Norfolk County Council

NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL

FRAMINGHAM EARL HIGH SCHOOL

There will be a meeting of the Governors of FEHS on 19th October 2016

at 16.00 p.m.

MINUTES

ALL GOVERNORS PRESENT CONFIRMED THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE ANY INTERESTS TO DECLARE IN ANY ITEMS ON THE AGENDA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DUTY IMPOSED BY SECTION 16 OF THE SCHOOL GOVERNANCE (ROLES, PROCEDURES AND ALLOWANCES) (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 2013

1. / Welcome Roger Margand, Trudy Musgrove, Nicola Furneaux, Helen Otter, Tim Taylor, Jason Hodgkiss and John Gordon (absent 17:30 – 17:55).
Other: Arthur VandenBergh, Gareth Yassin, Julie Wilson, Peter Porter (guest), James Edwards (item 6 only) and Deborah Steele (Clerk).
Apologies: Terry Roberts, Ray Sykes, Alison Randall and Liz Humphrey.
Quorate.
RM introduced Peter Porter to the Meeting as a potential co-opted governor; Peter replied to a recent advertisement in the local Parish magazine. PP provided to governors a resume of his knowledge and experience as an engineer, teacher and governor (currently at a local Primary School). PP advised he was a teacher and governor at Fram Earl and taught until his retirement in 2010. PP advised his children attended Fram and went on to the Hewitt School and are now adults.
RM advised PP is attending tonight to meet governors and see how the business in conducted with a view to applying to join as a co-opted governor.
2. / Register of Business Interests:
Reminder.
3. / Minutes of the meeting held on 28th September 2016

