MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE FULL GOVERNING BODY
OF HAVANNAH PRIMARY SCHOOL ON 23rd NOVEMBER 2016
Governors Present: George Hayes (GH) Chair
Stef Williams (SW) Acting Head Teacher
Wendy Osbaldestin (WO)
Alex Thompson (AT)
Suzanne Hayes (SH)
Ann Holland (AH)
Ed O’Neill (EO’N)
Allison Bromley (AB)
Andy Farr (AF)
Clare Birdsall (CB)
Also in attendance: Maria Wilson (MW) Clerk to the Governors
Deb Ball (DB) School Business Manager
Kate Jones (KJ) Co-opted Governor Candidate
Andy Hodgkinson (AHd) Co-opted Governor Candidate
PART ONE – NON-CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS
ActionsKEEPING CHILDREN SAFE IN EDUCATION (KCSIE) PRESENTATION
SW distributed a Safeguarding Children in Education Settings document. It was agreed that governors needed a refresher session following minor changes in legislation.
The document identified the categories of abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect; managing a disclosure: receive, reassure, report and record; whistle blowing; keeping yourself safe as well: staff code of conduct, use of social media, use of mobile phones and the internet, pupil behaviour, intimate care and positive handling. SW outlined what Havannah School is doing to develop safeguarding
Governors were advised to do a full KCSIE training every three years.
The training can be done on line or the school will buy training in. The CE (Cheshire East) website was recommended for training and for its series of one minute guides to other issues: FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), Hate Crime and CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation). The CE website also has a one minute KCSIE summary too.
In the event of an OFSTED inspection governors could be asked about the school’s response to any of these issues.
SW has updated the school’s Safeguarding Policy using the CE guidance. From this an Action Plan has been created. Anyone can ask to read it.
SW and Miss Slater are the designated safeguarding leads in school.
GH Is the school’s Safeguarding Governor.
Action: To distribute the CE one minute KCSIE document to all governors
Action: To arrange a similar presentation for either SEND or PP before the Spring Term FGB
Action: To sign the KCSIE Part 1 document / SW
SW
All govs
SW introduced the three new people sitting at the table:
Andy Farr, the new Parent Governor
Andy Hodgkinson, prospective Co-opted Governor
Kate Jones, prospective Co-opted Governor
All individuals were accepted, and welcomed, to the governing body.
KJ left the meeting at this point – 1.05pm.
1 / APOLOGIES & ADDITIONAL AOB ITEMS
There were no apologies.
There was nothing to add for the Part 1 AOB.
SW asked where the Head Teacher’s report would be covered. It was agreed that it would be raised under Item 10.
Term dates also needed to be discussed for 2017-2018. It was discussed that Havannah normally follows the CECP (Congleton Education Community Partnership), especially Eaton Bank (EBA) dates.
2 / DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Governors were asked to declare any potential pecuniary interest or conflict of interests with the business to be discussed during the meeting. AHd, EO’N, GH and AT all stated that they were involved with other educational institutions but they did not conflict with the business discussed today.
Declaration of interest forms had been distributed prior to the meeting but AF, AT, CB, GH, AHd, GH, KJ and EO’N asked for a hard copy to sign.
Action: To send out a hard copy of the Declaration of Interest form to 8 governors / Clerk
3 / ELECTION OF CHAIR
It was acknowledged that this was a difficult situation: following the sudden death of Elizabeth Barrass.
No nominations had been received in advance of the meeting.
GH was nominated from the floor. There were no further nominations. The issue of GH already being Chair of Governors at Buglawton School was raised: would he be able to commit sufficient time to Havannah? Would there be a conflict of interest? GH had pre-empted this by discussing the situation with CE. No problems were foreseen. SW impressed on the governors that GH spends a lot of time at Havannah School and his commitment to issues at the school is good. It was agreed that GH would be appointed Chair of Governors for one year.
