Report - London Borough of Hillingdon

EDUCATION
OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 25 TH SEPTEMBER 2003
DECISIONS SHEET
Members Present
Cllrs Peter Ryerson (Chair), Brian Crowe, Peter Curling, Mike Gettleson, John Hensley,
David Payne and Paramjit Sethi
Other Voting Representatives Rev’d Doug Cave & Tony Little
Officers Present Michael Dennison, Roger Turner, Mike Merva, Dave Thomson, Tom Murphy,
Chris Scott & Guy Fiegehen
Decisions Sheet for the meeting held on 2 nd September 2003
Agreed.
Matters arising
1. As Geoff Cooper again was not at the meeting, Democratic Services would contact him about
whether he wished to continue in his role.
2. The Committee asked to hear evidence directly from schools about their budgets. It was agreed
to invite the Chair of Governors and Headteacher from a small number of schools to give evidence
at a future meeting. It was also agreed that
(i) the meeting should start earlier than the usual time of 7.30pm
(ii) at such meetings the Committee will in future devote up to the first half hour considering the
questions it wished to ask witnesses.
Declarations of interest
All members of the Committee are school governors or have a similar role.
It was agreed that the business of the meeting would be conducted in public.
1 Review of Standards at Key Stage 3
1. The Committee thanked Michael Dennison for his report and agreed the proposed methodology.
They asked for a list of schools they could visit and protocols/procedures they should observe.
Members also asked that planning for a possible further investigation, shown in the proposed
timetable for December, should be brought forward to the November meeting.
2. The Committee thanked Dave Thomson for his presentation and asked to see detailed analysis
of gender differences in attainment. The Committee were concerned that schools should make use
of the statistical data available to them and asked for a report on how this could be improved.
3. The Committee were concerned that schools may not value Key Stage 3 sufficiently, noting
evidence that suggested 20% could have been entered for higher level tests in Year 9. The
Committee asked to see information on the mechanisms and criteria schools use to decide the
levels at which to enter students and how far these enabled all students to achieve their fullest
potential. Members also asked for evidence, including any projections based on individual data, on
the extent to which Key Stage 3 performance is linked to GCSE outcomes.
PART 1 – MEMBERS, PRESS AND PUBLIC
Education Overview & Scrutiny Committee 16 th October 2003 Page 1