Southfield School key priorities
Review the school’s Vision and Values with the school community including ensuring consistent agreed behaviour management systems
Extend high attainers across the whole school by increasing the amount of children achieving the performance descriptor exceeding in their Year group
Provide more opportunities in EYFS for developing reading, writing and number in the classroom and outside the classroom
Improve phonic knowledge in Years 1, 2 and 3 including the application of phonics in English lessons
Further develop a broad and balanced curriculum by further linking learning skills with lessons and adding an international dimension to the curriculum
Ensure the new performance descriptors are embedded and data is accurate
MINUTES OF GOVERNING BODY MEETING
Date / Monday, 23 November 2015Time / 7.00 pm
Location / Southfield Primary School
Present / Richard Sturdy, Simon Prebble, Georgina Gilbey, Catherine Barlen, Joanne Cato, Robert Huxford, Angela McHale, John Tanter, Carol Douglas, Anthony Korn
In attendance / Amandeep Tamber, Parvan Bal, Marianna Loizia
Apologies
Apologies were received from Ngozi Fasan, Janet Barton and Leong MacSweeney. / Action
Authorised/Unauthorised Absence
Governors authorised the above named absences.
Governing Body Membership and Declaration of Business Interests
There were no declarations of interest for this meeting or changes to circumstances since the last meeting.
Minutes of the Last Meetings
The minutes of the meetings held on 6 July 2015 and 5 October 2015 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chair.
Matters arising from the Minutes
There were no matters arising from the minutes.
Minutes from the Committee Meetings, including ratification of Committee terms of Reference, Pay Committee
The changes to the Terms of Reference for both committees were agreed.
Resources Committee – the draft minutes from the meeting held on 20 October were noted.
Teaching and Learning Committee – the minutes from the meeting held on 20 October 2015 were not available. However Catherine Barlen gave the meeting a verbal summary.
Headteacher’s Report
The Head invited questions on his report that had been circulated prior to the meeting:
An information sheet about National Assessment arrangements was tabled and will also be sent electronically to governors. Any queries on this can be sent to the Headteacher.
EYFS baseline assessment – At a meeting with Early Excellence, attended by Simon Prebble, Amandeep Tamber and Liz Ouko, they gave some information about national figures which they are working on to make comparisons, 72% of schools nationally use the same system making it a fair comparison. Although non statutory this year most schools are using the assessment, and it will be statutory from September 2016 statutory.
Governors had the following questions (in bold) on the report:
Would the school consider a robust approach to children being late in the form of penalty fines – The Head said the LA had advised that some schools are introducing fines for being regularly late, but punctuality has improved in school and no decision has been made yet. Some studies also imply that some people accept fines as a cost to being late. Fines for non-attendanceare already in place, and this is nationally a hot topic.
Is there a connection with children that may need to use public transport to come in? The school is in communication with parents / carers to explore ways to reduce lateness. Where families are re-housedthis may have an impact and these circumstances are taken into account, however, these are not usually the children who are late.
Governors asked for an update on the number on the current School Roll in the nursery in view of the threat of a clawback. The Head advised there will be no clawback based on the previous year’s numbers but there will be animpactan impact on future years. Children in EYFS are encouraged to start before the census date in January to minimize any clawback impact. The figure is not known yet.The school is however owedmoney as it went over the number given last year, which will offset some of the clawback. The full time places pilot will also help reduce any losses of income. This situation is not unusual as all neighbouring schools are struggling to take in enough nursery children.
Will there be an impact in the lower numbers in Year 4, if there is a dip, is there a challenge in terms of teaching and learning? The Head said it does have an impact as new children are unknown, and arrive from a range of countries and areas and some may be recent arrivals with no English language or vulnerable from mobility issues.
How much time is spent dealing with the influx of new children? - This varies, but the EAL teacher will prioritise their needs with those of existing children.
Is there a risk of having to reduce classes? There is no risk, but there are various impacts. The Year 6 is down by 8, but other year groups are pretty full.
The number of children entering and leaving at 36 is pretty high - The Head said that the numbers the previous year were lower and there is a net increase of 26 children.
What is the process for children leaving with an unknown destination or emigrating – how do we not know where twoYear 1 children have gone? – The Head advised that this is usually because the school does not know which school the children will be going to. When they are allocated a school, the new school will contact the school for information. The school also asks for contact details for someone in the UK where families are going abroad so that contact can be made for follow up as part of the Missing in Education Programme. The Head informed the meeting that two members of the admin team had recently attended training on this area.
Governors suggested a short section on achieving the vision and values could be added to the Head’s report in future - The Head said he would add this.
Governors congratulated Ms Bal for the successful Maths workshop attended by over 140 parents.
100% achievement Audit Assistance Survey three successive years – congratulations to the team.
Behaviour – a lot of incidents in KS1 have now transferred to lower KS2 is there a reason? – The Head advised that to a great extent this involved one particular child, and progress is being made with an individual behavior plan.
Has there been any impact on behaviour of Ready for Learning– There has been some impact, and over the next three weeks, the SLT will meet with groups of children to talk about their views of it.
