Agenda item - Chair's Communications

15.1    The Chair advised the Committee of the following:

            The Chair was pleased to say that following three recent Ofsted inspections, 84% of schools in the city were now rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. The most recent inspections were for Royal Spa Nursery which was rated as ‘Outstanding’ and for City Academy Whitehawk and King’s School who were both rated as ‘Good’. The results would be formally published by Ofsted later in the year. The Chair congratulated those schools.

            The University of Brighton Academies Trust had submitted an application to the Department for Education to establish a secondary free school in the city; all parties had supported the application.

            With regard to apprenticeships, the Chair said he would write to all schools in the city asking them to review the number of apprenticeships they could offer.

            The Chair said that he had asked officers to undertake a review of the forecasting methodology used to assess the number of secondary school places required. A report would come to the next meeting of the Committee.