Little Paxton School Governing Body

Minutesof the Full Governing Body Meeting held on

Monday 30thSeptember2013 at 6.30pm

The proposed tour of the school was deferred to a later meeting, when there will be more time.

The Clerk introduced two new governors, Sarah Noonan and Ciaran Simmonds, who join the Governing Body as Community Governors. The Governors present then introduced themselves to Sarah and Ciaran.

The first four items were chaired by the Clerk.

  1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received and accepted from Debbie Ellis, Nick Folkard, Rebekah Jenkins, Amanda Port and Hina Subzwari.

Carol Corn an Associate Member did not attend the meeting.

Those present:

Penny Conway (Chair) Sarah Noonan

Neil Donoghue Ciaran Simmonds

Colette Farrand-Laine Debbie Warner

Diane Hawkes (Head) Jordana Watts

David Jones Bev Williams

Mike Kendall Babs Herlihy (Clerk)

Duncan Lawson

  1. Declaration of interests.

New interest forms were completed and signed by the governors present.

  1. Reappointment of P Conway as an Authority Governor.

Governors agreed to support the reappointment of P Conway as an Authority Governor at the FGB meeting held on 29th April 2013. The Appointments Committee of the Local Authority has agreed to this reappointment. The FGB then confirmed P Conway as an Authority Governor, her term of office will run from 1st September 2013 – 1st September 2017.

  1. Election of Chair

Those willing to stand: Penny Conway

Proposed: N Donoghue

Seconded: D Lawson

  1. Election of Vice Chair

Those willing to stand: Neil Donoghue

Proposed: D Lawson

Seconded: M Kendall

  1. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising.

FGB (08.07.13) – The new online payment system for parents is working well.

Tablets purchased and being used by children in the school are proving very useful in the classroom and popular with pupils.

D Hawkes will pursue the proposed increase of the school PAN to 45 with Central Admissions at County.

Clerk to check if relevant governors have completed Performance Management training.

The minutes were approved and accepted by the FGB.

  1. Review of the Instrument of Government, Governors’ Code of Practice, Governing Body’s & Committees’ Terms of Reference and the Standing Orders.

Instrument of Government

This was agreed and approved by the governors present.

Governors’ Code of Practice

Some changes were made and were agreed and approved by the governors present.

Governing Body’s and Committees’ Terms of Reference

Some changes were made and were agreed and approved by the governors present.

Standing Orders

Some changes were made and were agreed and approved by the governors present.

Governors present decided that permitting remote participation in meetings would not be useful at this time and therefore recorded in the Standing Orders it will not be allowed for this Governing Body. It was also decided that minutes of GB meetings would be published on the school website after they had been approved.

It was agreed, accepted and approved by all the governors present that the Curriculum Committee be renamed the Curriculum and Standards Committee.

  1. Review Governing Body’s performance, structures and procedures, including Delegation of Decisions Planner.

Some changes were made and agreed and approved by the governors present.

Action Point.

Changes agreed in items 7 & 8 will be made by the clerk.

  1. To ratify the Constitution of the Committees of the Governing Body.

This document had been sent out to all governors present prior to the meeting. It was agreed, approved and accepted by the governors present.

  1. Election of Chairs of the Committees

Curriculum & Standards Committee

There were no nominations received. N Folkard, who was unable to attend the meeting, will be contacted by the Clerk to confirm if he is willing to continue as Chair of this committee. If he is willing to continue Governors approved his reappointment, otherwise the Chair of Governors will draw up the agenda for the next Curriculum and Standards Committee meeting at which the Committee will decide on a new Chair.

Finance Committee

Chair: Ciaran Simmonds

Proposed: P Conway

Seconded: C Farrand-Laine

Vice Chair: Sarah Noonan

Proposed: P Conway

Seconded: C Farrand-Laine

Personnel Committee

Chair: Mike Kendall

Proposed: P Conway

Seconded: N Donoghue

Site & Buildings Committee

Chair: Neil Donoghue

Proposed: P Conway

Seconded: M Kendall

Thank you to all the governors who have agreed to chair/vice chair one of the committees.

  1. Head Teachers Report including review of results and data 2012/13, TOP – ICT provision and the use of a maths intervention strategy (First Class @ Numbers) will be the main foci for 2013/14, update on pupil numbers, curriculum, finance, premises and staff update, School Development Plan and SEF.

The Head’s Report was circulated to all governors prior to the meeting. D Hawkes informed governors present that five new children, all in catchment area, started school in September 2013. One child, who lives in the catchment area and is not at present attending any school, has not as yet been admitted to school. While another child, who has not yet moved into the area and is attending school in the area where they live, has been offered a place at Little Paxton School. After some discussion it was agreed by governors present that D Hawkes would contact Admissions at County Hall to pursue this matter further. It was noted that KS1 classes are now full.

