APPLETON ACADEMY

GOVERNING BODY

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2013

Meeting convened: 1600 hours

Meeting ended: 1730 hours

PRESENT: / Cllr Sarah Ferriby
Mrs Barbara Hey
Mr Alan Jerome
Ms Helen Jones
Mr Kevin McGuinness
Mr Ronan O’Beirne
Mrs Kath Oldale (Vice Chair)
Mr Shailesh Ravjibhai
Cllr David Robinson
Mr Michael Walsh
Mr Rod Whitson

IN ATTENDANCE:MrCraig Armitage (Minutes), Mrs Rachel Garlick, Mrs Jacqueline Waters, Ms Nicky White

1.Apologies

Mr Gordon Senior, Mr Richard Wightman (Chair)

AGREED:

Prior to the commencement of the meeting, members were briefed of the intention of the BCET Trust to re-appoint Mr Richard Wightman as Chair and Mrs Kath Oldale as Vice Chair of the Appleton Governing Body for 2013-2014. The motion was seconded and unanimously agreed by members.

2 .Declarations of Interest

Cllr Robinson – Governor Shirley Manor Primary School

Cllr Ferriby – Governor Worthinghead Primary School

ACTION:

Governors were also issued with pecuniary interest forms, which are to be completed and returned to the Academy’s Director of Business and Finance no later than Friday 4 October 2013.

3.Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising

  • Anniversary Celebration at Appleton Academy: The Principal provided members with an update on the plans for the event, which will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 26 September 2013.

The celebration will be attended by a wide range of guests from both the Trust and the Academy and will include ex-members of the former governing bodies of the two predecessor schools, High Fernley and Wyke Manor.

The event will be led by Richard Wightman, Chair of Governors; Helen Jones, Principal and the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

  • Internal/External Audit Function – Trust Update: The Clerk was unable to attend the meeting and therefore, the report on this item following its consideration at the meeting of the Trust Board was not distributed to members of the governing body.

ACTION:

The update on the audit function, as discussed by the Trust and for dissemination to the Appleton governing body, will remain as an open item on the matters arising log with the intention to provide governors with a briefing paper alongside the minutes of the meeting of 25 September 2013.

  • External Doors: The Principal reported that there have been productive conversations with the Education Buildings Team in seeking to solve the health and safety issues that members were briefed of at the meeting of 16 July 2013. The suggested solution is to insert hooks to the building wall to hold open the external doors and the work will be carried out prior to the half term break at the end of October 2013.

In the meantime, Primary colleagues have put various measures in place to control the flow of children and staff using these doors, to help avoid further issues until such time as the work has been carried out to rectify the defects.

With the matters arising concluded, members agreed that the minutes of the last meeting were a true and accurate record. The Chair signed the minutes.

4.Curriculum and Standards Report

AGREED:

Before the report of the meeting of Tuesday 10 September 2013 was taken, governors were informed that at that meeting, members had agreed that they would like to put forward, for final ratification by the full governing body, Mr Michael Walsh as new Chair of the committee. Governors seconded the motion and agreed unanimously to the appointment of Michael Walsh.

There were a number of matters arising from the minutes of the committee meeting of 10 September 2013:

  • Post 16 Dress Code: This has now been agreed with students and the Principal provided members with details of how the uniform will be implemented.

The agreement of a Post 16 uniform will necessitate an addition to the Academy’s Uniform Policy. The Principal provided members with details of how this will be reflected in the document and asked for their agreement in order to allow those changes to be actioned.

ACTION:

Governors discussed the Post 16 uniform and agreed to the additions to be made to the Academy’s Uniform Policy as outlined in the Principal’s Report.

  • EAL Students: The committee discussed the issues facing the Academy and many other schools across the district following the admission of EAL students into school, particularly in the later year groups (Years 9 to 11). The particular concerns are that, as many of these students live in the centre of Bradford and are being allocated to Appleton Academy against preference by Admissions, attendance at school can be patchy. Furthermore, many join Appleton without having had any formal education in their homeland.

The Academy is accessing support for these students via the Travellers Service at the Local Authority and has also begun a much closer working partnership with colleagues specialising in ESOL at Bradford College, where there is particular expertise available to support students.

