WhitchurchCommunityPrimary School
Minutes of the Full Governors’ meeting held on Tuesday 16 July 2013 at TavistockCollege
PRESENT
Dave Anning (Chair) DA
Sue Ord (Vice Chair)SO
Louisa DaleyLD
Bernard FevrierBE
Caroline HayCH
Matt LuckhamML
Nicky MackenzieNM
Fiona MilliganFM
Ellie WillettEW
IN ATTENDANCE
Angela O’Shea-Warman (Headteacher)AOSW
Joan Hankin (Clerk)JH
Julie Stuchbery-UllahJSU
Distribution: all present plus
Sean BrassilSB
Harry Churchill HC
Nicky HoarNH
Kate SainsburyKS
Mike SainsburyMS
Ed Persse (Associate Member)EP
Emer Scanlon (Associate Member)ES
Annette Sharpe (Associate Member)AS
David Tall (Associate Member)DT
1.APOLOGIES / DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST / INTRODUCTIONS
Apologies were received and sanctioned from Sean Brassil, Harry Churchill, Nicky Hoar, Kate Sainsbury and Mike Sainsbury.
Dave Anning advised that he would have to leave the meeting at 6.30pm and that Sue Ord would chair the meeting from then.
There were no declarations of interest.
2.WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
JSU (Co-operativeCollege) welcomed everyone and briefly talked through the agenda, explaining that she would firstly address all schools jointly, before they divided at item 6 to make individual decisions. The remaining items would again be dealt with jointly.
Heads and chairs of governors had attended a preceding meeting, at which various documentation regarding their impending status as trustees had been completed ready for sending to the solicitor. Should any school decide against going to implementation, their documents would be shredded. At this meeting, they had looked in detail at the Articles of Association and the recommendation of the meeting was for approval. It had also been agreed that a short initial trust meeting would be held on 16 September, with the first regular meeting scheduled for 28 November.
3.SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS OF STATUTORY REPRESENTATION REPORT
JSU advised that copies of the Statutory Representation Report and the Articles of Association had been emailed to all governors on Friday 12 July and one paper copy per school had been provided at the meeting. She advised that no further representations had been received by any of the participating schools. She briefly summarised the key points of the report, which had been discussed in detail at previous meetings and confirmed that no new information had been added.
4.FACILITATED DISCUSSION ON THE STATUTORY GUIDANCE TO DECISION MAKERS IN RELATION TO THE STATUTORY PROPOSAL AND REPRESENTATIONS
JSU advised that formal agreement of points a) to d) under Recommended Action on page 4 of the Statutory Representation Report needed to be minuted by each governing body.
JSU led a discussion of the Articles of Association and advised that they were a nationally used document which had been ‘tried and tested’. She commented on various points where very minor text changes could be made if desired. She drew particular attention to 14.4.4 regarding numbers of trustees. TavistockCollege currently had 4 trustees as the Trust comprised less than 3 schools and it has always been the intention to continue this level of representation on expansion. The proposal documents on which schools have consulted have always reflected this, citing 4 trustees for the College, 2 each for other member schools and 1 each for partners. However, with more than 3 schools joining, the Articles currently provided only 2 trustees for each member school. She asked all schools to consider whether they would prefer this situation to be handled by altering the wording of the Articles, or by proposing that 2 additional trustees representing the College should be co-opted on an annual basis, as allowed under 14.11. Decisions on any text changes would be made at the Trust meeting on 28 November, but she requested that governing bodies consider them now and brief their trustees designate on their preferences regarding this.
(DA left the meeting.)
5.CONFIRMATION OF RELATED MATTERS
It was confirmed that Whitchurch CPS had received the relevant LA assurances, GB/TU protocols and NASUWT/UNISON/SCS national agreements.
The governing body would be reduced to 15 on reconstitution and details of the names and governor categories for all members from 1 September 2013 were provided to JSU.
The meeting now went into separate governing body meetings.
6.DECISION ON WHETHER OR NOT TO PROCEED TO IMPLEMENTATION
A discussion noted that no new information had emerged to affect the decision made at the full governors meeting on 10 July.
Points a) to d) under Recommended Action on page 4 of the Statutory Representation Report (copy attached) were considered and were all formally approved, ratified and agreed unanimously.
A vote was taken with a unanimous decision to proceed to implementation.
7.AGREEMENT OF TRUST MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
The Trust Memorandum and Articles of Association were agreed.
A discussion ensued regarding 14.4.4, with further clarification sought from JSU. It was agreed that the principle of Tavistock College having 4 trustees to represent the secondary phase should be supported, but there was a clear preference for 2 of them to be additional trustees, co-opted on an annual basis, rather than amending the Articles to allow 4 trustees with 5-year terms of office.
The meeting returned to joint session.
8.PROCESS TO BE FOLLOWED AFTER DECISION
JSU announced that all consulting schools had voted to proceed to implementation.
a.Registration documents were duly completed. It was noted that the Company Registration No. was 08160189.
b.JSU advised that templates for notification letters and communications would be emailed the following day, for signature and dispatch by each school.
c.It was agreed that all schools would formally inform their parents about the decision to join the Trust in their first newsletter in September.
9.ANY OTHER URGENT RELATED BUSINESS
None
10.DATES OF NEXT GOVERNING BODY AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Next meeting: Thursday 12 September 2013 - Full Governors (housekeeping) at 7pm
SUMMARY
Item
/Action taken
/Further action
6 / Agreed to proceed to implementation / Complete and send notification lettersSigned……………………………………………..Date………………………………
Chair