Minutes of the Meeting of The Rissington School Governors at

The Rissington School (Great Rissington site) on

Thursday, 11th May 2017, at 6.30 p.m.

Present In Attendance

Mr Colin Campbell, Chair Mrs Caroline Minchin, Clerk

Mrs Liz Bannister, Head Teacher

Mrs Jane Hemmings Apologies

Mrs Di Etherton Mrs Gillian Willett

Mrs Ruth Arnold (arrived later) Mr Nick Cole

Mr Rob Slade Mrs Katie Alvey

Mrs Lisa Loxton Mrs Elizabeth Meyrick

Mrs Jacqueline Gabriel

1.11/05/17 / Apologies
Apologies were received from Mrs Willett, Mr Cole, Mrs Alvey and Mrs Meyrick. APPROVED. Mrs Arnold arrived later in the meeting.
2.11/05/17 / Declaration of Interest
None.
3.11/05/17 / Declaration of AOB
3.1 Decoration
4.11/05/17 / Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 23rd March 2017 were approved as being an accurate account of the meeting. APPROVED.
Mrs Arnold arrived.
5.11/05/17 / Matters Arising
5.1 Little Rascal Pre-School Update: Inspired, the approved contractors, are coming tomorrow to start the track and will be asked to accommodate the UR community committee when they need access to the same green gate to the school field on 1st July for the village fete. There will be a grand opening of the new pre-school building for parents on 19th July. Little Rascal will close at noon on Wednesday 19th July so that staff can have time to set up the new building.
The Chair reported that the total of the grant for this build is £282,544.50. The local authority must submit another 25% towards the cost (around £70,000). The LA has to fund a project manager and clerk of works, contracts administrator, etc. The Chair/HT have asked that our contribution of £30,000 only be used to top up the fund if necessary.
Governors expressed their gratitude to Mr Campbell and Mrs Pearce for all their hard work obtaining this funding – Good Result!
Without advertising, the rising 3’s numbers for September are almost 20 pre-school pupils most days. All are local families. Little Rascal and Rascal combined budgets are self-funding. Thirty hours will be offered to some families in September following the new government initiative. Eligibility for 30 hours is that both parents must be working a minimum of 17 hours per week. All pre-school pupils are entitled to the 15 nursery hours. The new building comprises of 3 classes with overall floor space for up to 60 pupils. Ratio for the nursery is 1 adult to 8 children – there must always be 2 staff members with the children. The building will have its own alarm system and can be used completely independently to the main school building, should we want to hire it out in the holidays. Access is through the normal pedestrian gate onto the playground. No additional parking is being provided.
5.2 Storage Container: Governors expressed their thanks to
Mr Rob Slade, who has sourced an almost new container for the school through his association with RAF Brize Norton (donation from Airbus). They have a 40 foot container which is being exchanged for a 20 foot container for us. Mrs Pearce has contacted CDC to inform them of our siting proposal. No response yet, however, it is classed as a temporary building and planning is not required. Paint colour to be confirmed. Half of the container will be used by the gym club at a rental of £15 a week and the remaining half by the Friends Committee.
5.3 Additional Classroom: The LA has committed to build a new classroom at the end of the atrium next to the current pre-school classroom, which will become a school classroom from September 17. This is the cheapest option due to the cloakroom/w.c. already being in situ. Access to the new classroom can be made via the existing cloakroom, entrance door at the back of the building or double doors as in existing classrooms, but these will be external doors initially, until the atrium corridor is extended in the future. Pupils, accompanied by an adult, using these doors will have a short trip outside and enter via the atrium doors into the main school building using the buzzer. This is future proof so that when/if the remaining two classrooms are built and the atrium extended, the doors into the new classroom are in place already. The building may not be ready for September as hoped for and so the atrium will be used temporarily.
Confirmation has been received that £44,595 will be put into our budget for the additional pupil numbers for the whole financial year.
Mrs Pearce will prepare a room data sheet of furniture and equipment for reimbursement from the LA who have committed to cover this cost.
6.11/05/17 / Finance & Personnel Committee Report
The minutes have not yet been circulated due to the meeting only taking place last week. Mr Campbell, Chair of the Finance Committee, confirmed that the committee had met and have proposed a budget for 2017/18 which will be discussed in the next item.
7.11/05/17 / Budget
7.1 2016/17: Carry forward will be £82,515. This includes head teacher cluster funds, Rascal carry forward which will be used to fund the pre-school building needs. The excess in the minibus cost-centre will form a replacement fund. The actual uncommitted fund is £37,797. School meal costs will be monitored. The large carry forward will not be clawed back because funds are being held by the school as its population is growing thus needing additional building work and additional staff/pupil/classroom requirements.
2017/18: A 3 year budget has been prepared. The increase in teachers and teaching assistants for the new classrooms has been included in the 2017/18 budget. Cost centres were explained ie rates has gone up dramatically but is a direct cost in/out paid for by the LA.
The second and third year budgets show a deficit, however with the pupil/staff numbers increasing, this will probably not be the case. There is also a possibility that funds will still come from the developers in time, which could be used to build the remaining two classrooms.
The Chair recommended that we remain a community school whilst there is a need for building work. He proposed that a bid is submitted for the additional 2 classrooms every January when bids are requested. APPROVED.
SDP: New building work requirements, laptops for new staff and replacing the old pupil laptops on the GR site.
The Chair proposed to accept the draft budget for 2017/2018 as recommended by the Finance & Personnel Committee. APPROVED.
7.2 Staffing Structure: A draft staffing and class organisation structure was discussed. This item will remain confidential until it is ready to go out to parents. Draft sheets were returned to the HT. Class names were discussed; the new classrooms will be named Lancaster and Typhoon.
7.3 PE Budget and Pupil Premium: Spending sheets showing how the PE and Pupil premium budgets are being spent was reviewed. These documents are on the school website. A minor change will be made to the PE budget report. Governors were asked to take the time to read the reports. / HT/
Admin
HT/JG
8.11/05/17 / School Fund Report
The school fund accounts have been given to a firm of accounts (Daniel Colwell Accountants) and will be audited at a cost of £200.00.
9.11/05/17 / SFVS
9.1 R15a (15b) Statement of internal controls: Reviewed and approved. APPROVED.
9.2 R37 Best Value Statement: Reviewed and approved. APPROVED.
9.3 Governing Body Diagnostic Self-Evaluation Check: All items reported to be satisfactory. Agenda paperwork and head teacher report to be sent out earlier when possible.
10.11/05/17
11.11/05/17 / AOB
10.1 Decoration: The Clerk reported that she is still waiting for a third quote. As the decoration needs to be booked for July, the Clerk requested permission to appoint a decorator when the third quote is received up to a value of £2,700.00. APPROVED.
10.2 Parent Governor Elections: Mrs Gabriel’s parent governor appointment comes to an end in June. Parent governor elections will take place after half term. Thanks go to Mrs Gabriel for her contribution in her role as parent governor.
Mr Campbell reminded the governing body that he will be resigning from his co-opted governor post in July and recommended that a proposal of names be submitted at the next meeting. He also proposed that a new Chair is elected in July instead of September so that a Chair is in place to support the new Head Teacher when she starts in September. APPROVED.
11.1 Governors Day in School on Thursday, 6th July, at 8.30 am at the UR site.
11.2 The next full governing body termly meeting will be held on
6th July 2017 at 6.30 pm at the Upper Rissington site

There being no further business, the meeting ended at 8.15 p.m.

Signed ……………………………………………. Chairman

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