Noadswood School
Governing Body
School Improvement Committee
13 March 2013
MINUTES
Governors Present:
Val Cacchi VC
Matthew Hewitt MH
Carolyn Millar CM
Alison Minden (Chair of SI Committee) AM
Mike Roberts MR
Jim Watt JW
In Attendance:
Sally Callander (Clerk) SC
Steven Pike SP
Eddie Stephenson ES
Apologies:
Bruce Downie
Tracy Gates
Alan McElevey
Absent:
Jackie Rapson JR
The meeting opened at 5.07pm
Agenda Item / Action1 / Apologies for Absence
AM welcomed SP and ES and each governor introduced themselves.
2 / Declarations of Personal Interest
None declared.
3 / Approval of Minutes of last SI Committee Meeting on 23 January 2013
These were unanimously agreed and signed by the Chair.
4 / Matters Arising
4.1 / None were declared
5 / Update on Navig8(previously Item 6 on the Agenda)
5.1 / ES showed a presentation outlining how Navig8 works and a paper copy of the slideshow was distributed to governors at the meeting.
ES explained the differences between Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) and Project Based Learning (PBL) and how these systems were being used in the classroomplus how Navig8 has evolved over the last three years. Currently ES is gathering data to see how Navig8 has helped pupils study Geography, History and RS and this evidence will show how Navig8 has helped the pupils learning of these subjects.
AM asked how Navig8 was started and ES explained how they used the help of Bristol University to start Navig8. There is also still limited contact with Bristol University on a termly basis.
JW asked if there was demand from other schools. ES confirmed that the Vyne School had shown interest.
AM asked if other subjects would come on board with Navig8. ES confirmed that they had worked with Art (NaviArt) but progress was slow, as Art does not have as much curriculum time as History, Geography and RS.
MH confirmed that he was looking at other subjects such as Science and possibly ICT that could use enquiry-based learning. ES stated it was important to establish a common and consistent language for learning in any subject and Navig8 helps to achieve this.
CM asked if there was any overlap in the project qualification. ES confirmed that there was overlap but Navig8 was more structured and the project qualification was more independent. Current Year 11 undertaking project qualification would not have had the benefit of Navig8.
CM felt that Navig8 would be of benefit to pupils who had little support at home as it would teach them the skills needed for EBL therefore levelling the playing field between them and their peers who did have the parental support at home.
5.1.1 / JW talked about his visit to a couple of Navig8 lessons. He amazed at the level of the noise in the classroom as each child was going about its learning. Pupils had to ask questions themselves rather than simply sit in the classroom and listen to the teacher talk for the whole lesson. Pupils are critiquing each others work and accepting both praise and criticism and were getting comfortable with doing this. JW thought that pupils learned a lot about themselves during the lesson; each pupil was fully engaged in what they were doing.
JW commented that although he was not a teacher, he felt that the learning methods in Navg8 were excellent and the buzz in the classroom was good.
JW said that Navig8 should be shown outside of Noadswood and understood that ES visited Waterside school to teach Navig8 to Year 5’s.
AM asked what age would be appropriate to start the Navig8 process. ES explained that she felt Year 5 was about right. MH mentioned that although we have the freedom of teaching methods, we still have to use the National Curriculum in order for pupils to attain their GCSE’s in Year 11.
MH explained that because was Navig8 was an enquiry based learning, pupils have to use the Library for their research. The Library is in use 80% of the school daynow, which makes it slightly difficult to expand Navig8 too much further at this stage.
JY stated to ES that he had an enjoyable afternoon and was grateful to ES for the experience.
A copy of the slideshow and the booklet that ES handed out is to be attached to the Minutes.
ES was thanked for her contribution this evening and she left at 5.55pm. / AM
6 / Raise Online Review of Data (previously Item 5 on the Agenda)
6.1 / SP talked through a slideshow called ‘The Hidden Good News’.
We have a lower than expected Value Added Score of 999.6. Data shows our FSM and SEN pupils are under performing. SP found this odd so wanted to investigate further. His investigations revealed that we had 5 pupils in last year’s Year 11 who were FSM and SEN but spent very little time at school. One pupil only attended school for the first 3 days of Year 7. One pupil came to us from another school for the final two terms of Year 11 One pupil was only with us for 15 months and the other two pupils were referred to the Forest Education Centre for the last two years of their education. All five pupils remained on Noadswood’s School register.
CM asked if this was typical of all schools across the country. SP explained that it could be possible that other Schools have the same problem. MH explained that these 5 pupils were both FSM and SEN and were all in one Year group, which may not be typical in any other school across the country. These 5 pupils were beyond the schools and any other agencies control.
MH also explained that Government were not in favour of permanent exclusion of pupils from school at the moment.
