Issue - meetings

To submit a report by the Director of Education, Skills and Young People in relation to the following schools:-

•  Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol y Graig

It was resolved –

·        To approve the proposal to increase the capacity of Ysgol Y Graig to take pupils from Ysgol Talwrn, close Ysgol Talwrn and review the catchment areas of Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn.

·        To authorise Officers to move to the next part of the process set out in the School Organisation Code 2018 and issue a statutory notice for a period of 28 days early in the New Year.

·        To authorise Officers to undertake responses to the statutory notice producing an objection report (if any) for the purpose of further consideration by the Executive in the New Year.

·        To authorise Officers to re-publish the Impact Assessment on the proposal as part of the ongoing impact assessment of the proposal on equality, the Welsh language and the community.  

The report of the Director of Education, Skills and Young People with regard to the schools’ modernisation programme in relation to the Llangefni area was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report set out the responses to the statutory consultation held in February/March 2020 on Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig and sought the Executive’s approval for the preferred option which is to increase the capacity of Ysgol Y Graig to take pupils from Ysgol Talwrn, close Ysgol Talwrn and review the catchment areas of Ysgol Y Graig and Ysgol Talwrn.

The Portfolio Member for Education, Libraries, Culture and Youth introduced the report by saying that it deals with the Schools’ Modernisation Programme as the programme applies to Ysgol Talwrn and Ysgol Y Graig and involves weighing and assessing the future of the two schools and the consequent impact on all the stakeholders, and in particular the children at both schools. He emphasised that their interests should be the predominant consideration in this matter. In acknowledging that modernising schools can be a contentious issue and that it is among the most challenging aspects of the Council’s work, he said that he understood and appreciated parents’ and others’ concerns on this matter. The schools’ modernisation programme sets the groundwork for the future of schools over the next 50 years at a time when they are under pressure from budgetary cuts, burdensome maintenance costs, meeting the requirements of the New Curriculum and several other factors as well as the impact of Covid. The Council has to seriously consider how the school system can be made more effective in the sense of creating the conditions under which teachers and pupils can succeed and also how it can be made more efficient in terms of making the best use of resources and ensuring that all schools receive their fair share of the budget. The Authority’s other strategies to which the Schools’ Modernisation Programme is linked include the 2019/20 Delivery Document, the Schools’ Modernisation Strategy as revised and approved by the Executive in 2018 (with the current proposal forming part of Band B of the Strategy); the Corporate Asset Management Plan 2015-20; the Energy Strategy; the Joint Local Development Plan; the Welsh Language Strategy and the Medium Term Financial Plan.

Between 6 February and 20 March, 2020 Council officials undertook a statutory consultation on the future of the two schools in question. Officials were authorised to carry out the consultation after the Corporate Scrutiny Committee and the Executive considered the proposal paper in January, 2020.The consultation closed on the last day of school before the first lockdown period as a result of the global pandemic that transformed education provision for a time. The Portfolio Member said that it is important to note that the Council has received a letter from the School Organisation and Admissions Branch of Welsh Government confirming that Welsh Government Ministers were giving the Council an extension until March, 2021 to publish any proposal. The Council has operated in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3