Minutes of the Governing Body of Ingleton Primary School

held on Wednesday, May 15th 2019 at 6.30pm at the school

Core functions:
• Setting strategic direction
• Holding Headteacher to account for educational performance
• Ensuring financial health, probity and value for money

Present: Dawn Barry (DB), Rachel Clements (RC), Joanna Colledge (JC), Alice Ellwood (AE), Katie Harrison (KH), Rowan Knapton (RK), Rachael Shults (RS) Jenny Thistlethwaite Chair (JT), Jenny Ward (JW).

In attendance: Jane Mellers JM (Clerk),

Minutes
No. Item Minute Action
Part ‘A’ – PROCEDURAL
1 Welcome and Introductions. The Chair welcomed all to the meeting. The Chair noted that this would be Dawn Barry’s last meeting before her retirement and thanked her for her many years of
enthusiastic and dedicated work at Ingleton Primary School.
2 Apologies for absence and to determine whether any absences should be consented to. Apologies for absence were received from Carl Lis. This was consented to.
3 To remind governors of the rules of confidentiality & the need to declare interests, pecuniary or non-pecuniary. The Chair reminded the meeting of the rules of confidentiality. There were no declarations of interest, pecuniary or non-pecuniary.
4 Notification of urgent other business There were no notifications of any other urgent business.
5 To approve as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting of the Governing Body Meeting held on 19th February 2019 at 6.30pm. Minutes of February 19th 2019 were available prior to the
meeting and these were proposed as a true record by AE
and seconded by JW.
6 To determine whether any part of the proceedings should be declared confidential and excluded from the minutes to be made available for public inspection. It was felt that no part of the meeting would be confidential.
7 To consider matters arising from the minutes for which there is no separate agenda item. The development of the new website is continuing apace. There is a staff training session on 10th June and it is intended that it will be launched publicly in September 2019. Item 20 Solar panels are still to be investigated.
8 Consider Governor Vacancies There is still one Governor vacancy. The meeting agreed that it was important to consider someone whose skills would complement the existing board. Various suggestions were made. RS and JT have both almost reached the end of their terms as Governor but expressed a desire to remain. This was warmly welcomed by the rest of the board.
9 Instrument of Government The amended Instrument of Government has been
received from North Yorkshire County Council.
10 Information Governance Audit report Following the suggestions in the audit report the following
actions will be undertaken:

The Privacy Notices and Policies will be prominently displayed on the new website.
The consent forms issued in September 2019 will be GDPR compliant.
Head and Admin will review devolving Information Asset Owner responsibilities, testing back up capabilities and CCTV system.
All staff and governors will undertake Veritau’s e-learning module. JW and RK have already completed the training.

Head and
Admin

All staff and
Governors

PART ‘B’ – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
11 Report from the Headteacher – to receive and ask questions to include Data/Senco School Development Plan. Following a visit from the School Improvement Advisor the following actions will be undertaken. The use of evidence in the SEF will be strengthened. The actions to improve pupil outcomes will be made clearer in the SEF. The Head will continue to ensure that the appraisal of the school is an honest one.

JC will be taking over SENCO responsibilities from DB and a handover meeting will be held with each affected family.
The staff have been fortunate to receive training from Prof. Sue Buckley, a world-renowned expert in the education of children with Down’s syndrome.

Safeguarding. Since the compilation of the Headteacher’s report a safeguarding issue has arisen. The relevant Governors are aware of the situation as is the NY Safeguarding Board and the issue is being dealt with.

JC pointed out that attendance has fallen slightly to below 96%. As 96% is deemed good by OFSTED it was agreed that this was a matter which must be kept under scrutiny.

A discussion was held around the use of data, it was emphasised that whenever data is produced this is always accompanied by an action plan. It was felt that pen
portraits were important as they gave the context behind the data. Governors were reassured to find that the pen portraits form an integral part of the class handover from
one teacher to the next.

JT requested an explanation of the new OFSTED framework. JC offered to provide this at the next FGB in September 2019.

It was felt that it was important to gather evidence on the breadth of the pupil’s experience in the school. RK suggested that when the Governors are in school for their monitoring visits, they should focus on talking to children to get their views on every aspect of their school experience.

