Elm Road Primary School – Governors Meeting

Date: 18th May 2015
Membership: Graham Lockwood, Angela White, Chris Venables, Stephen Malkin, James West, Gavin Plume, Mark Godfrey, Susie Moore, Adrian Burton & Jane Laws (Clerk)
Apologies: Susie Moore
Main points discussed / Action
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Question / Declaration of Interests: No declaration was declared.
Minutes of the meeting 27th April 2015 were accepted and signed as a true record with the following matters arising:
SM asked for all the completed Audit of Governing Body Effectiveness forms to be returned to Mrs Laws.
School Improvement
Heads Report
GL circulated a copy of his detailed heads report.
This contained information on staffing.
CV informed governors of the training being undertaken by five teaching assistants.
A discussion followed explaining the schools adoption of ‘Assertive Mentoring’ and its perceived benefits to increase the accuracy of assessment and structure of the curriculum. The school would be using this in September when the remaining level descriptors are no longer valid. There will be a full presentation for governors during the autumn term.
MG asked how often teachers would undertake a mentoring session with children. It was explained initially this would be once a term but for children causing concern it may be necessary to increase the frequency.
GL explained that the school wished to move assembly time to the afternoons as it was felt the children were more alert first thing in the morning and this could be harnessed to improve literacy and numeracy.
GL reported that the school had received a monitoring visit for the KS2 SATs and everything was satisfactory.
Latest progress data was shared with governors for all year groups.
Proposed visits by classes were also explained.
Governor Visits
MK & SM had been independent monitors for KS2 SATs.
AW had regularly helped in Year 6.
Academy
Following the vote to pursue academy status GL had contacted the chosen sponsor. At present they were waiting to hear from the Dfe if they would be allowed to work with us.
Heads Performance Management
GL will meet with AW and SM for a mid year review shortly. In the future it will be necessary to appoint two other members of the governing body to take on this role. They would need to undertake training and those interested should let SM know. MG stated that he would be willing to take part.
Governor Recruitment
In September it will be necessary to look at the governing body membership and committees as there would be some people leaving.
GP asked if now would be a good time to recruit.
AB asked how academy status would affect the governing body.
SM outlined how this would work and how many governors would be needed. GL reported that Richard Edwards would now be willing to re join the governing body and given his wealth of knowledge and experience it was unanimously felt that he should be co-opted to replace AW who will be retiring. GL asked JW if he would be willing to stay on, at least for two years, and he agreed.
GP asked if it would be possible o recruit a governor from one of our EAL families.
This would be explored.
AW asked if the academy sponsor would put on governor training. SM said that his discussions with them indicated that they do and if the governing body wanted something specific it could be provided.
Election of Chair and Vice Chair
Self nomination forms were circulated and should be returned to JL by the end of June. Any queries please contact SM.
Any Other Business
GP noted that some of the streets near the school were full of litter and empty cans etc. There seem to be a lack of litter bins in the area. GL said this was really out of his jurisdiction but that the caretaker checked the school grounds.
SM thanked all governors for attending.
Meeting ended at 8.05pm / Forms ASAP
Dates of future meetings / Comments
Full Governors – Monday 20th July

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