  • Key Stage 4 Performance: The Principal outlined the excellent work that had been done over the course of the academic year by the Academy’s Maths department, which led to a record year of results in that subject. However, this has been tempered somewhat by a disappointing set of results in English, which has led to a much less than predicted 45% of Academy students achieving 5+ GCSEs at grades A*-C (including English and Maths).

However, the Principal and leadership team have already identified the causes of this dip in performance and pinpointed the changing grade boundaries at a national level, which have had a particularly detrimental impact on the predicted attainment by students. The leadership team have already begun to address this in their planning and strategies for this academic year and, for example, are reviewing student exam preparation and the exam boards used for the sitting of GCSE examinations in the future.

Governors queried whether there was anything else that they needed to be doing in their analysis, support and provision of resources in order to support the Academy in addressing this issue. The Principal and Vice Principal both reported, however, that current analysis of student attainment shows that 60% are expected to achieve at least a C grade in English at the end of 2013-2014 and that rather than being a trend, performance in this subject at the end of last year was a blip and attributable mainly to the changing grade boundaries.

However, further to this internal analysis, the Academy is also trialling the use of iGCSEs to try and ensure a more rigid framework is in place when students sit the exam paper, as well as the introduction of PiXL school planning. The leadership team have also directed more resources to the English timetable.

AGREED:

Governors accepted the report into KS4 performance and agreed that the Governing Body is happy for the Principal to direct any resources she feels are necessary into ensuring that the improvement that is expected in attainment in English at the end of 2013-2014 is achieved and sustained.

  • Key Stage 5 Performance: The Principal reported that despite the small cohort, eleven students have gone on from the Academy to study at University and in all but one case, will be the first members of their families to do so.

The Academy continues to strengthen its joint working with colleagues at the College and the appointment of Michael Walsh as Chair of the C & S committee has only added to that.

  • Self-Evaluation: The Principal outlined that the Academy is required to undertake self-evaluation for the purposes of OfSTED inspection and, as a result of the poorer than expected performance in the GCSE examinations at the end of the last academic year, the Academy has been forced to revise its judgement of Good to Requires Improvement.

However, the Principal reported that the Academy has undoubtedly made enough progress in all other areas to be considered Good, even allowing for the recent exam results. The Academy’s Teaching and Learning is now also consistently being judged as Good following internal lesson observations, although there have been sixteen new staff appointments over the summer and those colleagues will need to be bedded into the Academy’s routines and CPD cycles.

  1. Trust Finance & General Purposes Briefing

The Director of Business and Finance tabled a briefing paper detailing the meeting of the Trust FGP committee, which took place on Monday 16 September 2013. There were a number of matters arising:

  • Membership of the Committee: Academy governors Gordon Senior and Alan Jerome have been appointed as Chair and Vice Chair of the committee and the DBF reported that the intention is that a briefing paper of FGP committee business will be provided to each future meeting of the Academy governing body.
  • Support Staff Pay Award: The FGP committee considered the award of a 1% pay increase to support staff at constituent schools and academies across the BCET Trust. These staff members have effectively been subject to a pay freeze for the last four years and the committee agreed to implement this increase in line with the National Joint Council for Local Government Services. The award will take effect from October 2013.
  • 2012-2013 Year End Audit: The timetable was discussed at the committee meeting and the audit has now commenced at Appleton Academy, before moving onto the Trust between 7 and 14 October 2013. The final accounts for the Trust and its members will be presented in December 2013 and each local governing body will be provided with a final set of accounts following the final audit findings.
  • Final Accounts – Appleton: The DBF tabled the accounts for information and ahead of their ratification in December 2013. The Chair of the FGP also pointed out that the accounts do not include any auditor adjustments.

The Academy has received more than the expected income in the last year, for many reasons, including BCET reimbursing the salaries of those staff seconded to the Trust; moving catering provision for school meals ‘in house’ and the auction of unneeded items, which were not part of the move from previous premises to the new building.

The Academy is subject to a clawback of funds by the EFA totalling £44,000, which isdue to lower than predicted students numbers on roll. This will be reflected in a reduction in the amount of funding received from the EFA during the next academic year. The claw backhas been budgeted for however, and is a much smaller sum than that taken back in the previous academic year.

The DBF also reported that she remains happy with the salary to income ratio, despite the rise in staff numbers.

