Sirius Academy – MINUTES

MEETING / Sirius Academy Multi-Academy Trust / DATE HELD / Monday 21 September 2015 / NEXT MEETING / Monday 14 December 2015
(short meeting)
PRESENT
In attendance
Apologies
Absent
Chair
Clerk / Neil Porteus (NPO), Cathy Taylor (CTA), Caron Wright (CWR), Les Gomm (LGO) A Speight (ASP)
T. Priestley (TPR),T. Taylor (TTA), J Sherwood (JSH), I Ravenscroft (IRN)
Ken SturdyPaul Sowden
N Porteus
T. Ford (TFO) / DISTRIBUTION / AllDirectors
AREA OF DISCUSSION / DISCUSSION POINTS /

ACTION POINTS

/ BY WHOM / BY WHEN
1. Welcome & Apologies – / Neil Porteus welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made to Alan Speight who joins the board as the Hull University nominee.
2. Declaration of Business Interests / A Speight as a member of staff at Hull University.
3.Minutes of the previous meeting 24 August 2015
Matters arising from the previous minutes / Print Solution – TPR met with IT@Spectrum and a proposal will be put together to go out to Tender to three companies. / Agreed as a true record / All present
4. Sirius Academy North – Action Plans for 2015-16
Operational Action Plan 2015-16
Special Measures Action Plan 2015-16 / CTA explained the operational plan is a working document and is ready for HMI Autumn inspection at Sirius Academy North; it is updated on a termly basis.
Questions were taken of the plan
Q. 1.9 of the plan – where is the careers education calendar published?
CTA replied this was published on the Academy internal calendar.
Q. Given the timescales would it not be beneficial to update the plan monthly?
CTA replied that it operates on a 6 week process and is used in weekly link line management meetings; however CTA will update monthly moving forward.
CTA explained the Special Measures Action Plan is updated each half term and monitored against actions planned from HMI. / To update the operational plan monthly.
Directors noted both plans and thanked CTA for the level of detail. / CTA
All directors present / ongoing
5. Planed Intervention for Year 11 / CTA informed directors of the intensive intervention plan which has been put in place at the start of term. An exemplar of a profile group was included in the intervention pack. SLT links will work closely with all intervention groups as teams.
An action plan has been provided with detailed information. 284 students have been split into groups to track individual progress.
CTA tabled and shared a power-point presentation on intervention;
72% of pupils to gain GCSE at grades C or above in both English and Mathematics
65% of pupils to gain 5 or more A*-C grades including English, Maths plus one other with the progress 8 score being +0.5.
Students will study the English Baccalaureate
Intervention Strategies – IGCSE English has benefits for two identified cohorts, this will consist of 60% coursework rather than 40% controlled assessment. We estimate 25% of the year group will bank an A*-C grade.
IGCSE Maths – this will benefit one identified cohort and reduce numbers of borderline pupils – estimate 20% of the year group will bank a grade A*-C.
All students will complete ECDL qualification.
Questions were taken on Intervention plans.
Q. When does the progress 8 measure come into force?
CTA replied this is for summer 2016.
Q. does the IGCSE qualify when applying for other courses, for example an apprenticeship, as some are discounted on some awarding bodies?
CTA informed the Cambridge International GCSE does count across the board.
Q. what is the level of student engagement with the intervention action plan?
CTA replied students are very much on board and are already attending the intervention sessions held. / Directors noted the Intervention Plans and thanked CTA for the level of detail provided. / All directors present
6. Sirius Academy North – Raising Attainment Plan / IRN explained this document outlines the strategies to be used to raise attainment in Year 11 and is a working document.
Questions were taken of the plan.
Q. how often is this updated?
IRN replied this is a standing agenda item at the weekly SLT meeting and ragged monthly. / Directors noted the Raising Attainment Plan and thanked IRN for the detail. / All directors present
7. Sirius Academy West – Year 11 Profile & Term 1 Priorities / JSH gave a brief summary of the paper which outlines the on-entry attainment profile of current Year 11 in comparison to both national average and in comparison to Year 11 in 2014/15 and current Y9 and 10. Twelve students have been identified as a significant risk of not achieving their targets due to a combination of very poor attendance and a negative attitude to learning, four of these students are currently on alternative provision at Hessle Road Network.
