Rugby Free Primary School

Local Governing Body Meeting 14th July 2015 at 6.00pm

PRESENT:Tom Legge (Chair), Susan Milewski (Head), Charlie Hull, Eleanor Murphy, Simon Murphy, Amanda Hall, Vikas Gupta, Stephanie Looney, Rob Tandy

ALSO PRESENT:Bernie Pullinger (Clerk)

The meeting opened at 6.10pm. A pack of papers for the meeting was distributed.

1.0 / Apologies
No apologies were received.
2.0 / Declarations of interest
2.1 / Declarations of Pecuniary Interests
Governors completed their forms and returned them to the Clerk.
2.2 / Declarations of Interests in agenda items
None were declared.
3.0 / Details of the Academy Trust
The Chair gave the background to the Trust and explained the structure.
4.0 / Scheme of Delegation:
The Scheme of Delegation was issued to all present at the beginning of the meeting. It was explained that the Local Governing Body's establishment and authority to act has been put in place by the Directors of the Company pursuant to a Scheme of Delegation. A copy of the Scheme of Delegation will be issued to any new member of the Local Governing Body by the Clerk. The Local Governing Body acknowledged and recognised the Scheme of Delegation.
The Scheme of Delegation will be reviewed in January 2016.
5.0 / Notification of the initial Local Governing Body
Pursuant to the Scheme of Delegation the full Local Governing Body shall be constituted as follows:
  • the Headteacher
  • not less than 2 Parent Governors
  • up to 7 members appointed by the Board.
Due to the interest and commitment shown by those present it was agreed that the number of the members appointed by the Board should be increased to 8 to include all present.
The Headteacher is an ex-officio post and the Headteacher, Susan Milewski has elected to be a governor on the Local Governing Body.
The Parent Governor positions are elected positions so elections will be held in November as per the Scheme of Delegation (Term of office to be two years).
Members appointed by the Board are Tom Legge, Charlie Hull, Eleanor Murphy, Simon Murphy, Amanda Hall, Vikas Gupta, Stephanie Looney and Rob Tandy. Their term of office shall not exceed three years (except in the case of the Headteacher).
6.0 / Confirmation of Chair to the Local Governing Body
The Trust appointed Tom Legge as Chair of the Local Governing Body. The Local Governing Body acknowledged and recognised this.
7.0 / Confirmation of Vice Chair to the Local Governing Body
The Trust appointed Charlie Hull as Vice Chair of the Local Governing Body. The Local Governing Body acknowledged and recognised this.
8.0 / Funding Agreement
The Chair explained what the Funding Agreement is and the distinction between the Master and Supplemental Funding Agreements
9.0 / Responsible Officer
The Trust has appointed UHY Hacker Young as their auditors who shall also act as the Responsible Officer for the Company.
10.0 / RFPS Bank Account
Details of the bank account and signatories were given.
The Local Governing Body acknowledged and recognised this.
11.0 / Directors’ Policies and Practices
The Clerk explained how governors are involved with policies and the approval process. It was explained that with so many policies being required and to ensure that everything is in place for the opening of the school in September it would be better for the Local Governing Body to approve the policies under the direction of the Trust and a review schedule to be put in place to ensure that governors become familiar with the policies and have ownership of them. It is the intention that Link Governors will be introduced who will then become more involved with policies for their area
The Local Governing Body ratified all policies under direction from the Trust.
12.0 / Administration
12.1 / Governor details form
All members completed a Governor Registration Form and returned this to the Clerk.
All new members of the Local Governing Body will be asked to complete this form and return it to the Clerk.
12.2 / NGA Code of Conduct
The Code of Conduct had been issued at the beginning of the meeting. The Clerk explained the Code of Conduct.
The Local Governing Body agreed to comply with the NGA Code of Conduct.
The Clerk will issue this document to all new members of the Local Governing Body.
12.3 / Dates of future meetings
A schedule of meeting dates was issued at the beginning of the meeting. The meeting dates will be as follows:
Tuesday 22nd September2015 at 6.00pm
Tuesday 15th December2015 at 6.00pm
Tuesday 12th January 2016at 6.00pm
Tuesday 1st March 2016 at 6.00pm
Tuesday 12th April 2016 at 6.00pm
Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 6.00pm
Tuesday 19th July 2016 at 6.00pm
12.4 / Governor induction
