PRIESTMEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL Governors Skills Audit training session/meeting MINUTES: Thursday 13 th November 2014

PRIESTMEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL

Governors Skills Audit training

session/meeting

MINUTES:

Thursday 13

November 2014

Attendance at this meeting Keith Savage Community Governor & H&S Governor 1

Sash Hamidi Headteacher 1

Cllr Vina Mithani LA Governor 0

Ann Woodgate Staff Governor & H&S Champion 1

Andrea Chrysostomou Parent Governor 1

Peter Feldman Community Governor & Target Setting Governor 1 Seeta Mepani Community Governor & Special Needs Governor 1 Sangita Patel Community Governor, Wellbeing Governor, Maths

Governor

1

Craig Chester Parent Governor 1

Benita Patel Parent Governor and Safeguarding Governor 1 Zeeshan Khalid Community Governors and IT Governor 0 Sarah Marshall Staff Governor and Acting Assistant Headteacher 1 Jamie Rogers Staff Governor and Assistant Headteacher Y1-3 1

Christine White Clerk 1

Andrew Dodge led this training session/meeting. Andrew is on the Board of Governors of a Special School. Priestmead Governors were asked to contribute to the discussion at any time during the session. The Powerpoint Presentation will be emailed to Governors.

At a glance decisions/actions agreed from the meeting:

Decision Action & Who Due Date Completion Recorded

Chair of Committees will ensure that papers and Minutes are circulated to all Governors.

C. Chester and S. Patel

Circulate papers and Minutes of TABS and GLMS meetings to all Governors.

On-going

Governors to retain papers from Committee meetings in respective folders for future reference.

All Governors On-going

AD to email a template of Annual Governors Appraisal

AD to send briefing papers electronically

Governors formally voted to reconstitute the Governing Body with a unanimous vote of 10.

Minutes with Governor questions highlighted:

Notes Action & Who

Objectives of the meeting: Shared view of Governance To evaluate where Priestmead is.

2 To progress the reconstitution of the Governing Body.

Governors Handbook 2014:

The three core strategic functions are:

 Clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction

 Holding the Headteacher to account and performance management of staff

 To oversee the financial performance of the school The National Governors Association says Governors should:

 Contribute to strategic discussions

 Hold the Senior Leadership team to account

 Ensure staff have the resources and support they require

 Serve on panels of Governors But should not:

 Write school policies

 Undertake audits

 Spend time with pupils

 Fundraise

 Observe classes to judge teaching

 Do the job of the school staff

Governors should be a critical friend, who challenge and support. Governors break into small groups to discuss various tasks.

Vision for Priestmead:

Contribute to strategic discussions – Consistency in all that we do. High expectations of everyone. Rigour. Inclusive type of teaching. Community involvement. Onwards and upwards.

How can we evidence these values? Through having/showing: Respect – The way the children behave towards each other and teachers. The Rainbow Resource. Following rules.

Hope – Through conversations with the children. Displays. Stars of the week displays. Achievements.

Fair justice – Consistency, Behaviour ladders, School Council, Pegasus points, Star Of the Week. Walking around the school. How staff talk to the pupils.

Integrity – Honesty, trustworthiness. Modelling of behaviour. Presence at the school gate. Vibe around the school, which cannot be measured.

AD said how well the Governors know the school. What does the school do well?

Caring and nurturing, resilience, maths, communication, inclusion, extended schools, teamwork, financial management of school, rigorous self-evaluation, extra interventions, high attendance, progress of pupils, tracking gaps.

What needs improving?

Premises, writing, English provision in general, leadership team needs to consolidate and grow, narrowing the gap between FSM pupils, focussing on quality of teaching, assessment and

moderation, embedding the new curriculum, introduce performance management for support staff.

OFSTED will ask these questions.

Holding the Headteacher to account and Performance

Management of staff – Monitoring and evaluating progress. What is different since the last time we met? Look at evidence. What difference is it making?

Key areas to monitor – Literacy and numeracy across the school. Narrowing gaps. SMCS development. Pupil premium and Sports premium. Views of parents, pupils and staff on behaviour. Building works. Effectively monitoring and evaluating progress. Read and

prepare for meetings. Challenge. Get into the school. Canvass views.

Data Dashboard – get to know it.

Current progress indicators – SPD priorities, percentage of pupils on track, quality of progress, underachieving groups, percentage of good/outstanding teaching.

Ask questions –

E.g. 80% of our teaching is good/outstanding. What would be appropriate questions to ask?

* What was it before? What is the trend? * How are that 80% supporting the other 20%? * How much of the teaching is outstanding? * What are we doing about the 20%?