Academy expenditure is in line with the expectations reported via budget figures provided by the DBF over the course of the year. Catering costs have risen, which is a result of the previously reported move by the Academy to bring catering ‘in house’.

As has also been reported previously, utility costs are higher than would have been expected following the move to the new building. The DBF is now working with Blue Castle, an energy management consultancy, to look at ways in which the Academy can further minimise energy use and the cost of its bills.

The DBF closed her report by stating that the Academy building and grounds are now subject to a new rateable value by the Local Authority and, although there is a small allowance available from the DfE to help towards the cost, this increase in rates has now had to be reflected in future budgeting.

With all of the income and expenditure considered, the Academy expects to report a net surplus for the financial year of £229,000.

ACTION:

The Chair thanked the DBF for her report to governors and asked that monthly reporting of the accounts continue to be made available to members for information. The DBF stated that this remains her intention.

6.Principal’s Report

ThePrincipal tabled her report. There were a number of matters arising:

  • Numbers On Roll:

The Principal outlined the growing number of students on the school roll and the oversubscription in some year groups. In Year 7 in particular, the Academy is also now seeing the majority of those joining the school doing so following parents making Appleton their first choice on the common preference admission forms.

The Academy will be hosting an open evening on 9 October 2013 for parents and prospective Year 7 students for September 2014. Due to this growth in student numbers, the Academy is now able to focus its recruitment of children and young people on the local primary schools in particular.

  • Post 16: There are now, for the first time since the Academy opened, enough Year 11 students to fill the quota of 100 Post 16 places on the Academy’s published admission document. The Academy will therefore need to introduce selection criteria to places for the 2014-2015 academic year, as resources may dictate that the Academy cannot necessarily offer places to 100 students.

ACTION:

It was agreed that criteria for Post 16 selection for 2014-2015 will be considered and monitored via reports by the Principal to the C & S committee.

  • Post 16 Destination Data:

ACTION:

The Post 16 destination report will be distributed with the minutes of the meeting.

  • Staffing: The Academy has appointed sixteen new members of staff over the course of the summer, including a new Vice Principal Primary. Those colleagues have quickly settled in and early observations are promising.
  • Engaging Families Award: The Academy is currently preparing for a moderation visit from the Engaging Families team. The Engaging Families award is a quality mark that recognises good practice in working with the whole family, not just students of the Academy, which is a particular strength at Appleton.

The Principal is hopeful that the Academy will achieve this recognition prior to the end of term.

ACTION:

The Principal will provide an update to governors, either via the November meeting, or in a briefing paper to follow the moderation visit and decision making process.

  • OfSTED: The Academy expects and is preparing for the visit of HMI this term. Once the notification is received, the new inspection framework calls for the engagement of as many governors as possible in providing feedback and meeting with inspectors.

ACTION:

The Minute Clerk will contact governors to coordinate their involvement in the HMI visit.

7.AOB

There were a number of items of further business:

  • Grounds Maintenance: Parent governors queried whether there was a stipulation in the maintenance contract that grass cuttings be cleared after mowing.

The DBF informed governors that this instruction is now included in the contract and that this issue will not occur in the future.

  • Open Events: Parent governors queried whether or not it would be possible to hold another open event to welcome visitors from the community into the building to view the facilities and the good work that is going on.

The Principal confirmed that consideration is being given to another event at Christmas (as occurred last year) and that she will look into the way this event is publicised to ensure that as broad a swathe of the community as possible are able to attend.

  • Teaching Staff Industrial Action: Members of the NUT and NASUWT have informed the Principal of their intention to participate in a day of industrial action, following the balloting of members by their respective unions, on 1 October 2013. The Principal is currently assessing the numbers of staff involved before looking at how this will affect the Academy’s ability to open to students.

ACTION:

The Principal will update governors of the position and provide details of how any action affects the Academy.

……………………………………………………………………………

Signed by ChairDate

ABBREVIATIONS:

BCET – Bradford College Education Trust

C & S – Curriculum and Standards Committee

DBF – Director of Business and Finance

DfE – Department for Education

EAL – English as an Additional Language

EFA – Education Funding Agency

ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages

FGP – Finance & General Purposes Committee

GCSE – General Certificate of Secondary Education

HMI – Her Majesty’s Inspectorate

NASUWT – National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers

NUT – National Union of Teachers

OfSTED – Office for Standards in Education

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