Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Committee Room 1, Council Offices, Llangefni. View directions

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Items
No. Item

The Chair welcomed all those present to this extraordinary meeting of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee including parents and representatives of Ysgol Gymuned Bodffordd, Ysgol Corn Hir, Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig.

 

1.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

Minutes:

Declarations of interest were made as follows –

 

Councillor Dylan Rees declared a personal but not prejudicial interest with regard to item 2 on the agenda as Vice-Chair of the Governing Body of Ysgol Gymuned Bodffordd and confirmed that following legal advice, he would be speaking and voting thereon in his capacity as a Local Member. 

 

Councillor Nicola Roberts declared a personal but not prejudicial interest in item 3 on the agenda as a member of the Governing Bodies of Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig and confirmed that following legal advice, she would be participating in the discussion and voting thereon.

 

Councillor Richard Griffiths declared a personal but not prejudicial interest in item 3 on the agenda on the basis that his prospective daughter in law is a teacher at Ysgol Y Graig and confirmed that following legal advice, he would be participating in the discussion and voting thereon.

2.

The County Council's Schools Modernisation Programme - Llangefni Area : Ysgol Bodffordd and Ysgol Corn Hir pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To present the report of the Director of Learning, Skills and Young People with regard to Ysgol Bodffordd and Ysgol Corn Hir.

 

Minutes:

The report of the Director of Education, Skills and Young People with regard to the school modernisation programme in relation to the Llangefni area was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report sought the Committee’s views on the proposal to relocate and extend Ysgol Corn Hir to a different site to accommodate Ysgol Bodffordd pupils, close Ysgol Bodffordd and review the catchment areas of Ysgol Bodffordd and Ysgol Corn Hir, in order that the Executive may consider them prior to deciding whether or not to accept the proposal and authorise the necessary statutory consultation thereon.

 

The Portfolio Member for Education, Libraries, Culture and Youth referred to the request by the Executive in May, 2019 to ask Officers to look afresh at the various issues in relation to schools’ modernisation and the requirements under the Schools’ Organisation Code 2018 in the Llangefni area and to bring an appropriate report back to the Executive in due course. The report above is in response to this request and should the proposal contained therein be approved for consultation purposes by the Executive following consideration of the views of Scrutiny,  a statutory consultation process will then ensue during which all stakeholders will be afforded the opportunity to respond to and comment on the proposal. The responses received at that time would then be taken into account in coming to a final decision on whether or not to proceed with the proposal and to issue statutory notices.

 

The Director of Education, Skills and Young People guided the Committee through the proposal paper and outlined  the key drivers for change set out in the Council’s Schools’ Modernisation Strategy as summarised in section 3 of the proposal paper . The application of these key drivers to education provision in the Llangefni area leads to the conclusion that any school modernisation would need to address a set of criteria which includes education standards; leadership and management; school building; sufficiency of school spaces; Welsh medium provision and community use (section 4). Eleven reasonable alternatives/options for the Llangefni area which encompass Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni, Ysgol Bodffordd, Ysgol Corn Hir, Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn have been considered – these are set out in section 5 of the proposal paper. A detailed analysis of each reasonable alternative has concluded that there is no viable whole Llangefni area solution. Consequently, and due to their close proximity, attention has focused on finding a possible solution for the Ysgol Bodffordd and Ysgol Corn Hir catchment areas and separately for the Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn catchment areas (addressed in detail under item 3) that would fulfil the drivers mindful also of the challenges facing those schools.

 

The Officer summarised the process since June 2019 which had involved the consideration of alternative options for the Llangefni area in totality. Given that this had led to the conclusion that there is no viable whole Llangefni solution, consideration has subsequently focused on identifying solutions based on the Ysgol Bodffordd/Ysgol Corn  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

The County Council's Schools Modernisation Programme - Llangefni Area : Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To present the report of the Director of Learning, Skills and Young People with regard to Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig.

 

Minutes:

The report of the Director of Education, Skills and Young People with regard to the school modernisation programme in relation to the Llangefni area was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report sought the Committee’s views on the proposal to increase the capacity of Ysgol Y Graig to accommodate pupils from Ysgol Talwrn, close Ysgol Talwrn and review the catchment areas of Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig, in order that the Executive may consider them prior to deciding whether or not to accept the proposal and authorise the necessary statutory consultation thereon.

 

The Portfolio Member for Education, Libraries, and Culture referred to the request by the Executive in May, 2019 to ask Officers to look afresh at the various issues in relation to schools’ modernisation and the requirements under the Schools’ Organisation Code 2018 in the Llangefni area and to bring an appropriate report back to the Executive in due course. The report above is in response to this request and should the proposal contained therein be approved for consultation purposes by the Executive following consideration of the views of Scrutiny,  a statutory consultation process will then ensue during which all stakeholders will be afforded the opportunity to respond to and comment on the proposal. The responses received at that time would then be taken into account in coming to a final decision on whether or not to proceed with the proposal and to issue statutory notices.

 

The Director of Education, Skills and Young People guided the Committee through the proposal paper stating that the key drivers for change set out in the Council’s Schools’ Modernisation Strategy are summarised in section 3 of the proposal paper.  As reported under item 2, the  application of these key drivers to education provision in the wider Llangefni area leads to the conclusion that any school modernisation would need to address a set of criteria which includes education standards; leadership and management, school building; sufficiency of school spaces; Welsh medium provision and community use (section 4). Eleven reasonable alternatives/options for the Llangefni area encompassing Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni, Ysgol Bodffordd, Ysgol Corn Hir, Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn have been considered as set out in section 5 of the proposal paper. A detailed analysis of each reasonable alternative has concluded that there is no viable, whole Llangefni area solution. Consequently, and due to their close proximity, attention has focused on finding a possible solution for the Ysgol Bodffordd and Ysgol Corn Hir catchment areas (addressed under item 2) and separately for the Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn catchment areas that would fulfil the key drivers mindful also of the challenges facing those schools.

 

The Officer referred to the key challenges facing Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig (section 6) specifically and to the reasonable alternative options considered and explored with regard to each of the two schools (sections 7 and 8 of the proposal paper respectively). Ten reasonable alternatives inclusive of the proposal for Ysgol Talwrn and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.