Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, The Lord Mountevans, Stuart Fraser, Virginia Rounding, Roy Blackwell and Helen Sanson.

Deputy Catherine McGuinness declared an interest in Item 14 (Grant Funding for Christ’s Hospital and King Edward’s School Witley) and noted she would pass the Chair to Henry Colthurst for that item.

Randall Anderson, Alderman Peter Estlin, Christopher Hayward and Ian Seaton declared an interest in Item 14.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 15 September 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 September 2016 were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

City of London Academies Trust Deputy Chairman

The Chairman noted that COLAT would be appointing a Deputy Chairman in the room of Henry Colthurst at its December meeting.

To receive the outstanding actions sheet.

The action sheet was received. In response to a request, the Town Clerk agreed to seek a date for the Annual Governor conference as soon as possible, on the understanding that it should be convened from April 2017.

RECEIVED

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

Members received an Education Strategy Update report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services and the following points were made.

·         The School Visits Fund had been very successful to date.

·         Tower Bridge, a member-body of the Learning and Engagement Forum, had recently been awarded the Sandford Award 2016 for Heritage Education.

·         TechCity and Fintech should be included in the employability theme of the strategy.

·         Consideration should be given to apprenticeships given recent research suggested apprenticeships did not necessarily lead to long term employment. In response the Director of Community and Children’s Services noted that a paper on apprenticeships would come to the Board at its January meeting.

·         The Government was consulting on the Apprenticeship Levy next month, and the City should consider making a representation.

In closing the item, the Education Strategy Director provided an update on recent activity by the City of London Academies Trust in his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of the Trust. He noted that Highgate Hill had received 249 applications for 190 places. The school was an excellent example of partnership between Islington Primary and City of London School for Girls. Members made the following comments.

·         The mix of independent schools and academies in the City’s education offer was felt to be a strength.

·         The City should consider applying the expression ‘Family of City Schools’ to any school to which it appointed governors.

RECEIVED

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

Members received an update report of the Director of Economic Development on education to employment and the following points were made.

·         There was potential for the Economic Development Office to include the Livery and further corporates in its existing employability work.

·         The Board should seek to influence City businesses to offer more work experience.

·         The Town Clerk agreed to circulate a copy of the Livery in Education 2016.

·         A further employability update should come back to the Board at a future meeting.

RECEIVED

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

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services on un-validated progress data for City Schools 2016. Members noted the high levels of progress, and suggested that the provision of similar data from the independent schools would provide a useful overview across the Family of City Schools.

RECEIVED

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

Members received an update report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services on capital projects. The Education Strategy Director noted that Shoreditch Park had now been upgraded to Green.

RECEIVED

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

Members considered a report of the Chamberlain and the Director of Community and Children’s Services on Revenue Budgets 2017/18. The Chamberlain noted that there was a £275k uplift consisting of increased funding for new City academies. The Chairman added that consideration was being given – out with the revenue budgets for 2017/18, for further monies being made available to the City of London Academies Trust to allow the Trust to build up a reserve.

RESOLVED, that

·         The revenue budgets 2017/18 be submitted to the Finance Committee;

·         The Chamberlain be authorised to revise those budgets to allow for further implications arising from any specific allocation of funding for academies and Central Support Services.

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

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services on the City of London Academies Trust Local Governing Body governance structures and the appointment of governors. Members confirmed that they were content for the report to be submitted to the City of London Academies Trust, and the following comments were made.

·         In developing a pool of candidates for governing body vacancies, the City should be mindful of the Livery and City businesses. One avenue for identifying Livery candidates would be the Livery Schools Link.

·         Any non-Common Council members who were candidates for City sponsor appointments should undergo some form of interview and evaluation.

·         Each Local Governing Body should make explicit what skills and experience they were looking for in potential candidates. Terms of appointment should mirror the school year.

·         The City should provide governor training.

·         The City could consider giving preference to Aldermen and Common Councilmen for any sponsor vacancies on Local Governing Bodies.

RECEIVED

There were no questions.

City Appointed Governor – City Academy Hackney

The Chairman noted that a candidate had been identified for the City appointed governor vacancy on the Board of the City Academy Hackney. She noted that the candidate’s application had been circulated to Members outside of the meeting and further provided as a tabled paper. Members unanimously agreed that Anuja Dhir should be appointed for a four year term.

RESOLVED, that Anuja Dhir be appointed as a City of London Corporation sponsor governor of City Academy Hackney for a four year term.

Chairmanship of City Academy Hackney

The Chairman noted that she had been serving as interim Chair of City Academy Hackney until such time the academy co-sponsor KPMG identified a candidate to serve as Chair of the governing body. A KPMG candidate had now been identified, and so the Chairman requested the endorsement of the Education Board for that candidate to be appointed Chair of the City Academy Hackney Governing Body at the end of the school year 2016/17.

RESOLVED, that the term of the KPMG candidate for Chair of City Academy Hackney governing body be brought forward one year, to commence in time for the 2017/18 school year.

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 15 September 2016.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 15 September 2016 were approved as a correct record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Henry Colthurst took the chair for the duration of this item.

Members considered a report of the Town Clerk on grant funding for Christ’s Hospital and King Edward’s School Witley.

Report of the Town Clerk.

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

RECEIVED

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.