Questions were taken of the paper.
Q. What is the data based on?
JSH explained the data is taken from the KS2 entrydata as an average. / Directors noted the report / All directors present
8. Sirius Academy North – Year 11 Profile & Term 1 Priorities / IRN gave a brief outline of the paper explaining there is only 7% of the current Y11 in the high attainment band and in addition to this is the significant challenge of 29% of students who have EAL (English as an additional language).
Questions were taken of the paper.
Q. what support mechanisms are in place for EAL students?
IRN explained a Polish support teacher has been employed as most of this cohort are Polish, in addition dictionaries have been purchased along with other resources and small group work sessions are been held. / Directors noted the report / All directors present
9. Feedback from the application for the Free School / Feedback letter from the DfE was previously circulated to directors.
The letter gave two reasons for the application being refused;
a)Capacity b) need
CTA received further feedback during a telephone call from the DfE who informed her the application was indeed a strong one and would have been likely to have been approved if the results for 2015 had not of fallen this year – the academy can re-apply in 12 months’ time.
CTA has also spoken to the Regional Schools Commissioner to inform them the academy is doing everything possible to raise the results for 2016 – Jenny Bexon- Smith thinks it would be incredibly unlucky to have an Ofsted inspection this year based on one year’s results dipping.
10. Scheme of Delegation & Directors structure/Financial Regulations / TPR presented a second draft of the scheme of delegation following requested amendments at the previous meeting.
TPR highlighted some of the main important points of the paper;
Sirius Academy MAT is one company which both schools sit under
CTA is the accounting officer for both schools
Committee structures require Chair and Vice Chair nominations and will sit under the main full board structure.
3 directors are required to lead on Child Protection, SEN and Gifted & Talented.
Local Governing bodies will not be used for SAN & SAW as we are operating as one single board – we also need to appoint a second parent director to join the board.
A 3rd member is required as CWR is still a temporary member.
Financial Regulations:
TPR introduced the Financial Regulations as the MAT Academy (West & North) Financial Regulations.
TPR stressed that when Cathy Taylor as Accounting Officer is requested to sign off or approve expenditure, it is assumed the person requesting this authorisation/sign off, has already fully complied with the Financial Regulations.
Questions were taken of the document.
Q. on page 2 of the scheme of delegation who is the nominated deputy?
TPR informed this has not yet been decided.
Q. On page 6 point 4.2.2 – it states the full MAT board will appoint Principal and SLT posts; do we need all directors for this?
TPR will change to ‘a director is required’ to appoint Principal and SLT posts.
TPR informed directors the SCITT and Blue Print Alliance are not mentioned in the scheme of delegation as these are departments and not separate companies of the MAT. / Letter to be sent out to parents of SAN for director nominations.
To identify the ‘Deputy’ and to amend point 4.22 on page 6 / Clerk (TFO)
TPR / 22/09/15
11. AOB / NPO asked directors of their preferred option of committee’s to sit on; Finance & General Purposes or Quality and Curriculum.
LGO, CWR volunteered for Quality
ASP volunteered for either committee / To finalise the structures of committees. / NPO / 19/10/15
12: Date of next meeting:Monday 19 October – Quality Standards & Curriculum Meeting.
Short MAT full board meeting: 14 December 2015

Signed by Chair of Directors……………………………………………

Quick Glance action points

NAME / ACTION POINT / BY WHEN /DATE
CTA / To update the operational plan for SAN monthly. / Ongoing
Clerk / Letter to be sent out to parents of SAN students for director nominations. / 19/10/15
TPR / To identify ‘Deputy’ and to amend point 4.22 on page 6 / 22/09/15
NPO / To finalise the structure of committees / 19/10/15