A damning education report featured in last week's Beacon was discussed at a fiery Monmouthshire County Council meeting last Thursday (20th September).

The Children and Young People Select Committee came together for a special meeting to consider a negative report published by Estyn in April this year regarding the Monmouthshire Pupil Referral Unit at Boverton House, Chepstow.

The national education and training inspectorate found that overall the service was performing to an 'adequate' level and that its prospects for improvement were 'unsatisfactory'.

The report, split into three key questions, found that the service was adequate in the areas of pupil outcomes and privison, and that the organisation's leadership and management was unsatisfactory.

The pupil referral service was formed in 2009 and serves three units across Monmouthshire. One in Abergavenny, one in Monmouth and the other at Boverton House, Chepstow. The service is there to provide for pupils who have been, or are at risk of exclusion from school, or those who require education otherwise than at school (EOTAS).

At Boverton House, all pupils have additional learning needs and there are currently 29 pupils under the care of the service. EOTAS pupils were not part of the April inspection.

Representing the Pupil Referral Service at Thursday's meeting was Malcolm Morris, Acting Corporate Director of Education at Monmouthshire County Council.

The director had plenty of questions to answer from the committee in response to the report. Chairman Paul Jordan described the report as a "traincrash and a complete disaster".

Among the negative feedback Estyn listed about Boverton House were points such as: "It does not provide a curriculum that consistently meets pupils' needs", "The learning environment is not fit for purpose" and "membership of the Management Committee is not broad enough and its meetings do not refer sufficiently to pupils' standards and outcomes".

Councillor Linda Guppy was the first at the meeting to speak of her dissaproval. "I'm not happy," she said.

For the full story, see this week's Beacon (26th September).