Agenda item

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding scoping themes for the Education, Culture and Skills Strategy and the following points were made.

·         The Strategic Education, Culture and Skills Director noted that factors underpinning the emerging themes included the desire to encompass the entire Family of City Schools, including co-sponsored academies and schools with which the City had a shared heritage; being more explicit regarding what a City School ethos was; going above and beyond Ofsted Outstanding; improving links between school, employment and lifelong learning; ensuring the City’s cultural offer was meaningful and accessible; clarifying the governance of the City’s education and governance offer; and ensuring the City played its part in ensuring young people were equipped with skills for the future.

·         A Member requested that three observations be fed into the emerging themes. First, associated schools such as Christ’s Hospital and King Edward’s School should be factored into the Family of School and informed of how they could collaborate with the City’s overall education offer. Second, thought should be given to how technology and digitisation could be factored into the cultural strand, including collaboration with City tech companies. Third, the emerging strategy should acknowledge that education was a crowded space and the City’s approach be tailored accordingly – the various actors should be identified and partnerships with them developed. Overall, the strategy should harness the convening power of the City of London Corporation.

·         A Member commented that the City’s approach to education should seek to broaden equality of opportunity for all students.

·         A Member requested that the language around the Culture Mile be made more consistent. He also noted that the Guildhall School of Music and Drama had started developing a strong digital skills offering.

·          A Member commented that the final iteration of the strategy should recognise synergies between the three strands of education, culture and skills.

·         A Member commented that the City should be clear how it expected culture to be embedded in schools – was the City setting simply guidelines or would the Family of Schools be expected to deliver specific cultural outcomes.

·         A Member noted that the strategy should be in harmony with the City’s wider work on social mobility and ensure that disadvantaged pupils who performed well academically were mentored to achieve their full potential.

·         A Member suggested that each strand of the strategy should have an Education Board Member or Members allocated to it to provide greater Member oversight between meetings.