Agenda item

Report of the Headmistress of the City of London School for Girls.

The Board considered the report of the Headmistress which provided updates on forthcoming events, COVID-19, community and partnerships, exams and coaching and the following points were made:

·         The School’s community and partnerships work had continued to thrive during the COVID-19 period and was increasingly focused on collaboration across the City of London Corporation’s family of schools, including King Edward’s School and Christ’s Hospital School.  This work was enabled by a Partnership Forum that had been established by the Education Board to support the schools in building closer links and sharing a range of enrichment activities.  The School also continued to work closely with the City of London School in delivering joint events and activities.  It was planned to further build on the current programme by facilitating additional enrichment opportunities for pupils across the family of Schools, including those related to mentoring, volunteering and careers.  The School was also working with the Royal National Children's SpringBoard Foundation in anticipation of offering places to pupils from disadvantaged circumstances from September 2022. 

·         The Chairman underlined the need to ensure Governors played their part in supporting the community and partnerships work undertaken by the School.  The Deputy Chairman suggested that more be done to promote this work and the Headmistress advised that the School would shortly be meeting with the Department for Education to share and further develop its partnership approach.  In response to a question from a Governor, the Deputy Head (Co-curricular and Partnerships) confirmed that virtual mentoring processes were in place but that some aspects of mentoring worked better face-to-face.  Over the past year, a number of events and activities had been delivered virtually and whilst face-to-face events would resume when possible, it was likely that elements of virtual provision would be retained.  A Governor asked about student assessment for the 2020/21 academic year and the Headmistress advised that the School was awaiting further clarification on how this would be undertaken.  A portfolio of 3-4 pieces of work, including at least one from a high control experience (assessment), had been compiled for each pupil to provide consistent evidence of their level of attainment.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.