RYARSHPRIMARY SCHOOL
Minutes of the Governors’ Meeting held at the school on Thursday, 20March 2014at 7.00 pm
Present: Mrs R Austin (Headteacher), Dr I Bell, Mr S Hill, Mr S Houldsworth, Mr S Hughes, Mr J MacNab, Mrs J Malins, Mr J Naylor, Mrs R Rowland (Chair)Mrs Slater, Mrs C Sutton, Mrs E Burbidge (clerk),
In Attendance: None
1. / Apologies for Absence–Apologies received and accepted from Mr Speake.
2. / Declaration of Business Interests –Mr Hughes withdrew his previously declared interest following a change in circumstances.
3. / Governing Body Issues–The Chair welcomed the new staff governor, Mr Houldsworth to the governing body.
4. / To Receive the Minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday 23January 2014 – these had been previously circulated. The minutes were approved and signed and a copy filed with these minutes.
Strategic
5. / Headteacher’s update–The Headteacher presented her report which had been circulated prior to the meeting and a copy filed with these minutes.
(1) Staffing -the school would be looking to appoint two full-time teachers, one of which would be a fixed term contract to cover a maternity leave. An advert would be placed on Friday 21 March on Kent Teach with interviews taking place on Friday 2 May 2014.
(2) SENCO - Governors discussed in detail the various options available to cover the role of SENCO when the current post holder leaves to take up her new position. They expressed concern about the longer term implications and were keen to ensure the post was filled in the most appropriate manner to ensure the best outcomes for the pupils concerned. The Headteacher would ensure that sufficient release time would be built into the budget for the forthcoming year for the SENCO, and this matter will be further discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the collaboration group. Governors asked the Headteacher to establish the actual level of cover required and to formulate a solution with colleagues, reporting back to Governors as appropriate. Governors noted that the role of KS1 leader would probably be covered by Mrs Malins and that the School Improvement Team would be one member short during Mrs Harris’ period of maternity leave.
(3) SEF evidence – the Headteacher reported that lesson observations had taken place with the following judgments, 3 outstanding, 3 good, 3 requires improvement and none inadequate which compared to previous judgments of none outstanding, 7 good, 1 requires improvement and 1 inadequate. Governors questioned whether the same criteria for judgments had been used. The Headteacher confirmed that this was the case and outlined the measures being taken to ensure that support, where it was required was constructive and that follow-up observations would be carried out after two weeks.
(4) Collaboration- Governorsdiscussed the issue of seekingacademy status either as a standalone academy or as part of an umbrella academy trust with either local schools or the schools in the collaboration group. The Chair was awaiting the minutes from the West Malling group which had met the previous day, although Govenors had already expressed the view at the last meeting that they felt this was not the best way to proceed for Ryarsh. The Trust running the group of new build schools in the area would be holding a meeting at Discovery School on June 18 to discuss how this would affect existing schools and this meeting would be attended by the Chair and Vice Chair who will report back in due course.
Governors were keen to seek the views of an independent source to provide an objective view on the matter. The Headteacher agreed to contact the Headteacher at Ham Street Primary School, as that school had already undergone conversion to an academy with a view to a presentation being made to governors by that Headteacher.
Action: Headteacher to arrange a presentation to Governors from an independent source.
(5) Attendance policy – Governors agreed that the attendance policy should be fully implemented from April 2014. The Headteacher confirmed that she would write to inform parents of the decision.
Action: to inform parents in writing.
(7) Inset Day – Mrs Sutton explained how ‘marking for improvement’ works with the emphasis on ensuring pupils respond positively to teacher comments with time being made available for pupils to respond, and reported that, following a moderation meeting with the Key Stage leaders, progress in this area was being made.
The Headteacher drew governors attention to the Ofsted data dashboard where a summary of our data was available. This data would be discussed at the next meeting.
Action: Issue to be included on the agenda for the next meeting.
Governors confirmed that they were happy for the Headteacher to present theHeadteacher report as she saw fit. / HT
HT
All/Clerk
6. / SEF:There were no updates available for this meeting and the Headteacher is to decide how best to present this information in the future.
7. / Target Setting: These details had been circulated prior to the meeting and a copy filed with these minutes. The targets set by the previous Headteacher were discussed at length. Areas of concern were the accuracy, realism and achievability of Y1 data. The Headteacher confirmed that handover at the end of the school year would be thorough to ensure correct targets are set and pursued. Governors ratified the targets previously set.
