Noel Park Primary Academy

ST IGNATIUS ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

Minutes of the Governing Board Meeting (to include T&L) held on

Thursday, 2nd July, 2015, at 6.00 pm

*Denotes absence from the meeting

+Denotes absence and apologies accepted

PART I

1WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

1.1The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the meeting the opening prayer was led by governor JA.

2APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.1Apologies and reason for absence were received and accepted from governors MB, BO’M and Sr. EC and absence was noted for governor CE.

2.2The meeting was quorate.

3DECLARATION OF BUSINESS INTERESTS,PECUNARY OR OTHERWISE IN RESPECT OF ITEMS ON THE AGENDA

3.1There were no declarations of business interests, pecuniary or otherwise in respect of items on the agenda. The Clerk advised that with effect from September, 2015 under the Department for Education (DfE) Statutory Guidance that there would be a requirement for governors of maintained schools to indicate whether or not they were related to any member of teaching or support staffat the school as well as to providedetails of any other educational establishments that they may govern. The Clerk would make available the revised declaration of business interestsform at the next governing body meeting to take account of this change.

4MINUTES OF THE GOVERNING BOARD MEETING HELD ON 21st MAY, 2015 AND MATTERS ARISING

4.1The Clerk confirmed that the head teacher’s amendments to the minutes of 21st May, 2015 had been made. The Chair stated that she would set out her proposed amendments to the minutes of 21st May, 2015 in an email to the Clerk.

Action: Chair

4.2The following matters arising were reviewed to monitor progress:

4.3Page 1: item 4.4 – the Clerk confirmed that the concept ‘What a Good one Looks Like ‘ (WAGOLL) had been revised to be understood as a concept that could be used across the whole national curriculum and not just in Writing.

4.4Page 2: item 4.6 – with regard to Teaching and Learning as a separate committee the Chair said that governors had not expressed a view and that this would need to be revisited; the Clerk would add this as an agenda item to the next governing body meeting.

Action: Chair/Clerk

4.5Page 2: item 4.8 – the head teacher confirmed that the deputy head teacher was happy to continue in her post up and until 31st March, 2016 in a temporary capacity and that this would be announced in the September, 2015 School Newsletter.

4.6Page 2: item 4.11 – with regard to subject leaders and governor visits, governor JA advised that he had received no further contact from the RE (Religious Education) and Maths subject leaders. The head teacher said that he would circulate minutes of those subject leaders to respective governors so that they were suitably informed.

Action: Head teacher

4.7Page 2: item 4.13 – the head teacher confirmed that the governor declarations of business interests forms were up to date and filed securely at the school. The Clerk advised that from September, 2015 all forms would need to uploaded on to the school website in line with the Department for Education (DfE) requirement.

4.8Page 3: item 4.20 – the head teacher had made available a sample Performance Management Review (PMR) template this would be discussed at item 6 below.

4.9Page 3: item 4.21 – with regard to governor BO’M making further contact with the manager at the local Sainsbury’s around community involvementthe head teacher updated that there were no further opportunities to be explored at this time.

4.10Page 3: item 4.22 –the assistant head teacher said that she would merge the Pupil Gap Analysis data by subject, gender, Free School Meals (FSM) and non FSM into the transition matrixes commentary and that this would be produced for discussion in the autumn term.

Action: Assistant head teacher

4.11Page 3: item 4.24 – it was noted that the visit by governor MB to meet with the assistant head teacher to discuss data around FSM and non FSM would still need to be arranged.

Action: MB/Assistant head teacher

4.12Page 3: item 4.25 – the Chair requested that a parent ballot letter be placed in the September, 2015 School Newsletter.

Action: Head teacher

4.13Page 4: item 6.1 –the assistant head teacher confirmed that she would produce a draft Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and whole school School Improvement Plan (SIP) and Self Evaluation Form (SEF) to be discussed at the first autumn term governing body meeting.

Action: Assistant head teacher/Clerk

4.14Page 4: item 6.2 – on the issue of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and low take up of nursery numbers for September, 2015, the Chair said that she would revisit this issue and report back to governors on any progress.

Action: Chair/Clerk

4.15Page 5: item 7.5 – the Chair reminded governors of her request to carry out a health and safety walk of the school and governors were encouraged to step forward and volunteer.

Action: All

4.16Page 5: item 8.2 –the head teacher confirmed to the meeting that the 2015/16 school budget had been duly signed and submitted to the local authority.

