K Brown, Committee Services Officer (Finance & Resources).

H Whittle, EIS entered during consideration of the following item.

In accordance with the terms of the local recognition and procedure agreement, which stated that the Chair of the Committee should alternate between the two sides comprising the Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff, it was agreed that John Welsh chair this meeting of the Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff.

There was submitted the Minute of meeting held on 14 June 2016. It was noted that the Minute required to be amended in relation to item 3 to reflect that M McDonald had retired from his role as a representative on the management side of the JNC for Teaching Staff and in relation to item 4 to replace the high challenge programme with the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

There was submitted a report by the Joint Secretaries relative to a proposed change to the membership of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Teaching Staff for 2016/17.

The report intimated that at the meeting of the Committee held on 14 June 2016, the composition of each side of the Committee was agreed for 2016/17.  Following the appointment of Amilia Hall to the post of Education Manager (Development), it was proposed that Amilia Hall replace Tony McEwan, Education Manager on the management side. A copy of the updated representation was appended to the report. It was noted that on the appendix to the report that M McDonald, Head Teacher, Castlehead High School had been replaced by M Dewar, Head Teacher, Park Mains High School.

There was submitted a report by the Head of Schools relative to the annual leave and school days for 2017/18.

The report intimated that the Education & Children Policy Board at its meeting on 10 March 2016 had approved the holiday arrangements for the school year 2017/18.  Paragraph 5.6 of the SNCT Handbook provided that the Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers should agree the pattern of annual leave and school closure days and a copy of the proposed schedule of days for 2017/18 was appended to the report.

There was submitted an update report by the Acting Head of Early Years and Inclusion relative to the Named Person Scheme.

The report intimated that four charities and three individual parents challenged aspects of the legislation in relation to the Named Person Scheme. The initial challenge was rejected in the Court of Session and the appellants appealed to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court announced its judgement on 28 July 2016 and held that Part 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 was incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The Supreme Court proposed that an Order be made to allow the Scottish Government an opportunity to correct this and had given them 42 days to make written submissions on what the terms of this Order should be.  Renfrewshire Council had suspended the preparation work on the Named Person Scheme pending the outcome of the Scottish Government response to the Supreme Court.

There was submitted a report by the Joint Secretary (Teachers’ Side) relative to the National Qualification appeals process.

The report intimated that National Qualification appeals in some schools on behalf of pupils were only being submitted where the evidence indicated that there was one mark of a difference between the exam estimate and the final SQA awarded mark. This meant that many pupils were denied the opportunity to submit an appeal to the SQA by the 31 August deadline.  The SQA had changed the parameters on appeals so that now appeals may only be lodged for a recount or remark in specific circumstances.  Internal coursework was no longer a consideration in the appeal process.

The report highlighted that this policy of Renfrewshire Council was being applied without any degree of flexibility and assumed a concordancy of estimates which may be unfounded.  It had been stated, albeit anecdotally, that there was considerable variability in the application of standards even at SQA level.  The policy being applied by Renfrewshire Council may, in some cases therefore, seriously disadvantage the young people of Renfrewshire.

The Joint Secretary (Management Side) advised that there was no directive from the Council in relation to this matter and that the number of appeals last year was significantly higher than the previous year. It was agreed that a separate meeting be convened between the Council’s SQA representative and the Teachers side to discuss the matter further and that a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee.

There was submitted a report by the Joint Secretary (Teachers’ Side) relative to the publication of guidance on the 29 August 2016 on how best to tackle ‘increased workload, confusion and duplication’ in Scottish schools by John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Education.  The accompanying Statement for Practitioners from HM Chief Inspector of Education outlined what was and what was not required of teachers in Scotland.