Full Governing Body Meeting Minutes

FULL GOVERNING BODY MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday 19th September 2017 at 7.00 pm

at Reigate Parish Church Primary School, Blackborough Road, Reigate, RH2 7DB

Present: Duncan Barkwith (DB) (Chair – as of item 3 in this agenda)

Katie Cornish (KC)

Frances Davis (FD) (Head)

Alex Foster (AF)

Joanna Goddard (JG)

Bryan Ingleby (BI)

Sarah Kennedy (SK)

Claire MacBride (CM)

Anna Randall (AR)

Mike Shaw (MS)

Alasdair Wylie (AW)

In attendance: Claire Tait (CT) (Clerk)

Actions
The meeting started at 7pm with a tour of the new Junior Block
1 / APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE(Statutory)
a)Apologies were received and accepted from Matthew Wrighton and Helen Fraser
2 / DECLARATION OF INTEREST(Statutory)
a)CT confirmed that all Register of Interest forms had been completed by Governors and there were no specific declarations of interest for this meeting.
3 / APPOINTMENTS FOR THE EDUCATIONAL YEAR 2017-2018
The Governors unanimously voted for the following appointments to be made:
Statutory Appointments
a) Chair (Duncan Barkwith)
b) Vice-Chair (Anna Randall)
c) Governor responsible for liaison with the LA in the event of allegation
(Child Protection) against Headteacher (Duncan Barkwith)
Governors agreed that the following appointments remain the same as last year:
Nominated Governors - highly recommended and other appointments
Nominated governors with responsibility for:
d) Child Protection/Safeguarding – Joanna Goddard (Already appointed)
e) Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) – Anna Randall (Already appointed)
f) Looked after Children (LAC) – Anna Randall (Already appointed)
4 / COMMITTEES (Statutory)
a) Governors approved membership of committees
b) Governors agreedthe Terms of Reference with the following amendments; references to ‘Bursar’ to be changed to ‘School Business Manager’ and references to ‘RaiseOnline’ to be changed to ‘ASP’.
c) Governors agreed the membership of the Headteacher’s Appraisal Panel will remain the same as last year.
d) Governors agreed membership of Pay Committee and Pay Appeals Panel, with KC filling the vacancy on the Pay Appeals Panel.
e) Governors appointedMS as the EYFS Governor. / CT
5 / CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNING BODY(Statutory)
Governors were made aware of the following vacancies and end of office term:
Vacancies:One Foundation PCC Governor
FD informed Governors that she met with HF to discuss finding a new Foundation Governor. They have agreed to wait for the results of this year’s skills audit to identify the specific skills required of the new Governor. The ideal would be to have someone in place by the November FGB.
SK asked if a member of staff can be a foundation Governor.
Action: CT to check if staff can be appointed as a Foundation Governor.
End of Term of Office 2017/2018 academic year:
Alex Foster – Parent Governor – 2nd December 2017
Joanna Goddard – Staff Governor - 7th June 2018
AF has indicated that she will step down as Governor when her term of office ends. CT has started looking at the process of appointing a new parent governor (see item 10) / CT
6 / EMERGENCY PROCEDURES (Statutory)
Governors checked that the emergency contact information for the school is up to date.
Action: CT tosend the Emergency Contact Information to Surrey County Council (Schools Support Service). / CT
7 / GOVERNORS’ DETAILS: contact information and publication of data
Contact Information for Governors
Governors verified their contact details are correct.
8 / PROCEDURAL MATTERS
a)Code of Conduct – It was agreed to update the paragraph regarding suspension of a governor in line with the most recent statutory guidance to the following:

We the Governing Body in determining whether to remove, rather than suspend a governor will make reference to the School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 and statutory guidance issued in August 2017 in considering whether:

