SCRUTINY ADVISORY BOARD – CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Meeting date: 28 July 2016 From: Cabinet Member Schools and Learning

Portfolio Holder Update

1.0 Purpose of Report

1.1 To brief scrutiny on issues relating to schools and learning.

2.0 Issues for Scrutiny

2.1 Scrutiny to note progress in developing online resources to link school curricula, and to agree to receive a report on a pilot at the end of the year.

2.2 Scrutiny to note ideas for addressing emotional health and wellbeing issues in the light of the decision on Headstart.

2.3 Scrutiny to note the new Cumbrian Members of the national UK Youth Parliament, and to consider ways Members could engage with the UKYP Members.

3.0 Background

3.1 At a previous Scrutiny meeting the Board asked that I work with the Corporate Director for Children’s Services and Association of School Leaders to look into using technology to enable schools to share classes.

3.2 Following the meeting I met with the Corporate Director and Brian Eaton who has experience of specific online applications that are used in Higher Education. From the meeting it was agreed to find schools that could pilot online collaborative learning, and then look at the possibilities of rolling something out more broadly in Cumbria.

3.3 On 4 July 2016, I met with the head teachers of School and , Kendal, and was joined by the Strategic Policy and Scrutiny Advisor. Millom School are ready to trial a collaborative learning project with a secondary school in Heysham, Lancashire. This is the product of a longer term partnership between the schools. 3.4 Millom will be trialling on an online A-Level course in Business Studies. The teaching will be delivered from Heysham, and students will attend joint lessons with the Millom students on video link. The technology enables the teacher to share learning materials and also to mark coursework and provide feedback. The Head Teacher has agreed to produce an interim report evaluating the impact of the project in November/December, followed by a more substantial report once the A-Levels have been published and it will be possible to evaluate outcomes.

3.5 In the meantime the proposal is to identify if there are any other schools in Cumbria exploring collaborative online learning, and potential schools that would benefit. Queen Katherine is also looking collaborating with Dallam in terms of music, though the project is less advanced than the Millon- Heysham proposal.

3.6 In other developments, I attended a Capita conference that showcased best practice in the country around school based emotional health and wellbeing projects. Steve Wilkinson, who chairs the Children’s Trust’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing Sub-Group has information about these projects as well as teaching tools, and will be working with schools to look at implementation.

3.7 Finally, I am pleased to inform Scrutiny of the outcome of the elections for the Cumbria representatives on the UKYP, and have attached a briefing on the results that was prepared by the team which had overseen the electoral process.

Clare Feeney-Johnson, Portfolio Holder Schools and Learning 28 July 2016

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Appendices

Appendix 1 UKYP Election Results

Previous Relevant Council or Executive Decisions [including Local Committees]

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