London Borough of Hackney Minutes of Thegoverning Body of Berger Primary School

LONDON BOROUGH OF HACKNEY MINUTES OF THEGOVERNING BODY OF BERGER PRIMARY SCHOOL

Meeting held on Wednesday 20th January 2016 (6:15pm) at the School

Present:John I'Anson (Chair) Pauline Miller (Vice Chair) Opi Rahman Steve Gleason (Head teacher) Jane Teague Angela Stapleford

Also in attendance: Nathalie Marshall (Deputy Head teacher) Gill Brady (Hackney Learning Trust) Laura Bazell (Inclusion Team Manager) Gary Ewer (Clerk)

The meeting started at 6:15pm

Questions and comments from Governors are set out in italics

1 Introduction

1.1. Welcome and Introduction

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Angela Stapleford who has been elected as a Parent Governor.

1.2Apologies

Pauline Caveney and Meri Ingebrigsten, both absences were condoned.

2 Governing Body Organisation

2.1 Declarations of interest for the meeting

Angela Stapleford declared that she works and is paid 2 hours a week in the school organising the photography club. There were no other declaration of interest (other than those previously declared).

CONSTITUTION

2.3Appointment of Parent Governor

Angela Stapleford was recently elected as a Parent Governor

The chair had written to Joy Omojuwa who no longer has a child at the school, the chair had raised her lack of attendance at Governors meetings, giving her an opportunity to attend this meeting; asking her to respond / or that a lack of response would indicate she would step down as Governor. Joy Omojuwa had not replied and the Governors agreed to seek a replacement Governor .

Therefore there is a vacancy for a Parent Governor on the Governing Body. The HeadTeacher and the Chair will meet to discuss this.

Action: Head Teacher and Chair

2.4Reports of committees

Governors receivedverbal reports from the following committees:

Curriculum Committee

The minutes for the Curriculum Committee of 19th January 2016 were not yet available.

The committee had considered the:

Foundation Stage Policy

Outdoor Policy (appendix for the Nursery and Early Years)

The Governing Body agreed to ratify these policies subject to any issues raised by Governors. These policies would be circulated by email, Governors agreed to respond to the Chair by the end of January.

Action: School to circulate the Policies. Governing Body to respond

Resources Committee

The minutes for the Resources Committee minutes of 19th January 2016 were not yet available.

The committee had considered the:

Data ProtectionPolicy

Finance & Charging Policy

Health and SafetyPolicy

Code of ConductPolicy

Whistle Blowing Policy

The Governing Body agreed to ratify these policies subject to any issues raised by Governors. These policies would be circulated by email, Governors agreed to respond to the Chair by the end of January.

Action: School to circulate the Policies. Governing Body to respond

3 MINUTES

3.1 Minutes Governing Body Meeting of 11th November 2015

The minutes were agreed for accuracy.

3.2Matters arising not otherwise on the agenda

3.1 Minutes from 23rd September point 4.7 Pupil Premium

Two financial figures to be updated

Total income including looked after children = £329,040

Total the school is allocating to meet pupils needs =£ *

Action: Head Teacher to obtain figure*

3.2 Performance Management Training

Opi Rahman and John I'Anson have completed the Head Teacher Performance Management Training.

4.1 Setting Attainment Targets (thirdparagraph)

Governors asked if the Information on Target Tracker was now up-to-date?

The Head Teacher reported that all pupil data has now been inputted onto Target Tracker, but it will still take time to level out all the data with the changes to measuring the pupil’s achievement.

Governors asked if the School was confident that this levelling out was on track and would be completed soon?

The Head Teacher assured Governors that this would be completed soon.

3.3 Urgent Action – Chair to report any action since the last meeting

There was no action to report.

4. SCHOOL REPORTS

4.1 Report of the Head teacher

The Head Teacher had previously circulated his report and highlighted the following:

Attendance & Punctuality. The levels required from Ofsted have risen and will in effect rate the school as average or slightly lower than average compared to the national average.

Last autumn the school set at target of 96.8% which was reached for that term, this term has started well, but this could be fragile e.g. if a number of children are off sick with winter colds.

Gill Brady added that Dashboard (Ofsted) showed that Berger school was better than the national average for attendance figures.