The school has subscribed to WCC (Warwickshire County Council) Governor Training. This means that governors will be able to attend as many training courses as they want to during the subscription period. The governing body will also be able to have an in-house session for the whole governing body. Suitable courses will be recommended in the first instance such as the Governor Induction course.
13.0 / What happens next?
The Clerk explained that papers for meetings will be issued 7 clear days in advance. To ensure that the governing body operates as efficiently as possible it was agreed that questions concerning meeting papers would be submitted no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting.
Dropbox will be used for governing body documents. Invitations to join will be issued to governors.
Could items for any other business also be notified prior to the meeting.
14.0 / Headteacher's report
14.1 / Update/progress
The Head explained that the children will start school in September on a phased integration over two weeks. A Baseline Assessment will be carried out during this period. CEM have been chosen for this as this test is child friendly and the analysis which CEM offer is good and compares at national and local levels.
Baseline Assessment identifies where the children are now and what gaps they have in their learning. This gives a benchmark for assessing each child’s progress against. At RFPS we plan to assess each child again using CEM at the end of the year to complement our regular assessment data in seeing what progress has been made.
The Vision Statement has changed:
We believe that every child should understand, enjoy and contribute to the world.
Through work and play we dare to dream big!
We always...
Aspire to be the best imagined
Achieve great things
Challenge ourselves even further
The idea is that this will be embedded into the way that the school works and the children will interact with it. We plan to integrate this into every element of school life.
There are currently 43 children registered to start in September and there are regular new enquiries. The school is being marketed in various different ways including through the LA (Local Authority) (we are now on their drop down menu), via leaflets given to local estate agents, cafes, nurseries, businesses etc, through our Facebook campaign and newsletters, through the Good School Guide and through various events such as an Activity Session and a Bob the Builder Site visit which is well publicised on our school website and media are invited to run stories on these.
39 home visits have now been carried to children who will be starting in September. Where a home visit isn't possible a visit is being made to their nursery. Visits are for an hour and have been made by the Head and Amy Pohl. These visits have helped to identify starting points and needs of the children.
The school has been awarded "readiness to open" by OFSTED following a very positive meeting with the DfE and was given likely to meet for all criteria following their Pre OFTSED Inspection.
Staffing was explained.
Music provision will also be from WCC - exact details have yet to be confirmed.
A survey was sent out to see what parents wanted for enrichment provision outside of school hours.
A Breakfast Club and Care Club will also be provided.
Staff will be starting back at school one week early. There will be a meeting for parents on the Wednesday of that week where uniform will be given out and practicalities explained alongside a parent workshop session based on them understanding Read, Write Inc.
The phased integration for children gives all children the opportunity to be in school with a small number of children, establish routines and get to know their peers and teacher. This also gives staff the opportunity to carry out Baseline Assessments.
14.2 / School Development Plan
The Head explained that she has put together a School Development Plan and Three Year School Strategic Plan that looks at development of the school in line with the new Ofsted expectations for September 2015. This document will also be developed as the School Evaluation Document once the school opens and judgements can begin to be made. Items will be looked at in more detail at future meetings.
14.3 / New Ofsted Framework
The Ofsted framework has changed for September 2015 and there is a huge emphasis on leadership and management
15.0 / Any other business
There were no items for any other business. An invitation was issued to all governors to visit the new school building.
The meeting closed at 7.50pm.

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Tel: 0845 257 0023|

Registered Address: Knowledge School Trust, 281 Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 3QY.
A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No: 09027131