Amendment to Item 6:
JG asked if there was a difference between English literature and language. GY advised not.
Amended to read GY advised there was a 4% difference in attainment in literature above language.
Subject to amendment proposed agreement and signature seconded and all agreed.
4. / Matters arising from Minutes 280916
Was item 4
1)  Code of Conduct signature of schedule – RM asked for all to read to sign. ACTION AR, RS, EH and TT to sign.
2)  Prevent training certificates – ACTION Certificates required from TT, NF (date of certificate), HO and JH.
3)  DfE provision of information.
RM asked governors to read the document and the Clerk reminded governors of the details that are recorded on the School Web site in relation to governors. / ACTION
AR, RS, EH and TT
5. / Science (ISA results) and Student Progress Report Year Group 10 & 11 including PP
TM highlighted from the document circulated in advance:
·  Science ISAs improved last year in comparison to the exams overall.
NF advised the improvement occurred to the detriment of other Departments for example, food technology. NF advised this year work is ongoing to prevent that re occurring.
·  ISAs will take place after the Christmas holiday due to the need to ensure the new technicians have completed induction.
NF advised the new Technician team will run across Departments and will deliver a more flexible quality provision.
·  GCSE results – triple science cohort improved on the previous year but the core and additional science was more disappointing
·  At the previous meeting governors discussed how to improve this.
·  Monitoring will take place later when progress data is available.
GY confirmed attention is now on Core and Additional science and due to the makeup of the cohort the progress will not be as great. NF advised the results from the exams taken last year (while in Year 9) which will carry forward to RAISE on line.
GY confirmed the challenge made in the Lead Governors Report raises progress and this will be analysed at a future meeting with TM.
TT asked how much more needs to be done with regard to science. GY advised the Department is in a strong position with stable staffing and this results in improved communication. The change is needed around students’ belief in themselves and those with lower prior attainment require the most work.
NF advised there is also a new curriculum and this requires additional work; from next year ISAs will no longer take place.
ACTION GY update science data report to TM at FGB Jan/Feb 17 and TM lead challenge.
RM thanked GY and TM.
JG noted the data and gaps as this is also evident in his English and maths report.
NF advised only 10 girls have elected for Triple Science and the initial thoughts of the Department is that it is due to the amount of work changes made to the curriculum involved; pupils had advance notice start the GCSE course during the second half of their Year 9 Science lessons. NF confirmed the questions need to be asked of the students to find out why.
GY advised there is additional science input for girls in Year 8 and 9 which may reverse this in future years.
TM noted the work that has been done to improve the gender gap for boys and this may be affected in future by the (low) number of girls.
TT also noted that this implies the girls have elected other topics.
GY confirmed he will make enquiries regarding the imbalance and in particular why the girls did not proceed with Triple Science and what subjects they have selected. ACTION GY report back.
TM asked if this was boy heavy year 10. GY advised there are 118 Year 10 pupils, 56% boy 44% girls.
NF noted taking Triple Science limits choice as to other subjects and as a result an extra History group was offered in another timetabling block; to offset the risk of limiting options a dummy run is conducted so that pupils can raise any issues. NF confirmed SLT were not made aware of any conflict by students.
JH noted that the Head of Science did not attend the Options evening to give a presentation and this may have affected numbers as he did the two previous years.
NF agreed this needs to be rectified. / ACTION GY
ACTION GY
6. / Report on SIDP 6
TT advised the Report was completed by JW and discussed before the meeting and highlighted:
·  The encouraging over view.
·  There is a target for Year 8 to ensure behaviour is as good as rest of the school.
JW advised that behaviour in the current Year 8 cohort is a County wide issue and not limited to Fram Earl and this is born out in PEX’s across the County.
·  Positive Learning Walk outcomes.
JW advised the Walks were done by JW and AV-B and the notes made are a reflection of what was seen; checklists are not used.
JW advised the student response to the change to sets (smaller class sizes) has now settled and no changes have been made to the Form groups.
JW advised:
·  There is still work to be done to improve facilities in the outside space available at lunch time and work is ongoing with the School Council to help improve behaviour at lunchtime; to date only 3 lunch time isolations have been put in place.
·  There are plans to provide further lunch time support and the Behaviour Project is paying dividends with regard to developing a culture of a purposeful use of time and space.
TT asked about Taboo. JW advised a new team is taking a proactive stance with plans to conduct assemblies, support Year 7 students and develop understanding of consequences of poor behaviour.
GY advised the new Year 7 do not present the same issues and are very different.
NF advised it is good for the school to have a year group with challenges and the Year 8 students should not give the School too much cause for concern. NF stated the plans and interventions for this cohort will have applications to other groups of young people in terms of what is the best intervention.
TM asked why progress for some groups of boys is dropping as they enter Fram with the same level of attainment as girls; would this be an area to consider. NF advised this is exactly what is being looked at and specifically recruiting boys is a focus for some initiatives.
AV-B advised not to have the wrong impression of the Year group as it is a small percentage but larger than seen previously. JW advised the students are being given a voice and involved in the process and provided with opportunities to understand the impact of their behaviour.
TT asked about the Erasmus Project. GY advised there is a document on the Hub to inform governors.
JW advised there are links to the developing Aspirations database and the information given was very informative to develop plans.
TT noted the improvement in uniform. JW advised it was not easy to engage everyone but there has been a positive response; information with regard to uniform is linked to the behaviour database along with all other concerns.
TT asked if there is provision for students whose families may struggle to afford changes. JW advised personalised support is provided.
RM asked for consideration to be given to building links between governors and Taboo.
ACTION JW to look at how this could be brought into a future FGB meeting
RM asked about Clubs.
AV-B advised details are on the school web site.
RM asked if there are any gaps in provision. AV-B advised there are 30+ clubs for Year 7 alone; some are available for older year groups.
RM asked about Enterprise.
AV-B advised:
·  The Year 11 students had a delivery from Jarrold Training and students were invited to take part in interviews conducted by local business people.
·  30 students have applied and will attend the interviews (date tbc).
·  Year 10 students were offered the opportunity to run two projects, one to make a presentation to a Business Group (November 16) and following this Business Mentors will be allocated to individual students and the support will continue through to next year.
·  The second part is the Fram Fest project involving a series of events for school
JG absent for his item (left at 17:30) still quorate.
James Edwards attended to present a Report on the Behaviour Project, completed during his SLT internship (see document shared at meeting) and highlighted:
·  All students are aware of the process.
·  Feedback from staff has been very positive and staff are engaged using Bromcom as benefits are now evident and information on action taken being fed back to staff.
·  Students are taking responsibility not to reach the limit of 3 negative marks and the initial number of students on report is reducing.
·  The process will be added to the Behaviour Policy after feedback has been taken into account and a decision made as to whether the 3+ marks in the correct measure.
·  Student attitude to learning has improved and is one ingredient to make behaviour outstanding.
NF advised the bar is set high. JE advised low level disruption has been addressed and after the first term the incidence of teacher logging behaviour (positive and negative) will be reviewed.
·  PP homework issues will be highlighted in the reports.
TM asked if the “name on the board” process will continue. JE advised this will continue however the bar is high enough that the fact the name is on the board will result in the entry on Bromcom.
·  Tutors have the information to hand to inform discussions.
·  Common theme from other schools is to build consistent use of the system by staff.
HO advised the use of detentions has had a positive impact upon student attitudes.
RM asked if there is consistency around what results in a negative mark. JE advised some students have fed back that hard to achieve a 4 (positive) mark from some teachers.
NF advised providing opportunities to staff to talk about this will help.
TM asked if the information is available to parents on the web system. JW advised it is.
·  Four Report categories including a Subject Report; negative marks in one subject alone should not result in being on Report generally as interventions should be put in place, although persistent poor behaviour in one subject will result in a student being placed on Subject Report. So far, no child has been placed on this Report.
NF advised this must support the view no individual subject is an area of concern with regard to behaviour.
·  The system encourages discussion and opportunities to engage parents and explore avenues to address issues.
·  Assembly topics such as self-esteem assists pupils to recognise issues that may impact upon learning.
JG returned at 17:55.
TM asked if students are aware of the system. JE confirmed they are.
GY advised action is taken quickly if it is clear students will be on Report at the end of the two week period; students are not made to wait until the end of the period for the escalation under the policy to occur.
Note PSP = Pastoral Support Plan
HO asked if the process can be used outside the classroom. JE advised social time should be a separate discussion. JW advised this is a Guidance Team discussion.
RM thanked JE and complimented the system and results. / ACTION JW
7. / PP Lead Governor report on
a) financial review progress/impact and VFM and b) analysis & case studies
JG highlighted from the document on G Hub and updated 191016:
·  The spend is reducing the attainment gap between PP and non PP students
·  See document for % attainment and gap - noted as significant changes to the positive compared to previous years.
·  The range of the data provides the evidence the interventions are working.
·  Case studies highlight good attendance is the factor which impacts upon progress and is a focus for the future.