Action: To update the CE GATs page with the details / Clerk
4 / ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIR
No nominations had been received in advance of the meeting. AT was nominated from the floor.
Challenge: Should both the Chair and the Vice-Chair be employed by the LA/so heavily involved with the LA?
A: It was discussed that their experience would be invaluable to the governing body of the school.
It was agreed that AT would be appointed Vice-Chair of Governors for one year.
Action: To update the CE GATs page with the details / Clerk
5 / MEMBERSHIP
Andy Farr was welcomed as Parent Governor for a four year term.
Kate Jones was welcomed as Co-opted Governor. She is Elizabeth Barrass’ daughter. Kate is a teacher and specialises in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
Andy Hodgkinson was welcomed as Co-opted Governor. He is a former Primary Head Teacher and Chair of ECAPH (East Cheshire Association of Primary Headteachers)
CB will be on maternity leave from early February. A new staff governor election needs to be held.
Action: To organise a Staff Governor election
There are no terms of office that are due to expire before the next FGB in Spring.
Deb Ball, the School Business Manager, was appointed as an associate member to the FGB and Leadership & Management Committee with full voting rights for a further 12 months. / DB
6 / PART ONE MINUTES AND MATTES ARISING FROM THEM
There were a couple of amendments made before the minutes were accepted as a correct record of the meeting held on 20th June 2016, were signed by the Chair and kept in school.
Amendments:
· Part 4: the last sentence needs to be corrected to scan properly
· Part 4: not to be followed up
· Part 23: correct to read ‘PTA funded Creative Play’
· In Part 2 replace the name Kitson with Oram.
Actions: All amendments to be made
A review of the Action Log took place. Most actions had been completed. The following actions were carried forward:
· An analysis of trip costs for 2014/5 will now become an analysis of trip costs for 2015/6 – DB to do
· The Capital Bids window is now open – however Havannah School is unlikely to apply for any funding as the school buildings are sound
· The Impact statement needs to be written – GH to do
· DBS/CRB checks still need to be done for GH,EO’N, AF, AHd, KJ – DB to do with the relevant individuals
DB informed the governors that encrypted USB memory sticks were being used instead of encrypting laptops.
DB informed governors that the Constitutional Finance Report was available if anyone wanted to look at it.
SW informed governors that there had been a few repercussions regarding the uniform changes but nothing of any significance. / Clerk
7 / CHAIR’S ACTION
The Chair had not needed to take any action since the previous FGB.
8 / COMMITTEES & NOMINATED GOVERNORS
a) Most people chose to remain on their current committee. However AB requested a move from T&L (Teaching & Learning) to L&M (Leadership & Management). It was agreed that the Pay Committee would come under the remit of L&M. GH had checked the legitimacy of this with CE. This way, if an Appeals Committee needed to meet, there would be sufficient governors to be used.
Action: To send the current committee structure to all governors to allow the three new members to choose which committee they would be most effective working on
b) The appointment of a chair for each committee was delegated to the relevant committee.
c) Each committee would review its list of delegated functions. The FGB approved these in principle. The FGB agreed that Pay would appear as an appendix to L&M.
d) Terms of reference (ToR) used by the committees were standard practice, following the CE models.
Action: To circulate updated ToRs to the relevant committee members
e) To review the ToR for the Pupil Discipline Committee, Staff Disciplinary/Dismissal Committee and Staff Appeals Committee
Action: To find and circulate these documents
f) AT and GH will form the Acting Head Teacher’s Performance Management Panel, with WO involved for the mid-term appraisal. Steve Williams will continue to be the External Adviser.
g) Link Governors: this item led to much discussion. Allocating a governor to a year group had a mixed response but some governors liked being able to track a year group. The value of subject Link Governors was emphasised by all governors. It was agreed to run the two systems parallel: year links and subject links. The following decisions were made:
Governor / Link Year / Link Subject
Andy Farr / Year 4 / PE
Suzanne Hayes / Year 2 / RE
Ann Holland / Year 1 / Reading
Ed O’Neill / Year 6 / Writing
Andy Hodgkinson / Year 5 / Maths
Wendy Osbaldestin / ICT, Art & DT
Allison Bromley / Geography, History & MFL
Alex Thompson / Reception / Music & Performing Arts &
PHSE
George Hayes / Year 3 / Science
Kate Jones / SEND & Safeguarding
/ GH
Clerk
Clerk
9 / GOVERNOR’S CHARTER
This document had been distributed before the meeting.
