Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Roy Blackwell, Tim Campbell, Alderman & Sheriff Peter Estlin and Deputy Catherine McGuinness.

There were no declarations.

To receive the Order of the Court of Common Council dated 27 April 2017.

The Order of the Court of Common Council dated 27 April 2017 appointing the Board for the ensuing year was received.

Election of Chairman in line with Standing Order 29.

An election of Chairman was conducted in line with Standing Order 29. Henry Colthurst, being the only Member indicating a willingness to serve, was elected Chairman for the ensuing year.

Election of Deputy Chairman in line with Standing Order 30.

An election of Deputy Chairman was conducted in line with Standing Order 30. Ann Holmes, being the only Member indicating a willingness to serve, was elected Deputy Chairman for the ensuing year.

VOTE OF THANKS

Proposed by Deputy John Bennett;

Seconded by Stuart Fraser;

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY:

THAT the Members of the Education Board wish to place on record their sincere appreciation to 

Catherine Sidony McGuinness 

for her outstanding service as Chairman of this Board from June 2014 to May 2017.

The City of London Corporation has a long heritage in providing education, both through its independent and associated schools, and more recently the City Academies. This heritage, combined with the ‘soft power’ inherent within the City’s open spaces and wider cultural assets, has always had the potential to transform the educational opportunities available to thousands of young Londoners if it were harnessed and applied, and the whole made greater than the sum of its parts.

Catherine, during her tenure as Chairman of this Board, has overseen the implementation of the City of London Corporation’s Education Strategy, which has sought to do just that – to bring all of the City’s educational and cultural assets to bear on giving young Londoners the best possible start in life – just one example of this approach being the School Visits Fund, which in its first year brought over 4000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds into the City to learn from iconic cultural assets such as Tower Bridge and the Museum of London. 

Furthermore, under Catherine’s chairmanship, the concept of a City Family of Schools has crystallised, bringing to the fore excellent examples of collaboration and support between our independent schools and academies, ranging from preparing both independent school and academy students for Oxbridge interviews, to the now annual City Schools Concert, a fantastic showcase

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2017.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2017 were approved as a correct record.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2017.

The draft minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2017 were received.

Report of the Town Clerk.

A resolution of the Policy and Resources Committee dated 16 March 2017 with an accompanying report of the Town Clerk regarding the appointment of Sub Committee Chairmen was noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members considered a report of the Town Clerk on the appointment of Sub Committees for 2017/18.

RESOLVED, that Members

·         Approve the terms of reference and composition of both the Nominations Sub Committee and the Education Charity Sub Committee.

·         Appoint Chris Hayward and Philip Woodhouse to the Nominations Sub Committee.

·         Appoint Veronica Wadley and Philip Woodhouse to the Education Charity Sub Committee.

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

Members received an Education Strategy monitoring report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Chairman was heard regarding a proposed new format for Board papers with a view to ensuring future papers were more concise and focused but fully supported by easy-to-reference accompanying detail. Members were supportive of the proposal.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the Community and Children’s Services Committee’s High Level Business Plan.  Members also considered a tabled copy of the draft Corporate Plan 2018-2023 and the following points were made.

·         The Place topic should feature the importance of air quality.

·         The draft Corporate Plan did not explicitly mention education other than factual reference to educational assets. There should be an explicit commitment to education.

·         The Corporate Plan when finalised should be realistically resourced.

·         There should be a commitment to lifelong learning, not just schools.

The Director of Community and Children’s Services noted that the draft Corporate Plan was a high level document that was underpinned by a range of departmental plans and strategies that dealt with the points raised by Members.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the expansion of Redriff Primary Academy from 2 to 3 forms of entry and the following points were made.

·         A Member noted his agreement in principle with expansion but expressed concern that project management was not provided by the City of London Corporation. The Education Strategy Director replied that the City Surveyor’s Department did not have the resources to act as project manager for the proposed expansion, and that the City had a positive track record of working with partner London boroughs on capital projects. There was no likelihood that the City of London Corporation would be approached for capital funding.

RESOLVED, that Members

·         Agree the expansion of Redriff Primary School from 2 to 3 forms of entry no earlier than September 2018, subject to no financial commitment being required from the City of London Corporation and provided that regular project updates were submitted to the Education Board.

Report of Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members agreed to vary the order of items on the agenda so that Item 19 (City Schools Governors Appointments Update) was considered next.

Members considered an update report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services on City Schools Governor Appointments. The Town Clerk noted that there were some errors in the appendix, and so an updated version was tabled. The following points were made.

