Minutes of a meeting of the Full Governing Body
held at the school at 7 p.m. on Tuesday 27 January 2015
Present: Rachel Rowland (Chair), Ruth Austin (Headteacher), Carmel Sutton, Iona Bell, Steve Hughes, John Macnab, Jon Naylor, Stewart Speake
In attendance: Rose Davies (KCC Clerking Service)
1 / Apologies
Apologies were accepted from Jo Malins and Steve Hill. / Action
2 / Business interests
None.
3 / Governing Body (GB) matters
The Clerk had collated Governors’ skills audit forms into a matrix (filed with minutes). This would be used to identify GB strengths and areas for training and development, including safeguarding and Special Educational Needs (SEN) and to inform Governor recruitment.
ACTION: All Governors to investigate whether appropriate training was available.
ACTION: Headteacher to talk to Collaboration colleagues about bespoke or Senior Leadership Team-led training, possibly before a Full Governing Body (FGB) meeting.
ACTION: The Chair and the Head to discuss potential of defining basic, moderateand extensive knowledge on the skills audit form to enable benchmarking and reduce subjectivity.
It was agreed that the skills matrix should be reviewed annually. / All Govs
Head
Chair & Head
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4 / Governing Body structure and procedure
Terms of Reference
TheTOR had been circulated. The TOR for Monitoring Pairs had been altered regarding the circulation of reports.A Governor sought clarification of the arrangements for collation and approval of reports. The Chair advised that she would collate the reports and that any areas of concern would be brought to an FGB meeting. A Governor said that the TOR read as though the Governing Body set school holiday dates etc.The Chair advised that this had been delegated to the Headteacher.It was agreedthat non-delegated responsibilities should be listed that in the TOR.
ACTION: The Head and the Chair to work on term dates and circulate the TOR for feedback and agreement ahead of formal (minuted) approval at next FGB meeting.
Code of Practice
The Chair handed out copies to Governors for signature.
Staff Governor vacancy
The Headteacher advised that the new Staff Governor was James Maynard, who would attend the next FGB meeting. As he had been the sole candidate, it had not been necessary to hold an election.
Parent Governor vacancy
In line with the skills audit result, Governors agreed that the sample letter seeking Parent Governor nominations would be amended to state that ‘We would particularly welcome a new governor with an interest in safeguarding and special educational needs; however, this is in no way essential. The most important thing is to have a keen interest in the school and be prepared to play an active part in the governing body’s work.
ACTION: Rose Davies to send the NGA's ‘What does a Governor do’ document to the Clerk for the Headteacher to send out with the Parent Governor letter. / Head & Chair
RD, VS, Head
5 / Minutes of previous meeting
Governors approved, and the Chair signed, the minutes of the FGB meeting held on 27 November 2014.
6
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4 / Headteacher’s update
Safeguarding
A Governor asked about distribution of the e-safety sheet.The Headteacher explained that a versionof the sheet had gone out to parents that week to raise the e-safety profile. Safer Internet Day was on 9 February 2015 and there would betwo parent workshops in the week commencing 2 February 2015.A Governor asked if it should include parental controls on other devices, including phones.The Headteacher said that the current emphasis was not on filters which would never be 100% effective but on educating children to take sensible precautions and behave in a reasonable manner.
Staffing
A very experienced Teaching Assistant had been appointed to work with a child one-to -one in Year 4 and would start after half term.
Growth Mindset
All pupils had been taught the importance of a growth (versus a fixed) mindset. It provided simple strategiesthat would make children more resilient in facing future challenges, and would assist them when they moved on to other schools. All the pupils seemed to understand it well and each class now had a display on its wall. A growth mindset was particularly relevant for the many Ryarsh pupils who were high achievers as some children expected things to come easily to them and could be thrown if this did not happen. A Governor observed that a themed week brought the school together and suggested that they could be held more frequently.
Buildings
Work had been undertaken to repair the roof; the success of those repairs would be judged after the next bout of heavy rain. KCC had funded the remedial work. The school had agreed to pay for the original sum to Booker and Best as part of this deal.Quotes were awaited for the hot water system.
7 / School plan
The Chair commended the fact that the School Plan reflected the ongoing activity and was organic rather than static. The focus of monitoring on this might need to be changed.
8 / Budget monitoring
Jon Naylor, the Head and the Chair had met to discuss the nine-month budgetstatement. The school was in a healthy position; income had risen and expenditure was down.The in-year surplus was running at over £12k; some of this was PE funding which would be spent the following year.The monitoring group was managing the end of year situation tightly and would meet monthly on this.
