Eynsham Partnership Academy

Registered in England & Wales Company No. 07939655

DRAFTMinutes of the Meeting of the EPA Directing Board Standards Committee

held on Wednesday 20September 2017 at 5.30pm at Bartholomew School

Present: James Bird (JB), Jenny Faulkner (JF),Sarah Kerswell (SK), Jane Osborne (JO) (CHAIR),

Mike Lawes (ML), Charlie Marshman (CM)

In Attendance: Beth Bedford (BVB)(Clerk)

Apologies:Frances Bartlett (FB),Anne Carter (AC), Hilary Emery (HE)

Item / Action
1.Welcome and Apologies
JO welcomed members.
2.Declarations of Interest - None for this meeting.
3. Terms of Reference
JO advised the version on GovernorHub (GH) is from 2015-16 and SK commented she may have a later version. It was agreed to defer this agenda item to the next meeting.
Code of Conduct
JO advised this has not been considered before so she will obtain a generic version and bring this to the next meeting. / Agenda
Agenda
4.Minutes of meeting held 13 July 2017 for Accuracy and Matters Arising
Comment was made that it is unusual not to have had the minutes ahead of time. SK mentioned that it had previously been agreed that minutes would be available within a week of the meeting having taken place. Therefore it was agreed not to check for accuracy. It was also agreed that all minutes of future meetings should be provided to the committee chair within one week of the meeting and then distributed to committee members ASAP after approval by the Chair. / Clerk
4.1Matters arising
SK sought clarity about what Local Governing Bodies (LGBs) are expected to provide to the Directing Board (DB) with regard to minutes, with JO advising she had thought it was down to the clerk to ensure these are provided. SK suggested this needs to go through the CoGs group and then followed up by a letter. JF suggested being notified of the name of the committee Chair would be very helpful but JO commented that with this changing annually, this is not always easy to ascertain. BVB advised that she had previously always emailed the CoG, Clerk and school office when requesting copies of minutes for upload to GH but, even so, provision is inconsistent. She added that the LGB Clerk (LA) cannot be expected to provide LGB committee minutes as it’s not usually the case that this individual also clerks the committee meetings.
5.Standing Items
5.1 PEL Report
SK advised that her PEL role has morphed into the role she is undertaking at ECP, working there on Tuesdays. It is a monitoring and mentoring role, learning walks and book trawls being undertaken thus far. SDP work and process focus for afternoons – planning, how the curriculum works. She advised she has spent a long time looking at the SDP, with involvement from staff and through the GB. JO commented this has made a huge difference, from a governor’s perspective. Looking at outcomes (RI in May) within 18 months but the school desires this to be quicker. Ofsted inspector will undertake a review in January plus a Pupil Premium (PP) report has been undertaken by Sarah Varnom – verbal feedback given was a reflection of the previous Ofsted report. This remains a concern. SK advised she will be meeting with the CoG and have clear time frames in mind. CM asked who makes up the Task Group (TG) with SK responding the CoG, JB, SK, DHT (who is an ex Headteacher) and bringing in an external Chair for the TG = Lorna Shires.
JO suggested it be reported to the DB that considerable discussion was held with it agreed that the major area of concern is the lack of urgency on the school’s part to rectify the current position.
JB’s role has increased in the other EPA member academies and, ideally, he hopes to visit each one every half term to undertake monitoring reports. Stanton Harcourt (SH) (Outstanding 2008) is the only EPA academy not yet inspected.
5.2 SIO Report AP3 Report
JB advised the data is not reviewed in the same way as at AP1 and AP2, adding this report is more for his usage although it will feed into the SDP of each school. JF queried if the timing of AP3 is accurate with SK responding she has given this thought but it’s difficult to bring it forward, particularly with timing of the SATs. JB commented the pupil progress meeting process is not as tight as with the other APs. CM asked which target system is utilised with JB responding Target Tracker (TT) is used in all EPA member primary schools. A good points’ progress would be six points. JB offered to send to CM the ARE table.
5.3 Statutory Data
JB advised the red highlighting purely compares to the previous year. JF commented that the EPA Year 6 Context Data 2016/17 table contains inconsistent data, querying the figure of 1 (9%) for St Ps in ‘Pupils in School at KS1’.
JF asked if this information is incorporated into the data dashboards but JB advised not as the DDs are produced from AP3 (historic). Schools are asked for the information which is input by JB and then the HTs are asked to check the content of each DD. JF asked whose judgement is incorporated within the column at the left-hand corner with JB responding the only judgement from SK and JB is that within the EPA S+P Protocol column and the numerical value equates to the stage within the EPA Protocol. JB added that it was deemed appropriate to tweak the protocol, having utilised it twice and finding it not quite fit for purpose.
CM queried how the minutes should reflect the DDs, as presented, with SK suggesting that she and JB will ensure these are completely accurate for presentation at the next SC meeting. CM commented that as a comparative academy picture compared nationally, it demonstrates the EPA is successful.
It was agreed the next group of DDs will include one for Bartholomew School (BS), Adam Wood to be asked to produce this with JO commenting progress is currently an unknown quantity due to the national changes.
5.4 Secondary School Data Report
No secondary school update available as Craig Thomas (CT) was absent from the meeting, attending a School & Business leaders meeting. / JB
SK/JB
JO
6. MAT Focused Ofsted Report
JB had previously distributed a paper compiled from the findings from two recent MAT reviews. JO suggested it would be beneficial to share this with the CoGs group, with JB commenting it would be good to undertake an internal EPA MAT review. JB commented of the need to raise awareness of this with the full DB, with JO adding particularly in light of the potential Trust merger.
BVB advised that a voicemail had been left for her from a caller from the DfE regarding setting a date for a MAT review meeting but advised that each time she had tried the phone number, no response had been forthcoming. She was asked to follow up on this.
CM asked if JB had found this document of use with him responding he had picked out the aspects of use of information, how it is tracked and can the GB be confident of expectations, as being key factors. The suggestion was made to produce an audit tool, compiled from points drawn out of this review summary. JB posed the question as to the benefit of a visit to a successful MAT with the committee confirming this would be beneficial so JB and SK will pursue this possibility.
6.1 EPA Primary School Action Plan
SK advised this has been compiled from the bullet-pointed list discussed at the Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) (EPA Headteachers).
It was agreed to ask Catherine Barker (CBL) to review the layout of GH and reorganise papers within the SC folder(s). / BVB
JB/SK
SK/CBL
7.Review of the Standards Protocol
SK advised she and JB are continually reviewing this to ensure it is fit for purpose. JB commented the need for caution at not making ourselves hostage to fortune with JF suggesting inclusion of letters being sent or specific actions being undertaken.
SK commented that, it was agreed with hindsight, that letters should have been sent to each member academy post Ofsted, thanking them. It was unfortunate that this had not been done.
JB and SK will review the protocol and have it as an agenda item at the next meeting. / JB/SK
Agenda
8. Future Committee Meeting Dates
23 Nov 5.30pm, 17 Jan 5.30pm, 18 Apr 5.30pm and 18 July 5.30pm were all diaried.
The meeting was reminded of the dates of the APs: 1 – 6 December, 2 - 21 March
3 - 11 July.

The meeting closed at 7.03pm

BVB/22.09.17

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