* Is there any inadequate teaching? * Is it a gradual process to 80%?

* Where are the grades coming from? UPS teachers? Are NQTs working towards this?

* How do you know that it is accurate? Statutory Policies:

The relevant Link Governor is looking at these. Policies can be reviewed every 2-3 years. Both Committees and GB can review at meetings. Look at whether they are in place, are they doing their job, being implemented?

Overseeing the Financial Performance of the School – Is the school making good use of public money? Focussing on strategic priorities? Making efficient use of resources?

Governors reviewed the ‘OFSTED’s Expectations of Governance’ document.

Governing Body Self-Evaluation forms were distributed to

Governors. They completed the forms in their groups and graded each question accordingly.

1. Vision, Ethos and Strategic Direction: Turbulent time, but new leadership team now, progressing.

2. What the school does well and what needs improving: Governors know what the school does well and what needs improving.

3. Pupil Progress: Baselining was essential. Parent feedback. 4. Data: This is a standing action point. Staff Governors and

TABS Committee get data but not GLMS Governors. Chairs of Committees will ensure that papers and minutes are

circulated to all Governors. Chair of TABS and GLMS already give feedback of their meetings at FGB meetings. Governors have folders for Committees (purple and green). Governors were requested that papers are kept to refer back to. Papers also kept in central place.

Remember: Not every Governors needs to know everything. We need to share information and have an overview.

5. Pupil Premium: Time-scale.

6. Pupil Outcomes/Challenging Questions/Key Outcomes: Governors ask challenging questions at Committee meetings.

7. Reports on Quality of Teaching: Sharing Minutes. Reports to Governors. Having information in advance of meetings. 8. Use of Appraisal: Headteacher’s performance management.

Pay review panel. Teacher standards. Pupil appraisal, looking at books.

9. SMSC: Look at leadership team. A. Stowe has started a focus committee to work on SMSC. This is promoted by the way

Chair of Committees All Governors

4 the teachers model themselves.

10. Statutory Policies/Safeguarding Responsibilities: We have had a safeguarding audit. Action plan in place.

11. School Finances: Audit issues have been picked up and addressed quickly.

12. Views of parents/pupils and staff: Staff Governors are on Committees. Governors Day, Staff Bulletin, Governors attending Parents evenings and workshops, Governors present at school council meetings.

The forms were collected by the Chair.

Effective Teamwork – How effective are we as a Governing Body team? – AD to email a template of Annual Governors Appraisal.

 GB briefing/self-evaluation

 Identifying who will meet with the Inspectors

 Maintain regularly updated briefing papers (this is in the pack supplied by AD. Will send electronically).

 Evidence eg Meeting Minutes to be kept up to date. The DfE Reconstitution Proposal says that the membership should be fit for purpose.

Governors formally voted to reconstitute the Governing Body. The vote was 10 Governors in favour of reconstituting the Governing Body. This was a unanimous vote of Governors present at the meeting.

Chair – There was a working group meeting on 6th _{November, at} which Governors looked at the context of where we are coming from and the size of the current Governing Body. Governors also looked at the current committee structures, turnover of Governors, terms of office, a succession plan and what key skills are required. 12 Governors seems to be the right number. B. Patel produced a flowchart of the skills we need to move forward. We need to represent each phase of the school, support staff. We will look at how the present GB membership assimilates over. We can have one Staff Governor and co-opt the rest. One LA Governor. We can elect two Parent Governors and appoint two more as co-opted. Romanian Parent Governor could be an Associate Governor. The Chair has spoken to Neetha at Governor Services about a Parent Governor recruitment letter with appropriate wording to gain the skills required.

We will have another meeting in January before the next TABS meeting. A proposal will go to Governors in the Spring term to ratify. Reconstitution is proposed from 1st _{April 2015.}

Q. Is it equal opps and inclusive to ask for certain skills? Some parents will not have them and therefore will not apply. No, but only two Parent Governor vacancies will be advertised. Can you scrutinise if you do not have the skills? We need to ensure that we have these skills on the Governing Body. The recruitment letter should say ‘It is about the strategic direction of the school and representation. We can co-opt for skills after identifying the gaps.

AD – 12 is the optimum size for a GB. Have you discussed academy status?

There have been no formal discussions. We are more interested to see how the LA moves forward before discussing further.

Key Actions:

 Share Committee Minutes

AD AD

 Get information to Governors in advance

 Briefing papers

 Shared access to Minutes and papers via website

 Reconstitution

The Chair thanked Andrew Dodge, on behalf of the Governors, for leading such an interesting and rewarding session

Meeting ended at 9.20pm