Meet the Governors

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 2018/19

GOVERNING BODY ISSUES FACED AND ADDRESSED BY GOVERNING BODY 2018/19

• Governing Body Action Plan was further revised in January 2019 to more closely align with the School Improvement Plan and to ensure ongoing monitoring of the revised vision statement & values introduced last year, together with particular emphasis on areas previously raised by OFSTED.

IMPACT:  The School was inspected by OFSTED in February 2019 and received a “Good” rating in all areas with Personal Development, Behaviour & Welfare being rated as “Outstanding”. As part of the OFSTED summary comments, the Inspectors stated: “The governing body has a clear and detailed understanding of what is working well and what needs to improve. Governors keep a close eye on how well the School is doing”.

• The links which the School has embedded with other schools in the locality to benefit from exchange of ideas etc. have been maintained. However, further discussions during the year and presentations from existing local MATs did not convince either the School or Governing Body that the potential identifiable benefits warranted the formalisation of a MAT arrangement at that time.
•  IMPACT: The Governors remain steadfast in their belief that a MAT arrangement would add little to the outcomes for pupils at this time (given the very positive OFSTED report), although changes in legislation and/or funding arrangements may well result in the School revisiting this area in the future.

• Budgetary Issues.  Funding continues to be extremely tight but strong ongoing control by the School and robust challenges by the Resources & Pastoral Committee & Governing Body to minimise expenditure and increase income have been necessary to produce a balanced budget for the present financial year.

 IMPACT: The Governing Body through the medium of its’ Resources & Pastoral Committee has been instrumental in assisting the School in control of the Budget.

Pupils’ Attendance. The School is maintaining a strong emphasis on attempting to reach its’ targeted attendance figure of 96% on a regular basis, and OFSTED has 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 and Resources and Pastoral Issues Committee Meetings (6 per annum) 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 2019. A 360° review of the Chair of Governors and a revised Governors Skills Audit will be carried out in the academic year 2019/20.

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

The apprentice who was working in the School Office has now been employed as a First Aid assistant. The Governing Body were instrumental in persuading the School to obtain value from the Apprenticeship Levy which it is required to pay.

IMPACT:  It is pleasing that the School has now found a role for the apprentice.

GDPR. This important relatively new legislation received the full attention of the Governing Body; a Data Protection Officer was appointed (a Business Manager at another School).

IMPACT:  Several governors received GDPR training and it was a regular agenda item on Resources & Pastoral Issues Committee Meetings, where  issues were discussed and challenging questions asked if necessary. Actions taken by the School to prevent data breaches continue to be reviewed and a Data Protection Governor has been appointed by the Governing Body.

Provision of Additional Space for SEND pupils. The School and Governors 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. Discussions on possible extra demountable buildings did not progress but 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 (although fitting out the room will need to be funded by the School). Construction work is planned to commence in October 2019.

IMPACT:  The Governing Body, in conjunction with the PTA, had discussed the possibilities of obtaining a grant to contribute towards the cost of the building works, and following the developments above, assisted in the application for a grant for fitting out costs. Recently we were advised that the PTA had been successful in obtaining a grant of just under £4,000 for this purpose.