Agenda item

[NOTE:  Councillors B.W. Jones, G. Jones and E. Schiavone had earlier declared an interest in this item.]

The Committee considered a report setting out the current areas of activity, both within Carmarthenshire and nationally, in support of:-

          - access to and encouragement of teaching as a career; and

          - support for leadership progression into senior roles and headship.

The report detailed the range of opportunities available to our workforce in support of enhanced leadership practice, self-development and achievement.

ERW has worked proactively in conjunction with the Welsh Government and the Authority on the #Discoverteaching strategy which aims to encourage more people to embrace a rewarding career in teaching.  

ERW and the Authority have also worked hard to ensure a wide range of developmental leadership opportunities are regularly available to support our school workforce.  These opportunities are purposefully provided at a variety of leadership levels, seeking not only to strengthen and upskill our workforce, but also reinforce the key message of the value and impact of effective, distributive leadership within our schools. 

Carmarthenshire has played an integral part in developing the content of the NPQH programme over time and ensuring that we provide candidates with high quality support and opportunities to gain the mandatory qualification for headship in Wales.  The 2017/18 cohort witnessed an impressive 16 candidates from Carmarthenshire undertake the qualification.  All 16 successfully achieved the standard and this unprecedented high number of candidates (in comparison with other Local Authorities within the ERW region) evidences the positive impact that they many professional development opportunities have had on our Aspiring Leaders.  These successful candidates will now be available to support our leadership agenda in line with the need of our schools.

Carmarthenshire schools have been invited to share best practice through the lead practitioner programme which is providing valuable professional development opportunities.  Schools are funded to support others in line with the menu of support agreed through the categorisation process.  Practitioners are leading on effective self-evaluation processes or strategic development within a federation.  These opportunities are enabling schools to share best practice and are providing purposeful leadership opportunities for aspiring leaders of the future.

Challenge Advisers have focussed in detail on the issue of teacher workload during their core visits thus supporting the Welsh Government campaign aimed at addressing workload issues in relation to marking and feedback processes.  Advice and guidance has impacted positively on reducing teacher workload and is constructively informing a cultural change across the profession in relation to marking and feedback expectations. 

In order to support effective leadership across our schools, taking into consideration the particular challenges faced by our smaller schools, a range of exemplar resources including policies, examples of self-evaluation and monitoring strategies has been produced.  The aim of this directory and bank of resources is to provide valuable reference materials for leaders, sharing best practice and alleviating workload pressures.  Conscious of the fact that best practice needs to be shared in an open, regular and practical manner, ERW has development a model which identifies such practice through schools working in collaboration with Challenge Advisers during the core support visits.  Agreed areas of best practice are shared through ERW’s Dolen website, thus providing a directory for schools to refer to.  School-to- school support ensures as a result, relying on leaders at all levels to share strategies and deliver support to participating schools.  This mechanism provides staff with invaluable opportunities to develop their leadership skills whilst building effective networks and collaboration across our schools in ERW.

The following questions/observations were raised on the report:-

·       Reference was made to the fact that the Committee requested a report on recruitment and retention of teachers and headteachers due to the number of unfilled posts in the county, however, the report did not include any statistics in relation to how many vacancies have been filled and how many remain etc.  The Head of Education Services agreed to circulate this information to the Committee;

·       Asked if any arrangements exist in schools whereby younger members of staff shadow headteachers and whether this is done across clusters, the Head of Education Services advised the Committee that some elements are currently being implemented, however, this could be expanded upon.

RESOLVED

8.1     that the report be received;

8.2     that the Committee receive an update report at a future meeting.