Minutes of a Meeting of the Governing Body of Terrington C.E. Primary School, held at the School on 25th September 2014 at 3.45pm

PRESENT Mrs S Moore (Head) Rev T Morgan

Mrs Z Hill Mrs K Saunders

Mr J Fenwick Mrs H Ashdown (Chair)

Mrs N Clarke Ms E Featherstone Ms D Turnbull Mr M Tyler (Clerk)

01/14 Opening Prayer

The meeting started with a prayer, led by Taff Morgan.

02/14 Election of Chair

The clerk requested nominations for the position of Chair. Helen Ashdown was nominated and elected unanimously.

03/14 Election of Vice-Chair

It was decided to continue with the current arrangement of having two vice-chairs; Nic Clarke and Zoe Hill were both nominated and elected unanimously.

04/14 Apologies

Jane Nicholson and Gill Hughes did not attend the meeting; they had sent their apologies which received the consent of governors.

05/14 Reminders

The clerk reminded governors that issues discussed at GB meeting are confidential. He also reminded them that there was a Register of Hospitality held at school. The Declaration of Business Interests forms were circulated to governors. Completed forms were collected at the meeting. Governors also adopted the ‘Code of Practice for School Governors’.

06/14 Governor Composition

The GB comprises twelve governors, as follows;

-  1 x Ex Officio Governor

o  Taff Morgan

-  4 x Foundation Governors

o  James Fenwick, Deb Turnbull, Gill Hughes & Vacancy

-  2 x Foundation Parent Governors

o  Jane Nicholson & Zoe Hill

-  1 x LA Governor

o  Helen Ashdown

-  2 x Parent Governors

o  Karen Saunders & Nic Clarke

-  2 x Staff Governors

o  Sarah Moore & Emma Featherstone

It was noted that there was a vacancy for a Foundation governor as a result of Lesley Bradshaw’s resignation. It was agreed to look at filling this vacancy during the reconstitution process.

07/14 Review Committee Structure and Composition

The committee structure for 2014/15 is shown below.

Terrington Committees:

Finance Chair – JF HA/NC/SM/EF

Premises, Health & Safety Chair – ZH HA/TM/EF

Joint Committees:

Leadership & Staffing Chair – HA SM/JF/ZH/NC

Curriculum Chair – HA SM/GH/DT/NC/EF

The Joint Leadership & Staffing Committee incorporates the General Complaints Committee, the Staff Dismissal Committee, the Staff Dismissal Appeals Committee and the Pupil Discipline Committee. Individual Chairs for these committees have not been appointed. These will be chosen when one of these committees need to meet.

08/14 Governor Roles and Responsibilities

The following list of governors with specific roles and responsibilities was agreed:

Head’s Performance Review Helen Ashdown & Heather Cox (Foston)

SEN Gill Hughes

Safeguarding Helen Ashdown

Maths Taff Morgan

RE Taff Morgan

Teaching & Learning KS1 Nic Clarke

KS2 Karen Saunders

Children Jane Nicholson

Governors with responsibility for specific SDP priorities are shown below:

Attendance Emma Featherstone

Accountability & effectiveness of subject leaders Helen Ashdown

Implement new curriculum & develop assessment system Deb Turnbull

Provision in the outdoor areas Jane Nicholson

Links with Church & Community Taff Morgan

There was also some discussion here on reconstitution and the fact that we are a CE VA school means that the GB after reconstitution is likely to be very similar to the current composition. Karen Saunders, Nic Clarke and Zoe Hill agreed to meet to discuss reconstitution issues.

09/14 Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the GB meeting held on 2nd June 2014 and the GB meeting were both accepted as accurate records of the meetings and signed by the Chair.

10/14 Matters Arising

The following matters were raised here

Policy Monitoring System – Helen has met with Jan Tyler and work on this area is progressing.

11/14 Head Teacher’s Update

The Head gave a brief verbal update, major points are listed below:

- The new reception children are settling in well

- Other than the Y6 leavers, two other children have left school due to family reasons.

- SATs results were good for both KS1 & KS2

- Emma Featherstone is KS1 teacher Monday – Thursday. Vicki Allon is KS1 teacher on Fridays.

- During the absence of Donna Signorelli & Jenifer Kay, Sophie Matique is full-time KS2 teacher

- John Wilson, a student, is undertaking his work placement at School. He will be here for the full academic year.

The Head reminded governors of the priorities for 2014/15 and the major issues facing the school. She also said that it is crucial that governors arrange visits to school to discuss their areas of the school development plan and find evidence in classes to back this up.

12/14 Confederation/Federation

It was agreed that Sarah would contact Janet Wardell, the Head Teacher at Sand Hutton & Warthill (federated schools), and ask her to attend a meeting to give us her experiences of moving from Confederation to Federation. Nic Clarke also commented that she has some information on this issue, which she will circulate to governors.

13/14 Reconstitution

The Chair gave a brief overview of reconstitution to governors. Basically all school governing bodies need to reconstitute by September 2015. There are rules governing the number and type of governors allowed. All governors had previously been sent some information regarding reconstitution, which contains more details on the process. As a first step, it was agreed to undertake a skills audit of all governors. This can then be analysed to discover if there areas where governor skills are lacking.

14/14 AOB

The following were discussed here:

- Karen Saunders mentioned that currently parents are asked to sign the Internet Policy but school is not. She thought that school should also sign the policy. This was agreed and Karen agreed to amend the current policy.

- Helen informed governors that the next Ryedale Small Schools Alliance meeting is on 15th October 2014 @ 7.00pm at Sand Hutton. Two governors from each school normally attend. Karen Saunders, who went to the last meeting, said she could probably also attend this meeting; if not, Zoe Hill said she could attend. Deb Turnbull is also happy to be involved.

- Nic Clarke will attend the next Governor SIN meeting with Helen.

15/14 Confidential Matter

The Chair reported that there was a confidential matter for discussion. This will be reported on a separate confidential minute.

16/14 Date of next GB Meeting

The date for the next GB meeting has been set for 4th December 2014 @ 3.45pm. The next Finance Committee Meeting was arranged for 13th November 2014 @ 4.30pm.

The meeting closed at 5.30 pm

Signed……………………………………….. Dated………………………………..