Dawn Moffatt will teach Owl class while Julie Simms is on maternity leave.

A supply teacher currently working in school will cover PPA time across the classes normally taught by Dawn Moffat while Julie Simms is away.

The Y2 teacher, Jess Roberts, is still recovering following an RTA in the summer. She is currently working mornings only; she will have a medical review at half-term. The HT is investigating if an insurance claim can be made to recover the costs to the school in covering her partial absence.

The Caretaker has recovered from a recent illness and is now back at work. Thank you to Neil Donoghue for covering in his absence.

Governors looked at the Points Progress Report. Some questions were raised about the area highlighted in red, progress in maths in Y5. J Watts, DHT and Maths Subject leader, explained there were several factors that had contributed to this. As soon as the issues had come to light, intervention programmes were put in place during the summer term. A Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) with a maths specialism is supporting those children who did not make the expected levels of progress.

It was noted that whilst not all children had made the expected progress in all areas, the average points of progress in each year group and subject was (in almost all cases) higher than the expected average. This is because many children are making more than expected progress.

The Y6 SATs results were reviewed and in the main are similar to last year; there was a slight dip in the percentage attaining L4+ in reading but also a significant rise in the percentage attaining L5+ and L6+ in maths.

Therefore the Termly Operational Plan (TOP) will refocus on numeracy, whilst ensuring that reading is also covered with sufficient rigour.

The data will be looked at in more detail when RAISEonline is presented to the FGB at the Curriculum & Standards presentation, to be held on 25th November. To which all governors are politely invited to attend.

D Hawkes informed governors present that she had attended a ‘mini-conference’ organised by the PPP Partnership at which the HTs and DHTs from the 3 schools looked at the new curriculum. This will need to be in place by September 2014.They looked at what is being taught and how it is being taught. The PPP schools have worked together looking at how Geography, History and Science might be taught in school. This could be more cross-curricular based. They together have come up with a basic outline map for year groups 1-6. This was found to be a very useful exercise and a good way to share and exchange ideas.

The School Self Evaluation Form (SEF) was shown to governors present. It was noted that many areas had been successfully completed. However it was apparent that the proposed Maths Lesson observations to highlight where strengths and weaknesses lie across the school and subsequent Action Plan by co-ordinator to address areas of weakness had been delayed. This is a priority this year.

  1. Finance meeting held with school’s Financial Adviser.

Penny Conway, Colette Farrand-Laine, Diane Hawkes, Sarah Noonan and Ciaran Simmonds attended the visit with Rob Cottle, school’s Financial Adviser. They looked together at the changes that are required. Carry forward from 2012/13 was £83,000 which means, given the budget set, school could end this financial year with a carry forward of £40,000. The increase in pupil numbers to the school will increase the funding received and could mean that there is a carry forward of £50,000 at the end of the following year. Budget is within 5%, which is good. Teaching Assistants hours have been reduced. On average there are now 16.5 hours allocated for Teaching Assistants in each class in school. This is in line with comparable schools in the area.

Benchmarking also indicated that caretaking costs were still high. This has now been addressed.

  1. Review of School Structure

Currently Little Paxton School is a local authority, maintained, community primary school. Governing Bodies have a legal duty to regularly consider the type of school that would offer the best opportunities both for our children and for the overall school development. There are now many models available;

  • A stand alone academy
  • Part of an academy chain
  • Part of a federation (hard or soft) of other schools
  • A teaching school

Little Paxton already works in partnership with the Priory Schools. This is working well to the benefit of our (and their pupils) and staff.It is also contributing to school development.The partnership will be kept under review throughout the year. We will consider, longer term,if a different school structure could be beneficial.

A Governor had heard that there was a suggestion that all schools in Cambridgeshire may need to become academies by 2015, but there were no further details. Governor discussed whether there would be any benefit to the school in becoming an Academy, but concluded that there was none at present. It was felt that the partnership with the Priory Schools in St Neots was working very well, giving staff opportunities and support they may not otherwise have access to.

  1. LA Keeping in Touch visit by the SIA

This visit is planned for December 2013 and will be linked to the Data Monitoring Visit. Our SIA, Pauline Ball, will carry out this visit. She is due to retire at the end of this year.School may approach Nigel Battey to see if he would be willing to become schools’ SIA.

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  1. Policy Review

Draft Pay Policy.

The government wants schools to adopt a new performance management based pay policy. There will no longer be a nationally agreed pay policy or scale.

Five governors met on 19th September 2013 and went through the draft pay policy. This draft was then sent out to the governors prior to the meeting.

This was then agreed, accepted and approved by the governors present.

