Governing Body Meetings

Governing Body Meetings 2021/2022

We generally meet on Mondays and there is usually one meeting per half term but can be flexible so that full attendance can be encouraged. Meetings start at 3.30pm and usually end around 5.00pm.

The focus for each meeting is based on school development, finances and other aspect of strategic work

In addition to the above the Head Teacher, Chair of Governors and Vice Chair meet with the CEO of Transform Trust, Rebecca Meredith, to discuss and review standards in school.

We also undertake monitoring visits in line with the monitoring schedule in school. Last year they included a range of visits looking at leadership, safeguarding, attendance, collective worship, book scrutiny, learning walks and paired observations.

All our meetings are clerked by Ruth Palmer. Ruth is Clerk for Transform Trust. If you wish to get in touch with any member of the Governing Body then please contact Ruth at ruth.palmer@transformtrust.co.uk.

Attendance Monitoring of Governing Body Meetings

It is also a requirement that we show our attendance at our formal Governing Body Meetings. These can be listed in the document below.

What is effective Governance?

To ensure that we are effective in our roles and meeting the expectations and requirements outlines in the DfE’s Governance Handbook, we undertake a range of training and development along with a lot of reading to keep ourselves up-to-date on the latest legislation and policy development. For more information about the role of school governance, the following are helpful links:

Governance Handbook, Competency Framework and Clerking Competence Framework:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-handbook

Academies Financial Handbook

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-financial-handbook

We are also members of the National Governors’ Association www.nga.org.uk and The Key for Governors https://schoolgovernors.thekeysupport.com

Training

As a Governing Body we have undertaken the following training:

• Safeguarding (Child Protection, Safer Recruitment, PREVENT,)

• Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

• Finance

• Health and Safety

• Pupil Premium Strategy

Further training this academic year will include:

• Conducting a school visit

• Finance

• Handling Complaints

We have all completed a skills audit which enables us to identify what further training is needed – both for the individual and as a group.

Statutory Duties

We are also responsible for a number of statutory duties including:

• Ensuring that the school provides a broad, balanced and innovative curriculum.

• Ensuring that the school complies with the Equality Act, the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Employment Act.

• Ensuring the school complies with the Special Educational Needs and Disability legislation.

• Ensuring that we seek and listen to the views of our stakeholders: staff, parents/carers and children.

Karen Slack is our named Safeguarding Governor.

Maureen Pates is our named SEND Governor and Karen Slack is our Pupil Premium Governor.

Our meetings are structured so that agendas ensure that we meet our statutory duties and that we also consider Trust and School policies.

Quality Assurance Reviews

Our school does not just rely on its own performance information. The school engages with both the Trust and external organisations who come in at different times during the year and undertake a range of different reviews to assess and look at what is happening right across the school. This gives the Governing Body confidence in what we are being told in terms of overall performance of the school and that our children are receiving the best possible learning provision.

Snapshot of Governance - a general guide to governor actions

• School Improvement Priorities agreed with the involvement of stakeholders.

• School performance regularly monitored and challenge where appropriate.

• Chair of Governors attended Standards Meetings with CEO

• Chair of Governors present throughout KS2 SATS

• Balanced budget agreed 

• Staffing structure agreed 

• Transform Trust and School policies in place

• Audit of Safeguarding policy and Procedures 

• Pupil Premium Allocation. Strategy and Impact statements reviewed and published

• Sports Premium Allocation, Strategy and Impact statements reviewed and published.

• Admission arrangements reviewed

• A range of monitoring visits conducted on progress, book scrutiny, collective worship, Attendance, SEND provision and safeguarding.

• Middle leaders and Senior Leaders present to Governing Body