Agenda item

The Committee received the report card for the Minority Ethnic Achievement Support (MEAS) Team, as detailed within the circulated report.

Members were informed that MEAS was a small peripatetic team in the Education Development Inclusion Service, which supports Ethnic Minority learners at risk of underachievement and learners with English as an additional language in Neath Port Talbot schools and post 16 provision. They engage with a number of partners to provide support for these learners, families and schools to ensure attainment and achievement. It was recognised that it was important for the team to be involved with the families and assist with integrating them into the community.

It was explained that MEAS was funded through the Education Improvement Grant and currently received extra funding for Arabic bilingual teaching assistants from the Home Office. It was noted that the Service receives the smallest grant allocation of the Education through Regional Working (ERW) consortium Local Authorities. The Service was funded annually and had cuts to their funding in the last three years, which had resulted in some redundancies last year. There was continual pressure to meet demand with the current level of funding. Members recognised the difficulties with the uncertainty of grant funding. It was noted that team ensured that staff were given the opportunity to develop skills to help them move on if required.

The team also bids annually for funding from other organisations such as the Black History Association Wales to undertake additional events and activities. Some of the additional events and activities undertaken across schools were highlighted to Members. It was noted that there were two visiting Chinese teachers, fully funded through the British Council, in Neath Port Talbot for one year. Their main focus was sharing Chinese language and culture with schools and in return they were learning about the Welsh education system. Work such as this was recognised as being important in preventing families settling in the area becoming isolated and invisible. It also fitted in with the global citizen work of schools.

It was highlighted that the additional temporary funding by the Home Office had ensured support for Syrian Refugee learners and there had been positive results. Some Members who had refugees in their wards commented on the level of preparedness there had been by the Council on preparing the accommodation and school to ensure that families could settle into the area. Members asked if the funding from the Home Office would continue and it was explained that funding per person would reduce from January 2017 onwards. It was expected that there would be more families coming into the area and they would also be funded which would allow the team to keep the teaching assistants.

Members were provided with some additional information on the work of the team. It was highlighted that in addition to the advice and support to schools the team undertook a lot of work to promote multiculturalism and translation work. One significant piece of work was supporting first language GCSEs which involved a lot of transition support. So far the team had achieved 100% success rate, mainly A*- A grades for all first language examinations taken, which includes, Polish, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. It was noted that there were currently 58 different languages recorded as spoken within the area. Part of the role of the team was to teach teachers how to support children.

It was noted that results showed that bilingual students out performed monolingual students and this included other subjects as well as languages. Members recognised this and were pleased that children were encouraged to use their first language and retain those skills.

Following scrutiny, it was agreed that the report be noted.