Governing Body Audit/Self Evaluation Action Plan
This has now been updated and will be reviewed by the committee members with the aim to send to the whole governing body by next term.
Vision and Values
The Head said that Ruth Murton’s feedback was that this was a great governing body. The draft Vision and Values had been taken to the SLT and there was a comment that the vision does not lend itself to thinking that it is a school, learning is missing and there was a suggestion to add ‘learning’ community. The wording was revised and agreed by the governors as follow:
‘For every child, we aim to provide a happy,
nurturing community which inspires them to learn and to be their best.’
The next step is to present the Vision and Values to staff on their training day on 4 January at 9 – 9.30 am – Angela McHale, Rob Huxford, Anthony Korn and Georgie Gilbeyoffered to help the Head with this, and he will email some dates to meet to prepare the presentation to staff and parents. The work with the children will be done within the school.
The six values were also agreed:
- Respect
- Optimism
- Honesty
- Inclusivity
- Fairness
- Perseverance.
It is highly unlikely that the school will not be getting another bulge class due to local authority measures put in place with extra places, eg Ark schools, and other expansions. The peak of a shortage of places had been reached and numbers have now started to go down.
Information was given about Ealing and non-Ealing applications. In 2015 first preference applications on time was 54 (Ealing) and 4 out of Borough, second preference was 25 Ealing and 6 out of Borough. There29 sibling applications for this year with 20 in catchment and 9 out of catchment.
Policy Ratification
The Head confirmed that most policies had been sent around for comments.
Drugs Policy
Governors ratified this policy.
Governors Expenses
Governors queried that courses outside of Ealing were not covered by the policy and the Head confirmed that if there was available funding governors could attend courses arranged by other bodies, but that the school would usually pay for the course. It was agreed to change ‘Ealing’ to ‘Ealing or other suitable bodies’ to include courses outside of Ealing. The photocopy policy does not apply to governors and the Head confirmed that the school office could print off papers for governors.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
These policies have not been changed yet, and were deferred untilnext term following whole staff training on radicalization.
Medical conditions
Governors queried if it was feasible to find suitably trained staff referred to in the policy and the Head confirmed that training would be provided as needed. Governors agreed the policy.
Appraisal
Governors ratified the policy.
Toileting
It was noted that the definition of disability in the policy is different from the statutory definition and it was agreed to change ‘negative’ to‘adverse’ effect on page 1. Governors agreed the policy subject to this change.
Directors Report to Governors
- School Performance Update
- Achieving Excellence Together
- Prevent In Schools
- Establishing a School Safeguarding Group
- Ofsted Inspection Framework Released
- Primary School Assessment and Accountability Changes in 2016
- Changes to Primary Curriculum, Testing and Moderation
- Changes to GCSEs subjects and new Grading Structure
- P8 and A8 performance measures 2016
- Post 16 - Changes to AS and A levels
- Register of Interests
- What's on the Horizon?
- Getting Ready For The Academic Year
- Future Changes to Free Childcare Entitlement for 3 and 4 Year Olds
- Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHAP)
- RE Monitoring of RE Reflection by Ealing SACRE
- Healthy Related Behaviour Survey
- Health and Wellbeing and the New Ofsted Inspection Framework
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Governors and Clerks Awards 2015
- Ealing Leaders of Governance (ELGS)
- Governor Development Update
Correspondence to the Chair
There was no correspondence of note.
Any Other Business
Safeguarding Report
The Safeguarding and Child Protection Report – the policy will be updated to include a new sectionabout radicalization and the work ofPrevent. The areas to be covered have been summarised in the report and the staff will receive training in February.
The number of meetings attended by the school staff was noted, and Catherine Barlen highlighted the number was already higher than previous years. Anthony Korn and Joanne Cato will attend the Spring term safeguarding meeting. Mr Korn said he would like to attend training on this area and Catherine Barlen highlighted the courses available.
Pay Committee
The Pay Committee met on 11 November to review recommendations made by the Head.Carol Douglas outlined the recommendations and the process including reviewing evidence of teachers meeting objectives and the relevant national standards.She confirmed that the Committee was satisfied with the recommendations and agreed them.
A Work Life Balance for Teachers’ document has been received from the NUT which will be reviewed.
Lettings
Governors asked for an update on the two companies that Ms McCabe has been liaising with. Mr Tanter confirmed she is getting more information from bothto enable governors to make a decisionincluding seeking clarification on what they would use the facilities for.
Date and Time of Next Meetings
The following dates were agreed:
Governing Body Meetings -
Wednesday, 16 March 2016 at 7.00 pm
Monday, 20 June 2016 at 7.00 pm
Teaching Learning Committee-Wednesday, 10 February 2016 at 9 – 11.00 am
Management Committee- Tuesday, 9 February 2016 at 6.30 pm
Tuesday, 25 May 2016 at 6.30 pm
The meeting finished at8.25pm.
Richard SturdyChair of Governors / Southfield Primary School
Southfield Road
London, W4 1DB
Marianna Loizia
Clerk to the Governors
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Southfield - Minutes - November 2015