public minutes

BOROUGH OF POOLE

LOCAL AUTHORITY (LA) GOVERNOR APPOINTMENT PANEL

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 7th MARCH 2012

The Meeting commenced at 10.00am and concluded at 11.45am.

Present:

Councillors Miss Carpenter (Chairman), Mrs Moore (Vice Chairman) and Mrs Evans.

Also Present:

David Alderson – (Governance Adviser, Children & Young People’s Strategy, Quality & Improvement Service)

Lisa Gardner – (Clerk, Legal & Democratic Services)

Members of the Public Present: 0

  1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for Absence were received from Councillors Brooke, Mrs Walton and John Pay.

  1. MINUTES

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting held on 12th October 2011, be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

  1. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

(Minute 6)- Councillor Mrs Evans declared a personal interest that she was a Governor at Old Town First School and advised that she was not involved in the appointment process for the new Head-Teacher;

(Minute 6)- Councillor Miss Carpenter declared a personal interest that her nephew was a Governor at Courthill First School;

(Minute 8a) – Councillors Mrs Moore, Miss Carpenter and Mrs Evans declared personal interests that Chris Hyde worked in the Borough’s Human Resources department;

(Minute 8a) – Councillor Mrs Moore declared a personal interest that she was an additional LA Governor at Ashdown Technology College;

(Minute 8e)- Councillors Mrs Moore, Miss Carpenter and Mrs Evans declared personal interests that they knew Kevin McErlane (the Borough’s Head of Culture & Community Learning);

(Minute 8n)- Councillors Mrs Moore, Miss Carpenter and Mrs Evans declared personal interests that they knew the applicant for this Governing Body.

  1. GUIDELINES FOR NEW COUNCILLORS ON THEIR ROLES AS LA GOVERNORS

The LA Governor Appointment Panel noted that the draft guidelines for new Councillors on their roles as LA Governors had been presented to its meeting on 12th October 2011 and thatit had been agreed that the Panel would benefit from additional time to consider the document (Minute 5- 12/10/11 refers).

David Alderson confirmed that one of the new Councillors had trialled the guidelinesand felt that they had provided useful guidanceto them in their additional, new role as LA Governor. The guidelines would be provided to all new Councillors applying to become LA Governors and werefelt to be a good starting point for new Councillors taking up the role.

RESOLVED that the Guidelines for new Councillors on their roles as LA Governors be approved.

5.THE NEW OFSTED FRAMEWORK (JANUARY 2012) AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL GOVERNANCE

David Alderson referred the LA Governor Appointment Panel to:- (i) information on the Evaluation Schedule for the Ofsted inspection process for maintained Schools and Academies;and (ii) a summary of a Training Session provided toGovernors in respect of the new Ofsted framework.

A discussion took place during which the following points were highlighted:

Behaviour and safety of pupils at the School

  • OfSTED needed to consider pupils’ behaviour towards other people as part of the inspection process, e.g.to ensure there was freedom from bullying and harassment;
  • All Schools were required to react to serious bullying, although there was no requirement to declare lower-level friendship issues, although Schools did deal with these issues;
  • Pupils needed to highlightlower-level disruption to teachers at an early stage to prevent this from escalating to moreserious bullying and Poole promoted good practice on how to manage bullying behaviours via the Poole Anti Bullying Strategy.

Quality of Leadership and Management

  • OfSTED needed to evaluate the quality of leadership and management of Schools at all levels (including Governance) and Inspectors took greatheed of what was said by Governors;
  • A larger number of Schools were moving towards self-governing status, the inspection process helped to evaluate the effectiveness of governance generally and Poole was pleased with how its Governors were engaging in the process, although inspection outcomes under the new Framework from January 2012 had varied;
  • Clerks would be encouraged to show in the Minutes of Governing Body meetings where the Governing Body was challenging the School or queryingaspects of the School’s development in order to prove that the School’s leadership and management was at least good.

What do Schools and Governors need to look for?

  • The new Framework was felt to be more challenging and schools were encouraged to keep up a Self-Evaluation Form to show howchanges were being embedded, whether the changes were resulting in improved outcomes and if the School’s overall leadership was having a positive impact.

