Lea and Garsdon Church of England Primary School

Minutes of the Governors’ Meeting

To be approved at next meeting

Wednesday 23rd September at 7.30pm at the School

Present: David English, Jean Jones, Kay Vousden, Margaret Gore, Ann Suter, Amanda Fisk, Tamsyn Luggar, Rebecca Rolfe, Claudine Hannigan

Apologies:

In Attendance: Sian Jones

01/16 / Apologies.
There were no apologies.
02/16 / Declaration of Business Interests
Governors were reminded to declare these as necessary.
03/16 / Minutes and Matters Arising
I haven’t got my minutes to hand but wasn’t there an action for David to write to staff?
Both the minutes from 11/06/15 and the parents’ meeting of 02/07/15 were approved.
11/06/15
75/15: the Pre-School building is to be demolished at half term and the PTA is selling the equipment. The fence will need to be sorted as the building currently forms part of the boundary. KV is to find out if the LA will allow for the land to be amalgamated with the school land.
77/15: Child Protection policy: completed.
Code of Conduct: RR has reviewed and had a few queries on the Child Protection, but otherwise the policies were approved. It was agreed that Child Protection should be a standing item on the FGB agenda.
LA Safeguarding Audit review: read by MG and KV.
New posters: completed.
80/15: completed.
82/15: windscreen notices: outstanding.
87/15: completed.
90/15: both items completed.
CK has resigned as a governor and DE recorded the governing body’s thanks for her years of service and work. / KV
SJ
RR
04/16 / Head Teacher’s Update
Number on roll: 106. 7 children have joined in years other than reception.
9 children joined throughout last year and 12 children left, mainly due to moving house or getting a place at Malmesbury School. There are currently 4 more children on roll than budgeted for in the 2016/17 budget.
There was a discussion on class sizes and the level of support needed in Otters. The TA in the class is for a named pupil so the support for Ms Humphries is limited. The class is working OK at the moment, but KV suggested that if any additional funds become availableconsideration should be given to them being spent on support for this class.
SEN is at 11% which is fairly low for our school and below the national average, although it may rise as several children are just below the threshold for SEN and are bding supported and monitored.
KV clarified that Ever 6 pupil premium are children who have had FSMs within the last 6 years.
Attendance stands at 98.4% and there are 4 children below 90%, 3 of whom have been unwell and one has taken unauthorised leave. TL asked if any are in vulnerable groups and KV said they were not.
Fire Alarm: 1m 45secs, which is good for the first of the year.
Equality: there has been one incident of homophobic language since writing the report, this has been logged and the child and their parent spoken to.
All appraisals have been completed and staffing has remained stable.
School meals seem to be going well and the quality of food is good. RR fed back that some parents have been grumbling and KV asked for the feedback to be passed to LG or KV so that any concerns could be addressed. So far school has received no negative comments.
It was suggested that the staff subject leads present to the governors at the joint twilight session.
KV asked those governors who had not yet completed a skills audit to do so asap so that she could draw up a paragraph to go out with the next advert for a new parent governor. / KV
05/16 / SIP
Last year’s SIP has been rag rated.
The new SIP has been completed based on the information from the twilight session, Ofsted and the curriculum review.
A few amendments were suggested by TL – KV to update.
There was a discussion on the floor standard set by DfE which last year was 65% (of children achieving 4 in maths, reading and writing). The government has said this would be increased to 85% for 2016, but have now changed their mind and reduced it back to 65% / KV
06/16 / Review of SATs results
KS1 results were very good especially L3 writing.
KS2 results were excellent, particularly in Maths.
All were above national level with the exception of L3 reading.
The current Y6 is not as strong and has several children with SEN. The bar has also been raised with the new curriculum. Sample test papers have been received but with no pass marks. There will be no mental maths test, but there will an arithmetic paper and maths reasoning. Writing will be based on teacher assessment. A SPAG test is to be taken by Y2 and the reading test is more like the KS2 test.
DE asked if the SATs results are on the website and KV is to check. / KV
07/16 / Committee Updates
Finance: meeting is to be scheduled.
Staffing: meeting is to be scheduled.
BHS: the H&S walk round has been complete. The break-out rooms have been completed. The LA has done a lot of work on the damp around the school and a redecoration programme is being reviewed. Thermostats have been installed in all rooms. The 5 year electrical tests have been completed and the LA has fixed the faults. The water problems have been addressed. The tree survey has been completed. Storage remains critical.
Curriculum: the committee met last week and the end of year data was reviewed in great detail. A summary of the findings for each year group can be found in the Curriculum Committee minutes.
08/16 / Governor of the Month
Progress of Vulnerable Children: DE met with RW and reviewed the Pupil Premium and SEN children’s progress. DE stated that there were good processes in place and every child with SEN has a –Support Plan which is reviewed regularly. The allocation of the PP funding for this year needs to be reviewed by governors.This is to be added to the next agenda along with Sports Funding.
Some of the interventions paid for out of Pupil Premium put in place are non-academic and focus on social and emotional support for the families.
Progress for these children is good, but for those with SEN, attainment is below average.
KV agreed to draw up a new Governor of the Month plan based on the SIP. / KV
09/16 / Policies
The following policies were approved:
Parental Leave Adoption Leave
DBS Recruitment of Ex Offenders
Appeals Procedures Grievance
Adoption Leave for Support Staff Adoption Leave for Teachers
Collective Grievance Redundancy Pay
Teachers Redundancy Pay.
10/16 / Notices from Clerk
KV reminded governors to send information on themselves for the website to LG. See those already on there for a proforma.
11/16 / AOB
A village emergency plan is being put in place and it has been requested that the school hall be available. Governors agreed and RR offered to be a key holder in the village.
It was agreed to keep the PAN at 20.
The Open Morning is on 6th October.
Date of next Meeting: Thursday 19th November 2015

Signed: Date: