WRENINGHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL

Full Governing Body minutes, held on Monday 30th March at 7.30pm

PRESENT:

Mrs Mary Fairman , Mr Richard Burbage, Mrs Brona Jarvis, Mrs Irene Moore, Mr Stephen Price and Mr Gary Betts

Mrs Nuria Sharp attended as clerk.

1. Began minutes with a prayer.

2. APOLOGIES:

Apologies for absence were received from Mr Paul Parfitt, Mrs Chrissie Baldwin, Mrs Tarcy Rhatigan, Mrs Celia Phoenix and Mr David Reeve

3. ANY BUSINESS INTERESTS

None.

4. MINUTES

The minutes of the Governors meeting held on 9th February 2009, copies of which had been circulated to all Governors, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

5. MATTERS ARISING (CHECKLIST)

1. Critical Incidents Red Book – contacts all correct and up to date.

2. Timetable for Governors meeting was completed and morning is reviewed in item 11.

3. Need to amend Security Policy to include locking and unlocking gate procedures.

4. Nuria Sharp to email copies of the Security plan to Paul, David, Gary and Stephen.

5. Checked ‘meeting place’ in fire risk assessment, as in the event of a real fire the children would meet at the Village Hall, but the playground is mentioned in the risk assessment and is use during drills. Checked with the fire service that it was acceptable to name the playground as the meeting place, they agreed that this was acceptable and it was important that we were thinking of all eventualities. We could mention every scenario in our policy, but this is not a legal requirement and the fire service stated that the most important point was that we were thinking about all possibilities in the event of a fire.

6. Richard Burbage has contacted Mr Behm this is discussed in item 13.

7. Dot Lentons visit as Diocesan School Support Officer was to see it the school required any support from her and she was checking on the ‘well being’ of the children’

8. Governors wanted it noted in the minutes that they were happy for their names to be used in the minutes.

6. REPORT FROM COMMITTEES:

FINANCE AND PERSONNEL

The only question was about sick pay entitlement to a member of staff, Mr Richard Burbage had contacted personnel and the entitlement for this member of staff is full pay (100%) for 26 days, 52 days at 50% and after this it is statutory sick pay. The member of staff will receive a letter from personnel when their salary is reduced. The days are worked out as a 6 day week Monday to Saturday, regardless of what days are in their contract.

CURRICULUM AND SEN

The minutes were read by Governors, but no questions or queries arose from them.

7. HEAD TEACHERS REPORT

The report was read by Governors and Mr Richard Burbage brought the governors attention to the staffing, explaining that one person had applied for post as Dining Room Assistant, this was organised by NCS and we knew very little about the candidate. They were hoping to interview ASAP and hopefully they will introduce the candidate to school and staff, as it was not known if she was familiar to the school.

8. REVIEW PROGRESS OF SIDP

Mr Richard Burbage explained that the lead teachers for the 4 subjects that were to be focused on this year as stated in the SIDP. Each had a day out of class to review and check progress on their subjects across the school. This also gave staff the chance to set targets and plan how to develop their subjects further. Teachers used the ‘Health Report’ form to evaluate their subjects and these finding will be fed into the SIDP. The staff co-ordinated where their plans and monitoring could link into inset days and staff meetings next year, by looking at health checks, dates were set to incorporate this. Next years focus is on the Humanities subjects, RE, PSHE, History and Geography. Each member of staff will take on one of these subjects and review how it fits in across the year.

Mr Richard Burbage then went on to talk about the SIDP that he was in the process of putting together. There was a small discussion on whether it should be called the SDP (School Development Plan) as there is also a SIP but Governors decided it would be better to continue with SIDP. Four sections within the SIDP are divided into each sub committee, each Governor can then review their lead subjects. When Julie Burden reviewed the schools SIDP she suggested to Mr Richard Burbage to colour coordinated the curriculum with the ‘Every child matters’ colours, the key focus is on these seven different action plans. Mrs Mary Fairman asked Mrs Irene Moore if she was still collecting evidence in conjunction with each governors part of the ‘Every Child Matters’, she was unable to ask other governors as they were not present, a little discussion took place on how useful this evidence was and it was decided to bring this up as an agenda item at the next meeting. Mr Richard Burbage said that the new SIDP was almost completed and Mrs Mary Fairman asked if Governors could have a copy of the new SIDP before the next meeting.

9. GOVERNOR ACTION PLAN FOR NEXT SIDP

Mrs Mary Fairman explained that the SIP advisor, Julie Burden wondered why the Governors Action Plan was going into the GSR and not into the SIDP. It was explained to Julie Burden by Liz Shenstone that Norfolk expected the Action Plan to be in the GSR. Mr Richard Burbage explained that this could be incorporated in the SIDP and then linked into the GSR. Did Governors have any ideas for their Action Plan? It was decided that succession planning was a very important issue that needs to be acted on, planning and developing the governors for their roles and seeing where there specialities may fit into future roles. Training for each Governor’s role to enhance and expand on. It was decided that the ideas could be pulled from the GSR to develop an Action Plan and the relevant committee could discuss and review. The Governors decided it would be useful to plan an Action Plan for next year, ideas would be needed from Governors so they could explore ideas. These could be done as sub committees but Governors felt it would be more useful to explore at full Governors meeting.

10. SUMMARY OF SIP VISIT

Julie Burden is employed by County, her report will go to Mrs Elizabeth Shenstone before the school, and until the report is received it is difficult to inform Governors of any outcomes. The agenda of the visit was based on Ofsted criteria. It was statistic based, looking at pupil progress. The SEF, SIP and SIDP were all looked at. The school was graded as Good with some areas Outstanding, it was graded similar in some areas as the schools last Ofsted report, some areas had been improved. Julie Burden also said that she would visit the Governors at one of their meetings, as yet no date had been set.

11. GOVERNOR MONITORING VISIT – FEEDBACK FROM 5TH MARCH

Mrs Irene Moore reflected on the visit, she said it was useful to see the different teaching methods used in classes, it was also nice to talk to the children in their groups and the football team, to hear their different views. Mrs Irene Moore said she enjoyed the visits and hoped they were useful to the school, as there were no concerns within the school. Mr Richard Burbage explained that by Governors monitoring the school they could see for themselves how the school was working, how the children were, if they were happy, healthy and confident. How they interacted with Adults etc. Mrs Mary Fairman thanked Mr Richard Burbage for all his work in setting up the monitoring morning, and asked if another date could be set for the Summer Term, next monitoring visit is set for the morning on Thursday 11th June 2009. Governors need to decide what they want to focus on, Mrs Brona Jarvis to email Governors so they have their ideas ready for the next meeting to discuss.

12. REVIEW OF THE CLERKS HONORARIUM

Governors asked the Clerk if she claimed regularly for clerking and was she happy with the arrangement, Clerk stated that she claims regularly and that the arrangement works well.

13. PROGRESS ON A VISIBLE SIGN OF WRENINGHAM BEING A CHURCH SCHOOL

Mr Richard Burbage had contacted Mr Behm again about making an El Salvador Cross, Mr Behm was still interested in doing the project, he was very busy but would come back to the school with some ideas. The Governors wanted to move this project forward, so it was decided to give Mr Behm untill the week after Easter, then we would explore other avenues, like the Norwich Art School or Wymondham High Schools 6th form students.

14. GOVERNOR TRAINING

No training attended since the last meeting, Mr David Reeve was going to attend and IT conference but as he was unable to attend the meeting we do not have any feedback from this. Several Governors hope to attend courses in the future.

15. CORRESPONDENCE

A booklet on ‘Services to Schools 2009 -2010’

15. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Mr Richard Burbage wanted to inform Governors on the latest in connection with the Hall Floor. The first corner that rotted was patched up by NPS, the other corner has now rotted. NPS have been investigating, and the problem is caused by inadequate ventilation causing damp under the plastic flooring, making the floorboards

rot. Ventilation is also hampered by the level of the ground outside the hall being high up. It has been suggested by NPS to lift the flooring, concrete the floor and seal with a damp course membrane, then cover with hardboard and relay the flooring onto this, to stop the floor from continually rotting. The estimated cost of this is £14000, they suggested that the school pay 50% and they would pay the other 50%, when Mr Richard Burbage questioned this under the BMPP, which still covers the floor at present, he was told that the work was improvement not maintenance, so the school would incur a percentage of the cost. Mr Richard Burbage then went onto to talk to the Manager Mr Paul Kirman and after some discussion it was agreed that the school could pay just 25% of the costs, which would be about £3500. Mr Richard Burbage has spoken to Mr Paul Parfitt who suggested we look into insurance by the people who laid the floor originally, the architect who designed and agreed on the flooring, as it was laid 3 years ago, and the floor is not ‘Fit for Purpose’. There may be a possibility of chasing the cost on these grounds, it was NPS who organised the whole process and it was their architect.

Governors agreed the Budget for the next financial year and Mrs Mary Fairman signed ready to be sent to County.

16. CONFIDENTIALITY

No items deemed confidential

There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed.

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Chair

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