D. Hawkes presented the draft Pay Policy to the staff today, 30th September 2013. They now have ten working days to consider the policy and get back to her.

Attendance Policy.

The policy had been sent out to all governors present prior to the meeting.Changes were agreed and will be made by the Clerk. The policy was then accepted and approved by the governors present.

Monitoring and Evaluation Policy (formerly the School Self Evaluation Policy)

This had been sent out to all governors present prior to the meeting. It was agreed, accepted and approved by the governors present.

SEN and Inclusion Policy

This item has been deferred to the spring term.

Action Points

Clerk to make agreed changes to the policies listed above. The SEN and Inclusion Policy to be included as an agenda item, on the FGB agenda, for the spring term 2014.

  1. Governor Visits.

School Open Evening, which was held on 9th July 2013, was attended by some of the governors. They asked parents/carers about the writing projects children have been doing in school and at home. Feedback was excellent. Children have thoroughly enjoyed taking part and parents reported that their children were enthusiastic about reading and research for their writing projects and eager to come to school to take part in them.

A report had been sent out to all governors present prior to the meeting. There was concern that one parent had said she felt that an incidence of bullying had not been fully dealt with, but as the parent did not give her name or further details it is difficult for Governors to pursue the matter. The HT reported that no one had approached her with any concerns and confirmed that all reported incidences of bullying are properly followed up by the Class Teacher, the Inclusion Worker or a member of the SLT as appropriate.

Reading in school – M Kendall and D Warner– Summer term 2013. This visit has been made, but the report was not ready for approval. It will be presented at the Curriculum & Standards Committee meeting to be held on 25th November 2013.

Writing in school – D Jones. A follow up visit will be made and the report will then presented for approval at the Curriculum & Standards Committee meeting to be held on 25th November 2013.

PPP Partnership – this is being monitored by P Conway and regular updates are made to the FGB.

Marking – D Jones and H Subzwari – Autumn term 2013. Questions to be asked have already been agreed and approved by the Curriculum & Standards Committee.

ICT – C Farrand-Laine and C Simmonds - late spring term 2014.

Maths – D Jones and D Warner – late spring 2014.

Both ICT and Maths visits could be made again at the end of the summer term 2014, to look at the progress that has been made in school.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to take part in a visit.

Action Point

Clerk to ensure reports are ready for approval by the Curriculum & Standards Committee at their next meeting to be held on 25th November 2013.

  1. Curriculum & Standards Presentations.

Agreed presentations for this next year are:

  • RAISEonline on 25th November 2013
  • Numeracy by J Watts on 3rdFebruary 2014
  • ICT by Jess Roberts on 23rd June 2014.

All governors are politely requested to attend Curriculum & Standards Presentations, whenever possible. Thank you.

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  1. Governor Training.

After consideration by the Governors present, it was decided that they are no relevant in-house training courses on offer by CGS at the moment.

The Clerk will contact CGS to see if school needs to book a course to be delivered by the end of this financial year, or can school carry over into next year and book two courses then.

Action Point

Clerk to contact CGS as stated above.

Feedback from CGS Termly briefing, attended by P Conway and N Donoghue on 19th September 2013 at Woodgreen Animal Shelter in Godmanchester, was sent out to all governors present prior to the meeting.

Governors are reminded that full information about the CGS Training Programme is available online at:

(scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Governor Training Programme 2013-2014.)

As school subscribes to CGS there is no charge to individual governors taking up training opportunities.

Action Point

Safer Employment Policy to be agreed at the Personnel Committee meeting to be held on 14th October 2013.

  1. Governor Vacancies

There are currently no vacancies on the FGB.

  1. Governor Section in the School Newsletter.

P Conway asked Governors to forward to her a brief description of themselves, if possible with a recent photograph. She asked that Chairs of Committeesto also include a small piece about their role.

Thank you to everyone who has already done this.

  1. AOB

J Watts informed governors present that there will be a Bingo night at Little Paxton School on 3rd October, starting at 7:30pm. The cost is £5, bring your own drinks and nibbles. All governors are invited to attend.

P Conway informed governors present that the Clerk will be standing down at the end of this current academic year, end of July 2014. The FGB will need to find someone to take over from her; this task was delegated to the Personnel Committee. The Clerk is willing to support someone in the summer term, in order to make the transition as easy as possible.

Action Point.

Personnel Committee to recruit a new Clerk on behalf of the FGB.

Meeting closed at 8:40pm

Dates of next meetings

Autumn Term:

Committees Evening Monday 14thOctober 2013

Curriculum & Standards Meeting Monday 25thNovember 2013

(This meeting will start with a presentation on RAISEonline at 6:30pm)

FGB meeting Monday 2nd December 2013