4.17Page 6: item 12.1 – the Clerk confirmed that the governing body was formally reconstituted and that all the necessary documents had been signed by the Diocese and the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Services and filed with the local authority.

4.18Page 6: item 13.1 – the Chair confirmed that she and the head teacher would attend the session on Safer Recruitment training delivered by ALP Training and Development Limited on 6th October, 2015.

4.19Page 6: item 14.1 – the Chair said that the governor Code of Conduct item would be deferred for information and discussion to the next meeting.

Action: Chair/Clerk

4.20Page 7: item 16.1 – the Chair said that the Leaving Gifts Policy would also be deferred for information and discussion to the next meeting.

Action: Chair/Clerk

4.21The Chair confirmed that the minutes of 26th February, 2015 had taken on board the comments and amendments and the minutes were duly signed with a copy to be retained by the school for safekeeping and a copy to be retained by the Chair.

5SCHOOL DATA

5.1The head teacher circulated to the meeting the ‘End of Year Assessment, June 2015’ paper and stated that the paper was a projection of the 2015 results for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) the Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Sage 2 (KS2) year groups. The head teacher explained that the internal assessment data revealed that there were no significant concerns across the whole school and there was general agreement that the overall results were pleasing. During a discussion around the school assessment data at KS1 SATS a governor raised a question around the much smaller percentage attainment of pupils at Level 3 compared to those at Level 2+ and the head teacher explained that the percentages against Level 2+represented the national average and that the Level 3 percentageshad projected that pupils were well above average and so achieved at the top end of their target.

6PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REVIEW

6.1The Chair thanked the head teacher for circulating the sample Performance Management Review (PMR) template document. There was some discussion around the content of the document and there was general agreement that it would be helpful for both the reviewer and the reviewee if the head teacher were to add a column which recorded the teacher’s ‘key skills to develop’together with a set of targets and milestones. Governor GF recommended that there should be regular review points and that as well as an electronic version a hardcopy of the PMR should also be maintained.

Action: Head teacher

7SAFEGUARDING

7.1The head teacher updated governors on the school’s current safeguarding position followed by a tour of the whole school.

8STAFFING UPDATE

8.1The head teacher advised governors that he had received two resignations from Year 2 and one resignation from Year 3 and that adequate staffing arrangements were in place for the start of the autumn term.

9COMMITEE UPDATES

9.1Resources Committee - the Resources committee Chair, governor AM drew governor’s attention to the circulated Resources committee minutes of 4th June, 2015. She advised that the Schools Financial Value Statement was agreed at the October, 2013 governing body meeting and that the work which stemmed from that meeting was to take forward the six agreed actions. To date, she confirmed that three of the agreed actions had been completed, these were that the Instrument of Government (IoG) was now in place that the statutory quarterly financial returns had been consistently presented by Resources for governing body approval and that the three year budget health plan had been presented by Educational Financial Solutions Limited (EFSL)to the Resources committee for scrutiny and thenpresented for governing body approval. It was agreed that the outstanding work which included the local authority financial regulations on tendering thresholds ditto the school disaster and recovery plan as well as to ensure that all papers and policies were in place (in relation to how the school guarded itself against fraud) would be taken forward next term.

Action: Chair

9.2Personnel Committee -the Personnel committee Chair, governor GF confirmed that all the statutory school polices were agreed and up to date however, one or two may be revised in line with recent DfE guidance.

10THE GOVERNORS’ ANNUAL REPORT

10.1The Clerk suggested that it would be useful for governors to produce the annual report to parents and it was agreed that this would be an item for discussion at the first governing body meeting of the autumn term.

Action: Head teacher/Clerk

11ANY OTHER BUSINESS

11.1The Chair thanked governors and the Clerk for all their efforts and support throughout the course of the year. There were no other business items to be discussed at the meeting.

12DATE OF NEXT MEETING

12.1The date of the next meeting was confirmed as Thursday, 1st October, 2015 @ 6.00 pmand the Clerk said that she would circulate the list of governing body and committee dates for 2015/16. The head teacher said that he would take a look at the dates set by the Clerk and confirm with her at the next governing body meeting that there were no date clashes with the school’s annual cycle of commitments.

Action: Head teacher/Clerk

A closing prayer was had and theChair closed the meeting at 8.15 pm.

Signed:...... Dated: ......

Anna Maria Wallis – Chair

St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Primary School

List of agreed Actions

1

St Ignatius Roman Catholic Primary School – FGB Minutes Part I - 020715