Annual Report of the Governing Body of Princecroft Primary School, June 2017

Welcome to the Annual report of our school’s Governing Body 2016-17. It is not mandatory to produce a report of this kind but we feel it is important to keep you our parents, and other stakeholders, informed of our work for the school.

The Governing Body has three core functions:

1. Setting Strategic Direction – at Princecroft we believe that every child matters and our School Improvement Plan is designed to ensure that all children reach their potential through a broad and balanced curriculum which is fully inclusive and inspires our learners to become informed, active responsible citizens.

2. Creating robust accountability – this involves scrutiny of evidence provided by school and sourced independently in order to provide challenge and hold school leaders to account for teaching, achievement, behaviour and safety. Some of this work is delegated to specific committees, each with their own clearly defined terms of reference, and then reported to the full Governing Body on a termly basis. The Governing Body contributes to the School Self-evaluation and also evaluates its’ own impact.

3. Ensuring best use of financial resources - tighter budgets are affecting many of us at work and at home and for the school too it has never been more important to ensure that we make the most effective use of our resources.

The Governing Body code of practice sets out the principles by which we function. Main themes are listed below.

Our role is strategic rather than operational. This means the day to day running of the school is the responsibility of the Head teacher and not the Governors.

We work as a team and are only able to make decisions individually if the Governing body has delegated the task to an individual. In very limited circumstances the Chair can take emergency action but then has to inform the Governing body as soon as possible. We agree as Governors to commit the significant time and energy required including preparation for and attendance at meetings.

In the last school year, we met as a Full Governing Body (FGB) 5 times. We have all noted and signed the Governor's Code of Conduct, and have agreed the committee structure of the Governing Body. We have these structures in place to ensure that the various legal responsibilities of the FGB are in place. Minutes of the meetings are available for parents to see, once they have been agreed by the FGB. At each FGB we have a Headteacher's report, which highlights the ways in which the school is progressing. We have a Teaching and Learning and a Resources Committee to look more closely at the running of the school and feed back to the Full Governing Body meeting.

We have named Governors who have responsibility for certain areas of the school. These include Safeguarding, Health and Safety, Special Needs Provision, Pupil Premium and Curriculum Evaluation. We also visit the school and interview children who tell us about their lessons, often in enthusiastic detail. We are also involved in the Headteacher's performance management and have a Pay Committee.

Minutes of the meetings are available for parents to see, once they have been agreed by the FGB. Some of the highlights of the year have been:

·  Appointment of New Deputy Headteacher .

·  Introduction and implementation of a phonic scheme Sounds-Write.

·  Implementation of Talk for Writing.

·  High quality staff training with several visits to Outstanding Schools.

·  A visit to The Houses of Parliament by Ks 2 Children.

·  A visit by Mr Andrew Murrison MP.

·  Year 6 pupils singing in the O2 Arena.

·  A successful Open Day for Parents and the community.

·  The creation of Early Years Outside area.

·  Improvement of the School environment through gardening projects.

·  A successful Christmas and Summer Fete.

·  An art week.

We are delighted to see the children of Princecroft growing in confidence and in all that they learn within the school.

Mrs Molly Johnston (Chair of Governors)

Governing Body June 2017

Mr Nick Andrew(Co-opted Governor) Mr Michael Park (Headteacher) Mrs Sue Allen (Local Authority Governor) Mrs Fiona Thomas(The Clerk to the Governors)Mrs Natasha Colliss (Parent Governor) Mrs Jenna Jackson(Parent Governor) Mrs S Winney (Staff Governor) Molly Johnston ( Chair, Co-opted Governor) Mrs Mary Murray (Vice chair, Co-opted Governor) Mrs Michelle Finnigan (Co-opted Governor)