MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE OF HAVANNAH PRIMARY SCHOOL ON 14th DECEMBER 2016
Governors Present: Stef Williams (SW) Acting Head Teacher
Wendy Osbaldestin (WO)
Alex Thompson (AT)
Suzanne Hayes (SH)
Allison Bromley (AB)
Also in attendance:Maria Wilson (MW) Clerk to the Governors
Deb Ball (DB) School Business Manager
PART ONE – NON-CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS
Actions1 / APOLOGIES & ADDITIONAL AOB ITEMS
Apologies were received from Andy Hodgkinson (AHd) and George Hayes (GH)
SW added three items to the agenda:
- Expansion, Capital Projects and Funding
- MAT (Multi-Academy Trust) feedback
- Early Years Parental Questionnaire feedback
WO led the meeting from this moment onwards.
2 / DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
GH and AHd still need to complete their Declaration of Interest forms.
No conflict of interest was declared by governors for the business of this meeting.
3 / CONFIRM MINUTES OF 12.10.16 AND REVIEW ACTION LOG
The minutes of 12.10.16 were accepted as a correct record of the meeting (with a couple of alterations being made), were signed by the chair and kept in school.
Action: To action amendments to the 12.10.16 Part One minutes
Challenge: What is the current number of pupils on roll?
A: 200
The Review of the Action Log:
Most of the actions had been completed. The following actions were carried forward:
- To proof read the Homework Policy – SH
- To correlate the staff survey and analyse its results – GH delegated to SH. SH will forward the results to GH before sending them to the FGB.
- Skills audits outstanding from GH and AHd – Clerk to post
- Skills audit to be correlated and analysed – AT
- Declaration of Interest forms outstanding from GH and AHd – DB
- Portability of DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) to be secured for GH and EO’N – DB
- To secure the quotes for the DFC (Devolved Formula Capital) work to be done – DB. This item was discussed further. Three contractors have been in to school to look at the work to be done: removing a store cupboard in the Year 1 area and removing two walls in the Year 2 area providing doors instead, to create two new classroom spaces. The one quote from Jerry Hayes is £5k. This amount includes replacing all of the electrics but does not include floor covering. The other quotes need to be received before a decision can be made. DB to follow up. Possible time frame for the work would be either February half term or Easter.
A: They have to be on the CE (Cheshire East) list. There was discussion that Mick Kenny had not been approached and yet had completed some work at a Congleton primary school.
AT clarified that the Item 27 action she had was to send the EVOLVE risk assessment documentation to SW.
DB explained that Havannah had decided not to appoint another lunchtime supervisor at the moment. She explained that recruitment was an issue for many schools at the moment. Havannah was able to manage with the 6 people they currently had, using the Acting HT and the SBM to cover lunchtime duties when required.
DB stated that the website was up-to-date. All that was required were photographs of the new governors. DB also stated that the school’s Edubase was up-to-date too.
Action: To add the name of Kate Jones to any public documents referring to Safeguarding
Action: GH, EO’N, CB, AH, AF and KJ are to email their PREVENT certificates to the SBM or the Clerk / Clerk
SH
SH
Clerk
AT
DB
DB
DB
DB
GH, EO’N, CB,
AH, AF, KJ
4 / REVIEW OF TERMS OF REFERENCE (ToR)
Further amendments were made to this document.
- Remove the wording ‘sub-committee’ from all clauses
- Insert that the chair needs to be elected annually by the committee
- Item 4: remove ‘the attached list’ and replace with ‘policy review list’ adding a hyperlink to that item
- Amending the Chair’s name
- Changing the date to December 2016 on both sheets
5 / PREPARING FOR THE SFVS (School’s Financial Value Statement) SUBMISSION (31.12.16)
The SFVS has been completed and submitted both in Word and Excel format. SH stated that it was hard work completing the document this year but will be easier in the future as the team now understand how much evidencing is required. Everything is now being put in to an evidence file ready for the 2017 submission.
Challenge: When will the school receive its result?
A: Hopefully before the end of the academic year.
The committee extended its thanks to DB, SH and WO for their hard work in completing the document.
6 / TO RECEIVE THE SCHOOL’S BEST VALUE STATEMENT, STATEMENT OF INTERNAL CONTROL AND ITS SCHEME OF FINANCIAL DELEGATION
All three documents had been available at the FGB.
DB explained that the School’s Best Value Statement was the same as last year’s. SW and AT (as Vice-Chair) signed the document off.
DB explained that the Statement of Internal Control had been updated. She stated that now the school was using the Parago assets management system this was a much easier process.
DB explained that the Scheme of Internal Delegation and completion of the Manual of Internal Procedures had to finalised by the end of December. DB will ask for GH’S assistance in completing this document. This document outlines who can spend what. Havannah have set their figures quite low: the HT can spend up to £5k and the L&M committee can spend up to £10k. Currently SW is classed as the HT for the purpose of the document. The document was signed off by AT.