-There have been repeated grounds for suspension
-Serious misconduct has occurred which either threatens to bring the school, Governing Body or Governance into disrepute
-There has been serious or repeated failure to contribute meaningfully to the effectiveness of governance at the school, such as non- attendance at meetings, not engaging in training or not participating in meetings.
-They have engaged in conduct aimed at undermining British values.
-The actions of the governor are sufficiently detrimental and compromise the operational efficiency of the school.
All Governor signed the Code of Conduct
b)Open or Closed Meetings –governors agreed that meetings be closed.
Governors discussed other ways in which parents can engage with them, ideas included:
-Through FD and DB
-Through Parish Post
-Through the parent governors
c)Alternative Participation/Voting Arrangements –governors agreedthat meeting attendance has not been an issue in the past, and that attendance should always be the first choice. Governors did not want to rule out the possibility of phoning into a meeting in exceptional circumstances, and would deal with this on a case by case situation.
d)Professional Negligence Statement –Governors agreed to record the following professional negligence statement at the end of each set of minutes: Advice given by governors at this school is incidental to their professional expertise and is not being given in their professional capacity.
e)Confidentiality Statement - Governors agreed to record the following statement at the end of each set of minutes: Governors respect the confidential nature of discussions and do not disclose governor business or decisions. When minutes of governing body meetings, Part 1, are approved they are made available to any member of the public who requests sight of them.
9 / MINUTES (if appropriate)
The minutes of the FGB meeting on 12.06.17 were signedas an accurate record.
10 / MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
FD reported to the Governors that the Primary Assessment Consultation had been an interesting exercise and that there had been a good number of responses from schools around the country. There had also been a quick response to the consultation. One of the outcomes from it is that the way writing assessment in Year 2 is carried out has changed slightly in that they are no longer required to include exclamation sentences.
a)Governors Development Plan
Governors were invited to vote for what they thought should be the top three targets to focus on in this academic year. This resulted in 3 clear areas: Workforce, finance and teaching and learning.
The targets which will be focused on are as follows:
Workforce

Recruit and retain a talented and committed workforce
Ensure management structures are in place to support senior leadership, both teaching and admin
Retain highly capable and supported senior leadership

Finance

Ensure strong budgetary and financial management, both day to day and through the expansion
Develop the Governors’ fund as a sustainable source of additional financial support to the school

Teaching and Learning

Retain the school’s Outstanding rating
Promote the school’s values and ensure it retains its distinctive culture as it grows.

Action:
BI to collate the GDP and prepare it ready for discussion at the November FGB
CT to ensure the GDP is on the November agenda, allowing 30 minutes of discussion time.
b)Protocol for Parent Governor election
CT advised the GB of the protocol for electing a new parent Governor as follows:

Best practice is to have clearly published recruitment literature setting out the core functions of the GB, the role of the governor, the expectations in relation to the term of office, frequency of meetings and the willingness to undertake the appropriate training and development as well as any specific skills or experience that would be desirable in a new governor, or the willingness to learn
A letter and nomination form is then sent to all registered parents/carers
A closing date for the receipt of nominations should be specified.
If only one person is nominated the school can appoint this person. If more than one nomination is received a ballot must be held.
A letter is then sent to every parent/carer eligible to vote, accompanied by a ballot paper, an unmarked envelope and a pre-printed envelope.
As soon as possible after the specified date and Returning Officer (Head or COG) will organise the count (as set out in the Babcock guidance)
The date of appointment should be the day following the end date of the outgoing parent governor.

