Agenda item

a)    Report of Director of Transformation and Partnerships

b)    Presentation by Tom Gorman, Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that provided an introduction to a presentation on the results of the Student Voice Survey (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager gave a presentation that highlighted the following:-

·         About the survey

·         Participation

·         Achievement

·         Bullying

·         Feeling safe

·         Feeling safe online & social media use

·         Careers education

·         Healthy lifestyle

·         Year 9 performance

·         Next Steps

The Chairman thanked the Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager for his very informative presentation.

A pupil said that she had taken part in the survey but the questions were more specific to her own school.  She referred to the behaviour of students and questioned how useful the survey would be in terms of actual behaviour problems.

Councillor Blakey said that it would be useful for members to receive a list of all schools that took part.

Councillor Jewell raised concerns about the validity and reliability of the survey in relation to social media questions and suggested if pupils were less aware of problems on social media then they would feel safer than those who used it more frequently.  He asked how the results would be used and taken on board.

The Head of Education emphasised the important point about what we could do with the results from the survey.  He referred to the survey carried out a couple of years ago which had raised awareness about certain issues but there was a commitment to ensure this survey was followed up and acted upon.  He said that a lot of issues were about perception.  Schools would be looking at their own individual reports and would need to dig deeper with any areas that surprised or concerned them.  The County Council’s resources would be looked into to see how best we could support the schools with this task.

Councillor Kennedy commented that most secondary school children have a mobile phone and therefore there was more chance that they would feel unsafe compared to a primary school pupil.  She was aware of a lot of bullying that took place over social media.  She was concerned about the consumption of energy drinks but said that a number of retailers sell them really cheaply so would appeal to pupils.

Referring to the reporting of bullying Councillor McKeon commented that of those children who did not feel comfortable with their tutor may have an impact on the figures as they might not report any problems.

Councillor Patterson confirmed that the issue of cybercrime would be looked at by the Safer and Stronger Overview and Scrutiny Committee as there was a concern on the effect of education.  Further to the governments green paper about the contribution by CCGs she asked how this would then pan out with the white paper.  The Head of Education confirmed that they had been involved in consultation about the green paper but had not been involved in any further research.  He was aware of proposals for the County Council to become formally involved in Careers Education and guidance.

Resolved:

That the report and presentation be noted.