The Head of Schools introduced a video relative to the Mother Tongue, Other Tongue competition which encouraged children, who did not speak English as a first language, to create a lullaby, poem, rap or song from their mother tongue accompanied by a short commentary in English detailing the inspiration behind their writing.  He advised that a number of pupils from Renfrewshire schools had been successful in their submissions to the competition.

There was submitted a joint revenue budget monitoring report by the Directors of Finance & Resources and Children's Services for the service for the period 1 April 2016 to 6 January 2017. 

DECIDED:   

(a)       That the budget position be noted; and

There was submitted a capital budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources for the service for the period 1 April 2016 to 6 January 2017.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the requirement in terms of the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 that statutory partners work together to prepare a Community Justice Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (the Plan) for their local authority area for submission to Community Justice Scotland by 31 March 2017.

The report intimated that Community Justice Renfrewshire had produced the Plan, appended to the report, which set out Community Justice Renfrewshire’s assessment against national outcomes and identified local priorities for action along with a participation statement detailing actions taken to involve community bodies and third sector bodies in community justice and the preparation of the Plan.  The draft Plan had been sent for consultation to Community Justice Scotland and wider community consultation had also taken place. 

DECIDED:  

(a)       That the Plan, as appended to the report, be approved;

(b)       That the Lead Officer, Community Justice Renfrewshire be authorised to make such minor changes to the Plan that may arise through consultation; and

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to several provisions contained in the Education (Scotland) Act relative to Gaelic medium education. These included placing a duty on education authorities to promote and support Gaelic medium education (GME) and Gaelic learner education (GLE) in their area and the establishment of a process by which parents could request GME from their education authority.

The report outlined the key properties of GME and GLE and advised that the Council had developed an action plan to address the requirements of the provisions which commenced on 1 February 2017.  A copy of the action plan was appended to the report.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the publication of the Draft Head Teacher and Training Standards (Scotland) Regulations by the Scottish Government and the launch of a consultation on the need for all new head teachers to hold the standard for headship by August 2019.  A copy of the proposed Council response to the consultation was appended to the report.

A Hall, Education Manager, gave a presentation on the provision of support in schools to help develop the young workforce and promote positive destinations for school leavers.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the development of revised guidelines to provide a consistent format for use by all early learning and childcare establishments for the transfer of information as children transitioned from early learning and childcare services to primary school.  A copy of the Transfer of Information Guidelines Early Learning and Childcare to Primary 2017 was appended to the report.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the distribution of funding to a range of private and voluntary sector organisations which delivered services for families and young children.

Appendix 1 to the report provided an overview of the proposed allocations for payments to other bodies and grants for out-of-school care and voluntary sector playgroups for 2016/17; Appendix 2 to the report detailed allocations to out-of-school care groups for 2016/17 on the basis of the criteria and related points applied to each group; and Appendix 3 to the report detailed the allocation to pre-five voluntary sector playgroups and toddler groups.

DECIDED:

(a)       That the resource allocation of £575,997 to support the delivery of services for children and young people, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

(b)       That the proposals for the allocation of grant funding for out-of-school care and prefive voluntary sector, as detailed in Appendices 2 and 3 to the report, be approved; and

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the distribution of funding directly to schools, targeted at closing the poverty related attainment gap, in terms of the Pupil Equity Fund.  A table showing the amount of funding awarded to each school was appended to the report.

The report intimated that schools in Renfrewshire would receive £1,200 in 2017/18 for each child in Primary 1 to S3 who was eligible and registered for free school meals.  The funding would be focused on activities and interventions that would lead to improvements in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.  Schools were developing proposals and plans which met the national criteria and council priorities and would identify the issues to be addressed and the target group of pupils most in need of additional support based on an analysis of local evidence and data.

DECIDED:

(a)       That the money being distributed to each school through the Pupil Equity Fund be noted; and 

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children's Services relative to the removal of roll caps at Houston Primary School and Rashilea Primary School.

The report intimated that the Council had previously agreed a roll cap of 66 at all stages in Houston Primary School and a roll cap of 60 to the Primary 1 intake of Rashielea Primary School.  Following the implementation of Standard Circular 60 “The Capacity of Primary Schools” it became evident that the roll caps were redundant and that a fuller investigation of limiting the class sizes in Houston and Rashielea Primary Schools was required.  The investigation found that the physical size of the classroom spaces could accommodate larger numbers than the caps were allowing and it was recommended that the caps in these schools be permanently removed.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to applications received for grant support to voluntary and independent organisations for 2017/18. Recommendations for grant support allocations to specific voluntary sector organisations totalling £82,600 were detailed in the appendices to the report.

DECIDED:

(a)       That the recommendations for grant support to voluntary organisations, as detailed in the appendices to the report, be agreed; and

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the requirement that where an education authority appointed a committee whose purposes included advising the authority on any matter related to the discharge of their functions as education authority or discharge of any of those functions of the authority on their behalf, three of the members to be appointed (who should not be members of the education authority) should be church representatives.

In accordance with the Act one of the three places required to be filled by a nomination from the Church of Scotland and one by the Roman Catholic Church. The existing church members’ appointments to the Education & Children Policy Board would not continue beyond the local government election to be held on 4 May 2017. It was anticipated, however, that the new Council would appoint a committee or board with a remit relating to education functions and it was proposed therefore that the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church be invited to nominate their respective representatives in order that these may be reported to the statutory meeting of the new Council.

The report noted that in relation to the selection of the third person, the Act specified that the authority should have regard, taking account of the representation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland to the comparative strength within the area of all the churches and denominational bodies having duly constituted charges or other appointed places of worship therein. It was proposed that, as had been the practice previously, to place an advertisement in the local and the national press to seek nominations for the third representative and, in addition, to draw the advertisement to the attention of major denominations throughout Renfrewshire, which would include ethnic minority organisations.

DECIDED:

(a)       That it be noted that the existing church members’ appointments to the Education & Children Policy Board would not continue beyond the local government election to be held on 4 May 2017;

(b)       That it be agreed that the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church be  invited to nominate their respective representatives to the committee or board which may be  established by the new Council to deal with education functions, and that these would be  reported to the statutory meeting of the new Council; and