MS offered to put together a recruitment kit.
Action: MS to put together a recruitment kit for new governors
Action: CT to put together the required timeline for the process of appointing a Parent governor by December 3rd
Action: CT to organise updates for the Parish Post prior to half term to inform parents of the process. / BI
CT
MS
CT
11 / CHAIR’S ACTION (statutory)
The flat tenancy
Since the last FGB (20th July) the flat tenant handed in his month’s notice to leave. His departure went smoothly, £150 of his deposit was retained to fix the oven.
Hamptons valued the market rent between £850 and £950 per month, but the decision was made to offer the rent at £800 per month due to the unusual and sometimes difficult location of the flat. Jose (school caretaker) had previously shown interest in renting this flat with a friend and was offered the opportunity to do so. It was made clear to him that this rental is in no way linked to his job in the school and the rental agreement went ahead as it would with any tenant, references were received, and a month’s deposit is being held separately in a government account. The flat was only empty for 2 weeks, during which time an inventory was completed by the governors, PAT testing and EPC ratings were carried out. The fire extinguishers will now be serviced at the same time as the school’s extinguishers. Kevin Semple (previous Chair of Governors) signed the tenancy agreement.
The Governors thanked Alex for the hard work she has done over the summer holidays to bring all this to completion.
12 / Verbal update from Frances about the start of term
FD informed the Governors that the 3 closure days at the start of this school year were vital and put to great use in setting up the new Junior block ready for the children’s start. Staff were split into different groups and tasked with different areas of the school. The signs on all of the doors (including the Infant block) are now all branded and clearly labelled. The library is all set up and the children really enjoy using it. Each of the closure days finished at 3.30pm allowing staff to work in their own classrooms after this.
The two INSET days which followed were used for RWI training for new staff and updating other staff. Staff had teaching and learning input from both FD and SK, they had safeguarding and first aid training, as well as training on the new JIGSAW material and specific training on the challenge of working with vulnerable children.
There have been 3 new children in Year 4 bringing numbers up to 49, Year 4 has protected funding.
There are currently 56 children in Year 3, 30 in Jo’s class and 26 in Sarah’s. 6th October is census day when ideally Year 3 needs to be full in order to get the full amount of funding. With 4 spaces left it will leave a shortfall of about £12k.
AW informed governors that there are plans to build a new 2 form entry Primary school on Hatchland Road where the old Law courts are. Governors expressed concern that Parish has not filled its places this year and yet another school might be built therefore increasing competition for spaces. FD will phone Oliver Gill to see what he has to say on the situation.
Action: FD to phone Oliver Gill to understand more about the situation with the new school and report back to the Governors. / FD
13 / Ofsted Policy statement
FD reported to the Governors that due to the change in status of Parish from an Infant to a Primary school it is likely that an inspection will happen at some point. There is a strong pattern of schools in similar situations being inspected the year the year 6’s start or finish.
FD explained to the Governors what they OFSTED inspectors would expect from them in an inspection.
Action: FD to send CT any documents which may help governors prepare for OFSTED which can then be put on SharePoint
Action: One or two governors to go on the Babcock Course ‘Ofsted – What Governors need to know’ on either 27/09/17 or 30/10/17
Action: Add items to FGB agenda to help prepare Governors for OFSTED / FD/ CT
??
DB/FD/CT
14 / Catering Framework agreement
Governors agreed to renew the catering framework agreement with Commercial Services from 1.04.18.
15 / School Development Plan
Governors approved the School Development Plan (SDP) after deleting the target ‘Fill Year 3 places by October 2017 census’, leaving it as ‘Market and promote KS2.
FD also informed governors that the school is due its SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) inspection in May 2018. The Governors are due to do RE monitoring in December which will also provide evidence for this inspection. CM expressed interest in going to the training with FD for this.
Action: FD to let CM know when the training for the SIAMS inspection is / FD/ CM
16 / MEETING SCHEDULE FOR ACADEMIC YEAR/DATE OF NEXT MEETING(Statutory)
Governors agreed the meeting dates for the forthcoming year
AR asked for two items to be added to the Resources Committee agenda:

The lockdown procedure for the Junior Block which still needs to be alarmed for intruders
The Tea Club contract – parents have been saying that this is getting too expensive, can this be reviewed?

Action: CT to add these two items to the next Resources meeting agenda
SK reported to the Governors that the school journeys, and the risk assessments have all been approved. / CT

Advice given by governors at this school is incidental to their professional expertise and is not being given in their professional capacity.

Governors respect the confidential nature of discussions and do not disclose governor business or decisions. When minutes of governing body meetings, Part 1, are approved they are made available to any member of the public who requests sight of them.