Exclusions. The total number of exclusion last year = 24.6 days. In response to this the school had introduced the new Behaviour Policy, which included an additional stage before a exclusion was implemented. The autumn term (2015) had 5.5 exclusions, this was just three children. One of children has now left the school, one child has dramatically improved and the third who came from another school is now working ok.

Governors asked how the 24.6 days compared the rest of Hackney?

Gill Brady answered that this figure was still high for the borough.

Governors asked for the Head Teacher to identify how many children the 24.6 days represented and whether this related to a very small part of the school community?

The Headteacher said he would report back at the next meeting. Action: Head Teacher

Gill Brady added that Ofsted would be looking at exclusions, and in particular the number of repeat exclusions. Therefore it was very important for the school to have strategies in place.

The Chair said that in his frequent visits to the school, he had witnessed the new behaviour policy and the additional lunch time activities that were organised having a positive impact on children's behaviour.

Staffing. The Head Teacher highlighted some of the current staffing issues. Three key staff members have left (moved away from the area) and replacement staff are not as experienced. The maternity cover for the Arts Co-ordinator resigned after one day due to personal reasons. The post is being covered internally but the arrangement is not ideal due to staff pressures.

Governors asked if the post could be advertised or agency staff brought in?

The Head Teacher said that by the time this happened, the post would be for two terms only and no one would apply for such a post. The school was not keen to employ agency staff because of the financial constraints.

The Head Teacher reported that the majority of new pupils to the school were high-end SEN children, which again meant staff having to cover and take on additional pressure, he added that the budget did not always come with the pupil, or took some time

The additional strain on staff was knowing that the school was due for an Ofsted inspection very soon and due to work load the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) the staff team were not able to receive the support they needed. The Head Teacher has asked the Hackney Learning Trust for the school to move into 'Level of additional support - Intensive A', this would enable the school to receive additional support from Gill Brady.

Reading. Year 6 pupils for last year the Dashboard figures were not good and Ofsted will want to see what interventions the school has put into place to address this.

The new reading strategy includes the first hour of every morning, one hour spent on reading, phonics and spelling and this is closely monitored by the SLT. The school is confident that the levels will be much better as a result of these and other interventions, particularly with years 1,2,3 and 4. Additional input is still needed with year 5 as the expected levels from Ofsted has increased.

Gill Brady added that on her visit to the school today, she witnessed not even low level pupil disruption, good behaviour and was unable to identify SEN children within the class as they were so well integrated.

4.2 School Budget Monitoring 2015-16

The school budget was discussed by the Resources Committee on the 19th January 2016. The Chair fed back that the financial monitoring and reports from the School Business Manager were clear and helpful in assisting Governors to make discussions regarding the budget.

The committee would meet again in April.

4.3 School Self-Evaluation Update

This was covered as part of the Report of the Headteacher.

5. Governor education and training

Opi Rahman and John I'Anson have completed the Head Teacher Performance Management Training. Governors had not attended any other training.

Opi Rahman as Training Link Governors agreed to circulate the training opportunities available through Newham Partnership Working.

Action: Opi Rahman

Gill Brady agreed to circulate the training and costs available from The Hackney Learning Trust, email list from the Clerk.

Action: Gill Brady / Clerk

6.Safeguarding

Laura Bazell who is the Inclusion Team Manager circulated a paper details the schools approach to Safe Guarding. She explained that it was good practice for one or more governors to undertake the Safe Guarding training.Opi Rahman and John I'Anson have not completed this training. There were two dates available for the training - 9th March 6:00 - 8:00 and 7th June 10:00 - 12:00.

John I'Anson would attend the March session, Opi Rahman would check his commitments and contact Laura Bazell.

Action: Laura Bazell to organise the training. Opi Rahman and John I'Anson to attend sessions

The Chair thanked Laura Bazell for her presentation.

7.Prevent Training

MostGovernors have now completed the Prevent Training and Certificates are available.

Pauline Caveney, Meri Ingebrigsten and Angela Stapleford are to undertake this training.

Action: Pauline Caveney, Meri Ingebrigsten and Angela Stapleford

8. FUTURE MEETING DATES IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/16

Governing Body Meeting

Summer Term: Wednesday 20th April 2016 at 6:15pm

Resources Committee: Wednesday 13th April2016 at 5:15pm

Curriculum Committee:Wednesday 13th April2016 at 6:15pm

The meeting closed at 8:00pm