8. / Memorandum of Understanding: Governors expressed concern that previous issues highlighted with the draft Memorandum of Understanding had not been addressed but considered that this approach will probably be superseded as a result of discussions around academy status. The Headteacher will feedback to the collaboration group.
Action: Headteacher to feedback to the collaboration group. / HT
9. / Questionnaire: The results of the parent/staff/governor questionnaire had been circulated prior to the meeting and a copy filed with these minutes. The Chair confirmed that there had been a good response with an average return similar to previous years. The Headteacher agreed to publish the written comments to all stakeholders. The Chair congratulated everyone in the school for an excellent set of data.
Action: To inform stakeholders of the written comments / HT
10. / New Primary Schools –This had been covered under item 5, Headteacher’s report.
Monitoring
11 / Budget Monitoring: Mr Naylor gave a verbal report on the current position up to the end of February and reported that the yearend forecast was showing an in-year surplus of £15,080.
The reported year end forecast rollovers are:
Revenue - £30,895
Capital - £439
Governors noted that repair works to the roof highlighted by leaks over the Christmas holiday had not been fully covered by insurance. However, they were advised that other necessary repairs had been undertaken utilizing the scaffolding that was in place, thereby reducing cost to the school for those works.
Mr Naylor presented the provisional budget, which had been received from KCC,which showed an increase of approximately £15,000, although work on compiling the 3 year plan had not yet taken place.
School Financial Value Standard (SFVS) – This had been circulated prior to the meeting and a copy filed with these minutes.
Governors raised no questions or queries and thanked Mrs Burbidge for the work involved in completing the document.
Governors ratified the SFVS which was signed by the Chair.
12. / Pay Committee: The Chair confirmed that the committee had met, reviewed and ratified the support staff pay awards for the forthcoming year,although details of actual percentages were still awaited from KCC. A copy of the minutes is filed with these minutes.
13. / Monitoring Pair Visits: The Chair expressed the need to ensure that monitoring pairs carried out their visits in line with the visit programme and that reports were circulated prior to governor meetings.
Priority 1 –– Achievement: This would be presented at the next meeting.
Action: to be presented at the next meeting.
Priority 2 – Pupils’ behaviour and safety. Governors received the report which had been circulated prior to the meeting and a copy filed with these minutes.
Priority 3 – Quality of Teaching: It was noted that the report from this previous visit still required circulating.
Action: report to be circulated.
Priority 4 – The effectiveness of leadership and management:This would be presented at the next meeting.
Action: to be presented at the next meeting.
Governor Training Feedback: None reported
The Governor: No action points were noted from the recent edition of magazine.
Governor Training Service Level Agreement 2014: Governors discussed the various options available and agreed to purchase Package 1 for the forthcoming year. / IB/CS
SHughes
JN/IB
14. / Policies: these had been circulated prior to the meeting.
Policy Compliance - Governors noted that a new list of ‘Statutory Policies for Schools’ document had been issued by the DfES and the Headteacher confirmed that she would ensure full compliance with all requirements.
Action: ensure compliance with ‘Statutory Policies for Schools’ document.
Staff Appointment including safer recruitment – point 5 to read “enquiries” not enquires. Ratified.
Emergency Management plan: ratified
Accessibility plan – Headteacher to review
Action: Review and present updated Accessibility Plan
Marking and feedback – Headteacher to review wording in response to marking for improvement initiative and present at the next meeting.
Action: Headteacher to update policy wording
Safeguarding statement - ratified
SEND – the policy was ratified subject to the complaints section being removed as this was covered within the Complaints policy. / HT
HT
HT
Other School Business
15 / Chair’s Actions/Correspondence: none received.
16. / Any other Urgent Business:
Parking –Mr Naylor had been approached by concerned parents regarding the issue of delivery vans parking near the main gates during drop off and collection time and the continued inconsiderate parking and maneuvering by parents at the same times.
The Headteacher agreed to raise the issue with parents in the next newsletter and to request, where possible, that deliveries are undertaken at a more suitable time.
Action: Headteacher to write to parents and contact delivery companies as necessary. / HT
HT
17. / Any Other Urgent Business: Governors requested that an item by raised on the next agenda to discuss intervention feedback.
Action: raise intervention feedback as an agenda item / Clerk
18. / Confidentiality: no itemwas considered confidential.
19. / Date of next meetings –The date of the next meeting is Thursday 15May 2014starting promptly at 7 pm. Governors were reminded to ensure their monitoring pair visits to date had been carried out by this date. / ALL
There being no other business the meeting closed at 21.25 hours.
Dates of future meetings:
3 July 2014