Lea and GarsdonChurch of England Primary School

Minutes of the Governors’ Meeting

To be approved at next meeting

Thursday 23rd June at 7.30pm at the School

Present:David English, Kay Vousden, Margaret Gore, Ann Suter, Amanda Fisk, TamsynLuggar, Greville Earle, Jean Jones

Apologies:Claudine Hannigan, Rebecca Rolfe

In Attendance: Sian Jones

58/16 / Apologies.
The apologies were accepted.
59/16 / Declaration of Business Interests
Governors were reminded to declare these as necessary.
DE welcomed Greville Earle to the meeting as our new parent governor.
60/16 / Minutes and Matters Arising
19/16: KV to ensure all curriculum policies are added to policy overview list;
48/16: predicted reception numbers: clarification of expected drop in 2018: outstanding;
Policies: on agenda;
Data Summaries: to be sent out;
57/16: catering survey: completed and resulted were shared in the newsletter. / KV
KV
AS
61/16 / Head Teacher’s Update
Class Structure: there is one parent in Y1 who is unhappy about the new class structure. . TL suggested we draw up a policy explaining why and how we split year groups and look at ways to ensure parents know if their child is not at the expected standard, earlier in the year.
Attendance: 97.4%. The SEN and PP students’ attendance is lower than the average and continues to be monitored.
Equality Report: the report has been updated and circulated to governors.
Keeping children safe in education: this has been updated and KV gave a copy of part 1 to all governors, which they need to be aware of.
Prevent:governors felt that training would be useful and it was agreed that a 30 minute session will be held at the start of the next FGB at 7pm.
Moderation: there was a discussion on moderation in the school. KV confirmed that staff work in pairs regularly and also have sessions with other schools to ensure that our assessments are accurate.
H&S :we have had our biannual H&S inspection from the LA and we were graded ‘good’ which is the top grade. The loft is still the main issue and solutions are being investigated. The Health and Safety Monitoring Visit Report was distributed to governors.
Facebook: LG has set up a page and is happy to run it if governors are in agreement. To be discussed at the next meeting.
Healthy Schools: KV would like the school to be considered for the Bronze Level and to this end all the related policies need to be updated. The governors reviewed and approved the following policies:
PSHE+C
Young Carers (to be reviewed in 2017)
Single Equalities
Sex & Relationships (to be reviewed in Jan 17)
Whole School Food and Healthy Eating
Privacy – the School Workforce
Privacy – Pupils in School
PE
Drugs & Alcohol / All
62/16 / Academisation
DE and KV met with John Swainston from the Diocese along with the other schools in the Hobbes Alliance. The aim was to have the opportunity to ask the Diocese what the benefits were of becoming an academy, obtain details on the financial model and how the DBAT model would look. DE stated thatthe Diocese did not put forward an attractive proposition and the benefits to school, and particularly the children, were unclear. The Diocese’s view was that we did not have a choice but to join the DBAT.
The Hobbes Alliance all felt that we should not move immediately, but that preparatory work needs to be commenced. We need to confirm who owns the school land as if it is owned by the Diocese this would limit our options. A time scale needs to be put together along with a set of conditions.
Plans need to be in place by 2020 and all schools should convert by 2022. However, the Diocese will force the school to join the DBAT if it goes into ‘Special Measures or ‘Requires Improvement’, if the LA is unable to support it or if the school is classed as ‘coasting’.
All in the Hobbes Alliance want to work together as a group and it was agreed that we would meet again in the autumn term and ask the Diocese to come back to the full group of Hobbes Alliance Governors. All governors will be invited to this meeting. It was felt that it would be most productive if the Dioceseis given a list of questions prior to the meeting. KV agreed to send out the list of questions that Minety had prepared and governors were to send any questions to DE.
All governors were happy to continue in this direction over the next 6 months. / All
63/16 / Finance & Staffing
The finance committee have recommended the budget based on 14 pupils in reception. The governing body approved the budget.
The pupil premium is stopping for military children.
The pay policy has been delayed and will not be received until the autumn term.
64/16 / BHS
The termly inspection has been completed.
65/16 / Curriculum
No meeting as yet this term.
66/16 / Governor of the Month
The following topics were agreed:
Anti-Bullying: MG circulated a report. She felt after speaking to the children that they have a clear understanding of what bullying is and there is a positive response to the way the school deals with it.
The number of bullying incidents is low, but some bullying incidents have occurred on the bus and this is being monitored and managed.
67/16 / Policies
The Complaints Policy has been reviewed by DE and RR and amendments were suggested. Subject to these changes the policy was approved. DE to send KV the updated version. / DE
68/16 / AOB
TL raised the concern about the disquiet in the reception class because of the split class policy and asked how we could better let parents know if their child was not reaching the expected standard. KV said the staff had been discussing this and were considering some sort of mid year report so that parents are clear at this point how their child is doing.
TL has checked how healthy our website is and we are in good shape. However, she encouraged all governors to complete their profiles.
KV asked if a governor could attend the School Ofsted Inspection training.
The parents’ meeting has been rescheduled for 29th September at 3.05pm. / All
Date of next Meeting: Thursday 15th September 2016

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