·         The Education Strategy Director confirmed that the Education Unit maintained a database of potential governors for City Schools.

·         The Chairman noted that skills should be paramount when assessing the suitability of potential governors.

·         Governor appointments should expire on 31 July.

·         The Chairman noted that the City also utilised SGOSS when considering potential governors and requested that the governor appointment update paper due in July 2017 should provide an updated list of governors, identify skills needed across the City academies, and provide a summary of the resource required to administer the pool of potential governors.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members considered and agreed a report of the Town Clerk regarding a delegated authority request to appoint to two City governor vacancies at The City Academy, Hackney.

RESOLVED, that the Town Clerk be granted, in line with Standing Order 41, delegated authority in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to appoint to the vacancies on the Board of Governors of The City Academy, Hackney.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding a review of City of London Academy Southwark Local Governing Body governance.  

RESOLVED, that Members

·         Note the City of London Academies Trust (COLAT) has adopted new governance documentation for the City of London Academy Southwark Local Governing Body (COLAS LGB) and approved the ongoing appointment of incumbent governors whose appointments were affected by the change in governance, to take effect from COLAS LGB next meeting.

·         Note the current Chairman of COLAS LGB will be stepping down as Chairman and COLAS LGB Governor at the end of summer term 2017, with a new governor and chairman to be appointed by COLAT with the approval of the City of London Corporation as sponsor.

The Education Strategy Director to be heard.

Members agreed to vary the order of items on the agenda so that Item 20 – Safeguarding was considered next.

The Education Strategy Director was heard regarding the issue of safeguarding. He noted that the City of London Corporation had provided safeguarding training to all governors recently. Issues such as knife crime and self-harm were high on the current safeguarding agenda in City Schools.

In response to a question, the Director of Community and Children’s Services replied that the City was able to utilise national statistics and statistics from the London Safeguarding Board when reviewing safeguarding issues, including PREVENT.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding mental health in City Schools and the following comments were made.

·         The Education Strategy Director agreed to review the number of counsellors in City Schools and whether more substantive mental health training was required.

·         In response to a query, the Education Strategy Director confirmed that all schools had counselling services available to staff.

·         A Member noted the recent drama 13 Reasons Why that dealt with teen suicide and queried what guidance was available to governors. Another member noted that the role of parents should also be kept in mind.

·         The Chairman requested that a paper be brought to the Board regarding the PREVENT duty.

Report of the Chair of City of London Learning & Engagement Forum.

Members considered a report of the Chair of the City of London Learning and Engagement Forum regarding the establishment of a Cultural Education Partnership. The Chairman noted that a condition of the paper being agreed by the Board would be that a clear outline of projects be provided.

RESOLVED, that Members

·         Support the four proposed priorities for the emerging City of London Cultural Education Partnership.

·         Grant delegated authority to the Town Clerk, in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, to approve the LEF business case so that it may be submitted to the July meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub (Policy and Resources) Committee.

·         Note that the LEF supports objectives one and three of the Education Strategy 2016-19.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members considered a report of the Town Clerk regarding an Education Float for the Lord Mayor’s Show 2017. The Chairman noted that the Float would not feature Christ’s Hospital, King Edward’s School Witley, or Sir John Cass Primary School.

RESOLVED that Members

·         agree, subject to the agreement of the Policy Committee, the proposal of entering and funding an education float for the Lord Mayor’s Show 2017, featuring the City’s family of academy and independent schools, at a cost of no more than £10,000 to be met from the 2017/18 Policy and Resources Committee’s contingency fund, and charged to City’s Cash.

To receive an summary of Fire of London Website activity dated April 2017.

Members received an update report on activity on the Fire of London website.

Report of the Education Strategy Director.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding City of London Apprenticeships.

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 16 March 2017.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2017 were approved as a correct record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members considered a report of the Town Clerk regarding a funding proposal for Livery Schools Link 2017/18.

Report of the Chief Executive Officer, City of London Academies Trust.

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding monitoring visits to City academies.

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

Members received an update report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the City of London Academies Trust.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the City of London Academies Trust – Newham Collegiate School Expansion feasibility.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the City of London Academies Trust – Highbury Grove Secondary School Academisation Progress Report.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk on action taken since the last meeting.

There were no questions.

At this point of the meeting Members agreed to suspend Stand Order 40 and continue the meeting beyond two hours.

Members considered one item of other business. </AI34>

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