The budget was within £1,376 of the Budget Control Mechanism limit. The historic pattern had been underspending in the last quarter of the year so there was a risk of having money clawed back.The school had been planning to buy a gazebo next year but was now seeking quotes with the aim of ordering and being invoiced for this in the current financial year. Other suggested solutions included theadvance purchasing of resources for the following yeare.g. stationery, books and a new projector. It remained to be investigated whether early paymentof the grounds maintenance contract would attract a discount. The Head had a list of items that would make a powerful impact on pupils’ learning: each class had come up with three items.A Governor suggested holding back on some fast moving items with very short lead in times e.g. paper, just in case a surplus had to be spent at short notice.
A Governor noted that after benchmarking Ryarsh was much more in line with other schools' spend.Ryarsh was consistently above other schools on donations at £131 per pupil. The average was c£40.Looking further ahead, the school was looking at spending on the development of the outside area for Year R.The balance of the School Fund account was over £8K. This was a contingency fundnow that all trips expenditure came out of another account.There was a discussion aroundincreasing the number of parent volunteers to help with PTFA events as numbers had recently reduced. A film night had been cancelled due to insufficient numbers of volunteers.
9 / Child protection and safeguarding
The Head reported that staff were up to date on their responsibilities.
10 / Policies
Governors approved the Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy, the Health & Safety Policy and the Whistle Blowing Policy.
11 / Chair's report
The Chair highlighted the following issues from the Spring 2015 issue of The Governor:
- New SEN arrangements.
- Effective monitoring (useful checklist to keep for an Ofsted inspection).
- Good financial management.
- A new Financial Planning Tool. The Headteacher would check that the Office Manager was booked on training for this.
- A leadership and Governance piece about the criteria in the Ofsted Handbook.
- On the back there was a free app to download.
12
12.1
12.2 / Any other urgent business
Bible Stories club
A Governor raised the issue of the Bible Stories Club which was run for Year 1 pupils on Monday lunchtimes. It was suggested that the Club could concern parents who had chosen the school on the basis of it being non-denominational. It might be better for a club to cover stories from all faiths rather than just one. Governors asked whether the Governing Body should take a view on religion-based activities in the school. The Headteacher said that she had thought it would add to the diversity of clubs offered: many schools offered a range of clubs including some Christian based clubs.Extra-curricular clubs were usually based on the interests and the skill sets of staff and parents. It was run by a Breakfast Club Assistant who had wanted to set it up. It was entirely optional and about 50% of the Year 1 pupils attended. Unusually Ryarsh had no pupils who opted out of assemblies, which were broadly Christian based. However if this club was felt to be contentious it could be stopped.The Chair said that the Governing Body needed to understand what its responsibility was in respect of school clubs.
ACTION: Clerk to add to agenda for next FGB meeting.
Young Writers
A Governor expressed disappointment at having received a letter from the Young Writers company. This had happened previously and it had been understood that the school would not be involved with the company again. The situation was worsenedby the fact that the letter had been sent by post to a home address.
The Head explained that she had not realised that this had happened the previous year. A staff member had seen the noticeof the Young Writers competition and thought it offered an interesting opportunity to improve pupils’ writing skills. In one class, children were allowed to write their home addresses themselves on the entry forms, which were then submitted. The issue was why the teacher had allowed the entries to go through with the addresses on them. The school had then sent parents a letter to make it clear that the school did not recommend or endorse the commercial product.
A Governor asked the school to put Data Protection Act safeguards in place around personal information and to ensure that the school did not engage with YoungWriters. Any future engagement with a commercial organisation would require approval by the Head.
ACTION: The Head to write to the Young Writers company asking them to delete pupils’ addresses from theirrecords.
ACTION: The Head to write to parents saying that it had come to her attention that this company had had negative publicity in the national press and that they might want to perform an Internet search on them before they committed.
A Governor suggested printing a book of the Ryarsh pupils’ stories which would provide an opportunity to improve pupils’ writing skills and also raise money for the school. / Clerk
Head
Head
13 / Confidentiality
Confidential items recorded in a separate section of the minutes.
14 / Date of next meeting
19 March 2015 at 7pm.
Signed ______Date ______
Action Summary
1 / Investigate whether appropriate training was available for Governors. / All Governors / 5 March
2 / Talk to Collaboration colleagues about bespoke or SLT-led training, possibly before a Full Governing Body (FGB) meeting. / Head / 5 March
3 / Discuss potential of defining basic, moderate and extensive knowledge on the skills audit form. / Chair and Head / 13 February
4 / Work on term dates and circulate the TOR for feedback and agreement ahead of formal (minuted) approval at next FGB meeting. / Head & Chair / 13 February
5 / Send NGA's ‘What does a Governor do’ document to Clerk for Headteacher to send out with the Parent Governor letter. / RD, VS & Head / 28 January
6 / Add GB’s responsibility for school clubs to agenda for next meeting. / Clerk / 5 March
7 / Write to Young Writers asking them to delete pupils’ home addresses. / Head / 5 February
8 / Write to parents re. Young Writers. / Head / 5 February
1
Ryarsh Primary School Minutes of Full Governing Body meeting 27 January 2015