GOVERNING BODY AT HAROLD WOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL

GOVERNING BODY PECUNIARY INTERESTS

INVOLVEMENT WITH THE GOVERNING BODY OF ANOTHER SCHOOL OTHER THAN HWPS

ATTENDANCE AT GOVERNING BODY MEETINGS 2019/20

GOVERNING BODY ISSUES FACED AND ADDRESSED BY GOVERNING BODY 2019/20

• Governing Body Action Plan was further revised in January 2020 to more closely align with the School Improvement Plan and to ensure ongoing monitoring of the School’s vision statement & values (with particular emphasis on areas previously raised by OFSTED).

       IMPACT: More focused monitoring on important areas

• Budgetary Issues.  Funding continues to be extremely tight and Covid-19 issues have complicated matters. The Finance responsibilities of the now disbanded Resources & Pastoral Committee have been restructured in the format of a Finance Sub-Committee which meets as and when necessary to consider specific financial issues, to complement the discussions on Finance at Full Governing Body Meetings.

       IMPACT: The Governing Body through the medium of its’ Finance Sub-Committee has been instrumental in assisting the School in control of the Budget.

• Pupils’ Attendance. The School is continuing to maintain a strong emphasis on attempting to reach its’ targeted attendance figure of 96% on a regular basis, and OFSTED has previously praised the ongoing efforts to improve the statistics. Issues relating to attendance and punctuality have formed the basis of regular discussions at Full Governing Body Meetings this year.

       IMPACT:  Closer and more detailed review of data, and in-depth discussions on plans to improve performance in this area.

• Governing Body Effectiveness.  A Self-Review of Governance was conducted in January 2020. A revised Governors Skills Audit will be carried out in the Autumn Term 2020/21, now that the Governing Body has been restored to its’ full complement.

       IMPACT:  Regular self-review of Governing Body performance to ensure its’ continuing effectiveness, and confirmation of the performance levels indicated in the OFSTED report in February 2019.

• Provision of Additional Space for SEND pupils. The School and Governors had both recognised that once the final “spare” classroom was occupied by a class (from September 2019), the space previously available to tutor or deal with SEN pupils would have been very restricted. As previously advised, we were pleased to learn that the Local Authority should have included an extra room as part of the buildings expansion a few years ago and as a result they agreed to fund an additional building for this purpose, which has now been completed and is in use.

       IMPACT:  The Governing Body had worked hard in conjunction with the School to achieve this  additional resource and we are all pleased with the outcome.

• Staff Wellbeing.  As a result of a Governing Body project to improve staff wellbeing, we decided to completely restructure our committee format from September 2019 in order to reduce the burden of SLT attendance at Governor Committee Meetings, most of which had been arranged for early evenings. Both the Resources & Pastoral Issues Committee & Teaching and Learning Committee were disbanded with issues discussed at Full Governing Body Meetings and agenda items being refocused. The Governing Body has retained the Pupil Premium/Inclusion and Finance Sub-Committees but these are generally held during the School Day.

       IMPACT: Less evening meetings for SLT Staff.