Governing Bodies for Sponsored Academies

  • In response to a question from Members, David Alderson explained that Academy sponsors could set up Governing Bodies that were completely independent of the Local Authority, although St Aldhelm’s Academy and (other Schools) wished to retain a LA Governor on their Governing Bodies at the current time.David confirmed that Governor Services actively sought to maintain good relationships with all Academies and Academies were informed that theycould buy into the Governor Services’ Service Level Agreement.
  1. GOVERNING BODIES AND THE APPOINTMENT OF NEW HEADTEACHERS

David Alderson provided a verbal update regarding the appointment of new Headteachers to the following Schools in Poole:

Corfe Hills School

A new Headteacherhadrecently been appointed to Corfe Hills Schooland would be taking up the position from September 2012.

Poole High School

A number of applications were being considered for the position of Head teacher at Poole High School and short-listing would commence in the near future.

Ashdown Technology College

Short-listing had been completed for the position of Headteacher at Ashdown Technology College andinterviews would be held in the coming weeks.

Old Town First School

There would be a second round of advertising for the position of Head Teacher at Old Town First School and this was felt to be an exciting opportunity for a new Head Teacher to lead one of the most culturally diverse Schools in Poole.

Oakdale South Road Middle School

The Head Teacher of Oakdale South Road Middle School was regrettably retiring after many years’ service and a number of high calibre candidates would be interviewed for the position. The current Head Teacher was a valued asset to the School having transformed it from `satisfactory’ to `outstanding’ and he wouldremain in post until the end of August to oversee the handover process.

Winchelsea Special School

The advertisement for the position of Head Teacher for Winchelsea Special School would be issued shortly and the current Head Teacher was assisting with the recruitment process. The Governors and Local Authority were seeking to appoint a new Head Teacher of a very high calibre and would be widening the search to a national basis.

Courthill First School

The current Head Teacher of Courthill First School, who was a very highly regarded National Leader of Education, had regrettably announced their retirement inrecent weeks and the position would be advertised in the near future.

TES Prime

The LA Governor Appointment Panel was advised that TES Prime (an organisation that supported the recruitment and development of Head Teachers) had andwas assisting with the recruitment process for Corfe Hills and Poole High School.

  1. EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC & PRESS

RESOLVED that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the Meeting for the following items of business, on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the said Act, as the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.

  1. APPOINTMENTS TO VACANCIES ON SCHOOL GOVERNING BODIES

(a)Ashdown Technology College

RESOLVED that Chris Hyde be appointed LA Governor to Ashdown Technology College.

UNANIMOUS.

There was one remaining vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(b)Bearwood Primary School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(c) Branksome Heath Middle School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(d) Broadstone First School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(e) Broadstone Middle School

The LA Governor Appointment Panel was advised that Kevin McErlane (Poole’s Head of Culture & Community Learning) would not be seeking reappointment to the Governing Body of Broadstone First School after a 5-year term; Kevin had been an asset to the Governing Body, he would be greatly missed and Governor Services was seeking a possible officer replacement of equally high calibre.

(f) Hamworthy First School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(g)Hamworthy Middle School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(h) Haymoor Middle School

There were two vacancies for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill these positions.

(i)Hillbourne School & Nursery

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(j)Longfleet Combined School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(k)Longspee School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(l) Merley First School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(m)Old Town First School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(n) St Mary’s Combined School

The LA Governor Appointment Panel agreed that the application to be appointedLA Governor at St Mary’s Combined School would be deferred,pending further discussions with David Alderson over an alternative important role on another Governing Body.

(o) Stanley Green First School

There were two vacancies for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill these positions.

(p)Sylvan First School

RESOLVED that Ibrahim Bassiouni be appointed LA Governor to Sylvan First School.

UNANIMOUS.

(q) Talbot Combined School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(r) Turlin Moor Community School

There was one vacancy for LA Governor and Governor Services was actively seeking to fill this position.

(s) Appointments in Principle

The LA Governor Appointment Panel agreed that the appointments 1-5 as detailed in the report be approved in principle,subject to the receipt of satisfactory application forms:

RESOLVED:

That the appointments 1-5 as detailed in the report be made in principle, subject to the receipt of satisfactory application forms.

  1. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Visits to Winchelsea Special School and Ashdown Technology College

The LA Governor Appointment Panel said that they would be interested to carry out visits to Winchelsea Special School to meet the Chair of Governors andto see the facilities, and to Ashdown Technology College to meet the Chair and to view the `Building Schools for the Future’ capital works.

David Alderson advised that C&YPSQI and Governor Services would arrange the visits and Councillor Mrs Moore (LA Governor at Ashdown Technology College) offered to assistwith arranging the visit to Ashdown Technology College.

  1. DATE & TIME OF NEXT MEETING

(June meeting date to be advised as soon as possible).

1