Challenge: Is that per day?
A: Yes.
Action: To scan the documents to the Clerk for the records and to place the signed documents in to the evidence folder / DB
7 / REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF THE 2016/2017 BUDGET
This item is discussed at alternate L&M committee meetings.
Action: To place this item on to the next L&M meeting agenda / Clerk
8 / STAFF SURVEY RESULTS
This item was deferred to the next L&M committee meeting
Action: To place this item on to the next L&M meeting agenda / Clerk
9 / POLICY REVIEW
SH has checked all policy documents, except the Homework Policy. The main amendments made have been grammatical.
The Fire Evacuation and Health & Safety Policy documents were signed off by GH last week following an H&S (Health & Safety) inspection.
The Code of Conduct policy document is unchanged.
The Behaviour & Discipline policy document has been amended to include a section on Havannah Heroes, the KiVaanti-bullying information and the school’s rewards system.
SW explained that, using the policy forward planning document, the school has now amended all of its policy documents over the past two years. The policy documents are not stored on the school website but are on the staff shared area and printed off in a folder for reference.
Action: To email policy documents to committee governors
Action: To email the forward planning document to all governors
Action: Governors to read through the policy documents; to send any comments to SW before 16.12.16. SW to act upon comments immediately after Christmas
Action: To report on policy documents at the next FGB / SW
Clerk
All committee governors/SW
Clerk
11 / AOB
- CECP (Congleton Education Community Partnership) received a visit from the CE Director of Education and individuals in charge of the Capital Building Project and Section 106 Finance. The meeting was to discuss current house building projects in the Congleton area and the schools’ capacity to cope with the potential increase in pupils.
The team has visited all schools in the CECP, including academies and voluntary aided schools, looking at playing field provision and the schools’ capacity to expand. Schools were told that the developer gives a percentage of money to the Local Authority to spend where they deem necessary. Under Section 77 they have to leave a percentage of playing field land: 80% is good.
Havannah has received its site assessment: it shows 132% of playing field space. This shows that Havannah has the ability to expand.However there are 0 surplus spaces at the school. The Tall Ash Farm development is expected to yield 48 students. However Daven School is within its catchment area and Daven School has surplus places. It was discussed that the majority of capacity in CECP primary schools is on the opposite side of town. However the LA expects children to travel three miles to school.
Challenge: How many children does Havannah take from the houses behind the school which are in the Marton catchment area?
A: The majority.
Challenge: How do the developers work out the yield of children?
A: For every 100 houses the yield is 19 secondary pupils and 14 primary pupils.
There was much discussion about the documents presented by SW and about various schools in the locality. However, the committee focused on the fact that in February capital funding becomes available again and Havannah needs to have a plan and to make a bid. SW stated that possible internal refurbishment and increased space in classrooms was a priority.
SW stated that governors needed to think about a potential increase in pupil admission numbers.
Challenge: Do we know how oversubscribed the school is?
A: Currently there are 2 students on a waiting list. For September 2017, 23 parents have put Havannah as a first choice, 4 as a second choice and 8 as third choice. It was stated, though, that the end of January is the deadline for applications and that historically parents wait until the last minute.
It was discussed that Black Firs, Havannah, Smallwood and Quinta Schools are all currently full. All other CECP schools have the capacity to increase numbers.
Action: To circulate the site assessment document
Action: To circulate the meeting presentation and school organisation document
Action: To add a School Organisation and Capital Strategy item to the next L&M committee agenda
Action: To invite Jackie Forster in to visit the school
Action: To invite all governors to a School Organisation and Capital Strategy meeting at Havannah School on 16th January 2017 at 2pm.
SH left the meeting at 3.42pm
- Feedback from the EYFS (Early Years & Foundation Stage)parental questionnaire. SW distributed a summary of the information. 21 out of 30 parents returned the questionnaire (70%). The document covered the school’s strengths, EBIs (Even Better Ifs), parental comments and a ‘so what?’ section identifying future improvements.
It was also agreed that feedback from the Parental Forum meetings would be reported to every alternate L&M committee meeting.
Action: To put Parent Forum feedback as an agenda item on the next L&M committee agenda / SW
SW
Clerk
SW
Clerk
SW
Clerk
12 / IMPACT STATEMENT
The L&M committee wish to report the following items at the Spring Term FGB:
- Capital Funding
- The possibility of school expansion
- MAT developments
- The EYFS feedback
13 / DATE OF NEXT MEETING
It was agreed that the next L&M committee meeting would be held on Tuesday 14th March 2017 at 2pm.
This date was subsequently changed at the EGB on 18.1.17 to
Wednesday 22nd March at 1.30pm
…………………………………………………………. Chair
…………………………… Date