All governors signed the document and it was kept by the Clerk for the file.
10 / PART ONE REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES, AND REPORTS FROM GOVERNORS WITH SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Minutes from the Teaching and Learning Committee meeting on 6.10.16 were circulated in advance of the meeting.
The key points from the T&L committee were:
· To note the development of school training and outreach work
· Discussion of a Homework Policy and where to pitch it
· Raising KCSIE
· Prefiguring the RAISE data
Minutes from the Leadership and Management Committee on 12.10.16 were circulated in advance of the meeting.
The key points from the L&M committee were:
· To note a positive year end budget balance
· Discussion of the Pre-School situation
Minutes from the Pay Committee meeting on 31.10.16 were circulated in advance of the meeting.
The key points from the Pay committee were:
· To receive an anonymised and validated pay award document from the Acting Head Teacher
· To agree the Acting Head Teacher’s performance related pay award.
There were no other reports
There were no recommendations requiring the approval of the governing body
The Head Teacher’s Report, which had been distributed before the meeting, was discussed here.
· SW highlighted the SDP key priorities on page 3. Behind each statement is an individual action plan with detail of how to achieve the priority.
Challenge: How does the school report its progress against this document?
A: There is a termly update. The end column is then RAG rated.
Challenge: This is a retrospective assessment, what is done to move the school forward?
A: The individual action plans behind each point are the forward planning documents.
Challenge: Some are subject linked: how do Link Governors know what relates to their subject?
A: Governors will receive the specific action plans to assist their monitoring of the subject.
Action: To send the relevant action plans to Link Governors
· The Outcomes For Learners section highlights key threads and summaries for governors.
· The quality of teaching and learning section highlights the three key developments of the year: introducing the Read, Write inc programme; CPD (Continuing Professional Development) to develop subject leadership and the Town Inset looking at ‘Growth Mindsets’.
· All school policies have now been checked by SH and are ready to go to second committee meetings on the 8th and 14th December 2016.
Action: To add an item reviewing ToR on the L&M and T&L agenda for December
· SW thanked Mr Coppenhall and Mr Hill for repainting the entrance hall and one of the classrooms, for putting up noticeboards and altering the cupboard space to make a good learning space. This has saved the school a lot of money. It was agreed that the school was lucky to have the two gentlemen. There is still a wall to be removed but that is more complex and three quotes are still being sought.
· Pupil Premium (PP) – CB has redone all of the new provision.
Challenge: Is the RAISE information on the school website?
A: It is.
· Finance: thanks to DB for her report. The school is no longer facing a deficit budget. Instead it has a surplus of £12.4K.
Challenge: What will the school fund be spent on?
A: Nothing has been earmarked yet.
· Other schools have been to observe Havannah’s catering. School meal uptake is up to 81%. Congratulations were extended to the kitchen staff. / SW
Clerk
11 / FINANCIAL MATTERS
· The Governing Body retrospectively agreed to the provision of clerking services from CE
· The SFVS (School Financial Value Standards) form is complete. Thanks were extended to SH, WO and DB. The document was passed to GH to be signed off. The school is aiming for a rating of ‘good’. This is a possibility as the document has been fully evidenced and school budget controls are ‘good’ moving forwards.
· The Best Value Statement, the Statement of Internal Control and the Scheme of Financial Delegation are all complete but are to be delegated to the next L&M meeting for approval.