SP explained that he then removed these five pupils from the RaiseOnline Data (MH explained that we had a strong case to put to Ofsted in order to do this) and the Value Added Scorerose to 1005.8.
SP explained the slides entitled ‘how the picture has changed’, with these five pupils removed. The results show a more accurate reflection on how much work is being done in school to help our FSM and SEN pupils. We are now beginning to look at ways of helping our more vulnerable Year 10’s and 11’s, possibly finding work placements or Brockenhurst College for sports/mechanical placements.
CM asked where we were with the gap. There is a recent letter from DFE stating that converter Academies have done significantly worse than others in Hampshire. SP explained that pupil’s GCSE results depend on what level they came into secondary education at, it also depends on what ‘measure’ Ofsted use for example, Pupils coming to secondary school with a Level 3 in English and Maths will get a grade D in GCSE if they continue to make expected progress throughout Secondary school. They will notget a grade C GCSE if they are making expected progress. If a pupil comes to secondary with Level 4 in Maths and English, it will depend on if it’s a level 4L (lower), 4M (middle) or 4U (upper) as to whether the pupil will be able to make expected progress. For example there is only a 50% chance of a pupil making expected progress if they cometo Secondary school with a level 4L, whereas if they have a 4U, there is an 80% chance of them making expected progress.
SP confirmed that there was funding available for those pupils who come to Secondary school with lower than a level 4.
SP explained that last year 44% of our FSM pupils achieved 5 GCSE’s at A* to C (including English and Maths) level, the national average was 33%. Last year bears no resemblance on our figures this year which is why we needed to investigate this. There are reasons why the results are very different this year (the five pupils not attending Noadswood but on our register) and we will be able to explain this to Ofsted and show them evidence to support our findings.
SP said that after Easter he will be able to give each governor a booklet explaining the evidence he has put together so that when they talk to Ofsted, they can explain how the money is being spent and show them evidence that we are a good school.
SP gave the governors a username and password so that they could access RaiseOnline themselves and look through the information that SP has put together,
JW asked why FSM pupils elsewhere in the country are doing better than Hampshire. AM and MH felt there were several reasons – cultural (Asian FSM pupils will work significantly harder), work ethic of families etc.
MH showed the governors a SIMS database where information is stored for each pupil.Information on various cohorts can be seen for example, groups of pupils and their grades, classes and their progress, groups of boys or girls, teachers etc. This database, although slow to run sometimes, is live, so results are immediate and up to date.
There is a meeting coming up with the governors who are likely to be called to talk to Ofsted, SP confirmed that he would be happy to talk to governors at any time about Ofsted visit if they had questions.
JW asked if the education system knows the difference between FSM uptake and FSM entitlement. MH explained that Ofstedknows there is a disparity - there is reluctance for parents to fill out the form. There is a stigma attached to FSM, we are lucky at Noadswood because we have a cashless system so the FSM pupil doesn’t stand out or have to stand at the front of the queue. All schools have huge difficulties reducing thestigma of FSM but every school in the countrywill have this issue. CM said that in some Juniorschools FSM was seen as a positive as the FMS child is eligible for funding for trips and after school clubs. MH explained that in Noadswood, teachers who are organising trips approach House Leaders with a list of names of pupils who are being invited to go on the trips and then House Leaders then chat to each FMS pupil and their family and encourage them to go on the trip having explained that there is funding available.
CM asked if we are getting double-funding for pupils who fall into more than one category eg FSM and Forces. MH explained that he was unsure where the government got their data from as sometimes Noadswood gets more funding than was claimed.
CM asked if there were any further questions.SP was thanked for his time and he left the meeting at 6.38pm
7 / Overview of School Development Plan
7.1 / KS3 development was covered in the Navig8 session earlier in the meeting. KS4 was touched on briefly earlier in the meeting when we spoke about what we were doing with our disengaged pupils. Paul Banasik (a teacher at Noadswood) has taken on a new role looking at other options for vulnerable KS4 pupils.
7.2 / Luke Wells has ideas on how to develop the ICT system using a company called BlueChip. Luke met with some Governors a while ago to discuss progress.
7.3 / Library is now needed as a classroom 80% of the school day, so development been slow due.We need to see how many classes there are next year before further development is made
CM asked if we had extra funding now that we are an Academy. Sarah Staley will know the answer to this. / SS
8 / Results of Ofsted questionnaires from Parents Evening
MH talked through the slideshow showing the results of questionnaires received from parents evening for Year 8, 9, 10 and 11. Year 7 parents evening is next week.
MH will give a copy of the slide show to AM / MH
9 / Any Other Notified Business
None
15 / Date of Next Meeting:
Wednesday 24th April 2013 at 5pm
The meeting closed at 7.05pmpm
Minutes Approved by……………………………………………
Position……………………………………………………………
Signature………………………………………………………….
Date………………………………………………………………..