2018/19 City Premium Grant evaluation in January 2020, be approved.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding the City of London Family of Schools Safeguarding Review.

Members discussed the recommendations within the report’s appendix. Whilst findings demonstrated an overall effective approach, an increased robustness and intentionality in response to the review’s findings was required across the Family of Schools. There was no evidence of any immediate risks to pupils. Work to implement these recommendations would be undertaken by the Safeguarding Consultant that undertook the review.

In response to a question, Members heard that it was not appropriate to have a single safeguarding policy across each of the schools within the City of London Family.

With regard to governor training, Members requested that it be made clear to all governors when appointed, what training was required of them. It was also recommended that more use be made of online portals such as Educare. In this vein, it was noted by the Safeguarding Consultant that there seemed to be confusion over the tracking of governor training, a matter that would be addressed in the follow-up from the review.

It was requested of Members that a no-tolerance approach be developed in respect any failure by governors in the process of obtaining their DBS certificates.

It was noted that this report was for approval.

RESOLVED, that

·         the City of London Family of Schools Safeguarding Review 2019 report in Appendix 1, be noted; and

·         the recommendations on pages 12-15 and set out in the summary document in Appendix 2, be approved.

The Chairman wished to take item 23 at this point in the agenda in order to allow participation from relevant officers.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the evaluation of the Southwark Local Governing Body Pilot.

The public were re-admitted to the meeting for the following agenda items.

Report of the Principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Members received a report of the Principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) regarding scholarships awarded for 2018/19.

In addition to the scholarships awarded from the grant issued by the Education Board to GSMD, Members heard that GSMD were working with schools within the borough of Islington, particularly with City of London Academy Highbury Grove. GSMD were also playing a part in the Guildhall Young Artist programme, involving other schools within the City of London Academies Trust.

In response to a question about the impact of BREXIT, Members heard that there had been a decline in the number of applications from EU students countered by increased efforts in recruitment from other parts of the world. On leaving the EU, GSMD would also need to look at the fee variance for EU students and those from other countries.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk regarding activities of Culture Mile Learning.

In the past year the School visits fund had committed to visits to benefit almost 13,000 pupils, which was 50% of the total number of pupils ever supported by the fund in its lifetime. This success has been driven by word of mouth recommendations.

In addition to the programmes within the report, Members were informed of a project for disadvantaged young women, offering them an opportunity to work with an artist on a sound-based piece for the Smithfield Street Party scheduled for 25 August.

The Chairman informed Members of his intention to invite Tim Jones (Culture Mile Director) to present at the Education Board’s November 2019 meeting as part of a Culture and Creative Learning-focused agenda.

Officers were asked to seek clarification on whether the Young City Poets was in any way a feeder to the Barbican Poets programme.

Members noted how CML’s projects demonstrated how small investments could be far reaching and have significant impact.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding Music Education Mapping across the City of London Family of Schools. The following matters were raised:

·         The Barbican Centre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) were linking with the work being undertaken with the Family of Schools to achieve the Board’s Cultural and Creative Learning strategy outcome.

·         A Member requested that GSMD be invited to submit a similar “partnerships” report as those submitted to the Board by the City’s Independent Schools.

·         In respect of appendix 1, it was requested that both primary schools and secondary schools are given access to workplace experience in the music industry.

·         The lack of a music-lead at any of the schools was a particular point of concern.

·         More information was requested on the format of music provision in KS2, i.e. whether the teaching is one-to-one, small groups or with an entire class.

·         It was noted that workplace experience in music could also include instrument making.

·         Members were informed that Phase 2 of this piece of work would also include Drama and other artforms provision.

RESOLVED, that

·         The music education mapping exercise, be noted; and

·         The summary of areas for further exploration included in appendix 1 and full report with survey results in appendix 2, be noted.

11.55 the meeting was extended in accordance with Standing Order 40.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding the initial impact of the London Careers Festival.

Members noted that many businesses that historically would have been defined as financial, wanted to be featured as a creative industry. This highlighted the relevance and importance of the Fusion Skills work.

It was requested that communications to Members for next year’s festival start as soon as possible so they could save the date and get guidance on how they could get their own businesses involved.

A full impact report was due to be received by the Board at their September 2019 meeting.

RESOLVED, that report and its appendices be noted.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act

RESOLVED – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2019.

RESOLVED, that the non-public minutes of the meeting held 23 May 2019, be approved as accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk regarding Non-Public outstanding actions.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding governance review recommendations.

Report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services regarding the 2019 predicted grates of City sponsored academies.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the 2019 financial scrutiny meetings of the City of London Corporation’s sponsored and co-sponsored academies.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.