Head

Heads

JC/KH/DB

12 To review staffing for 2019/20 Mr Prince, the Yr 6 teacher has resigned. Parents will be notified on Friday 17th May 2019. The post has been advertised. The advert has asked for a starting date of Sept 2019 or as soon as possible thereafter. The post will be full time, permanent and in either KS1 or KS2. The Head felt that in order to attract the strongest possible field it was important to have broad criteria. The closing date for applications is Friday 7th June 2019, interviews are on Friday 21st June. Interview panel will be Head, Chair and
another Governor. That Governor must also be involved in shortlisting.

The Head has taken the decision that the Deputy Headship will be an internal appointment. The closing date for applications will be Monday 3rd June, with interviews on 12th June. The interview panel will be Head, JT and a Head from another school.

It was acknowledged that there would be a need for another Teaching Assistant in September.

The decision by NYCC to allow Clapham School to remain open means that there will be no impact on the school roll or catchment area.

Headteacher, Chair and another Governor

Head and Chair

Head

13 To consider and ask questions of the minutes and recommendations of the following Committee meetings: School Improvement KH informed the meeting that once the results of the
parents’ questionnaire had been collated a summary of
the results will be sent to all parents.
KH
14 Pupil Premium summary Included in Headteacher’s report.
15 Sports Premium Sports Premium report was shared with the meeting. It was pointed out that as this was compiled on a yearly basis the report was not yet complete. The Governors felt that Sport was flourishing in the school, particularly through the This Girl Can initiative and thanked the staff, in particular Miss Middleton, for their efforts.
It was suggested that it would be a good idea to inform the Ingleton Newsletter of the schools sporting achievements. JC will speak to Jane Lis who edits the newsletter.
Head
16 Safeguarding Included in Headteacher’s report.
17 Policies for approval Complaints Policy This was accepted with one small amendment to the policy for managing serial and unreasonable complaints. Governors suggested that Whenever possible, the headteacher or Chair of Governors will discuss any concerns with the complainant informally before applying an ‘unreasonable’ marking. Be amended to “discuss and document any concerns” Clerk
18 Governor monitoring visits Governors are continuing to visit. Reports received from RK/RS/JW. AE to submit. It was reiterated that these visits should focus on talking to children to get their views on every aspect of their school experience. All
19 Communication with stakeholders See Sports Premium above.
PART ‘C’ – RESOURCES
20 To consider and ask questions
of the minutes and recommendations of the following Committee meetings: Resources
There were no matters arising from the Resources meeting
21 To receive budget monitoring report. JT introduced the Budget Monitoring Report for the year ending April 2019. She reported that whilst there was still a small deficit this was far better than had been predicted and so all concerned were to be congratulated.

The Start Budget was approved. As has been previously discussed a further Teaching assistant will be required in Sept 2019 so that expenditure has been built in to the
budget. At this time, it isn’t known how much will be allocated via the EHCP for the pupils concerned. Once the review meetings have been held and those figures are known the budget will be amended accordingly. 

22 To consider and agree the maintenance programme and proposals for the use of devolved capital Purchases are being made following the ICT review. Quotes are being obtained for the work of refurbishing the toilets.

A grant application has been submitted to the Harold Bridges Trust. If successful the monies will be used to purchase a shed for the Gardening club.

23 Health and safety (Link governor report)

  • H & S advise report
  • H &S Governor update
  • Visual inspection report/update
  • Near miss report
  • Educational Visit Coordinator (EVC) update
Dale Barton, Health and Safety Advisor has visited but
his report has not been received. When it is received it
will be taken to the Resources committee.

As Carl Lis was not present there was no Governor
update.

24 Governor Training The next Governor network meeting will be on Tuesday June 18th at 5.45 at the Rendezvous Hotel in Skipton. If you are interested in attending please contact Michelle. All NY training can be found at this website http://nyestraining.co.uk/Training
25 How has this meeting impacted on the welfare and progress of our pupils? A good discussion was held around the importance of the breadth of educational experience available at Ingleton Primary School. The Governors also felt that it was
important to acknowledge the pressures on staff and their hard work.
PART ‘D’ – OTHER BUSINESS
26 To deal with matters agreed for consideration under item 4 above AE told the group that the visit to Bewerley Park, Outdoor Learning Centre had been a resounding success.
27 Date of next meeting Wednesday 25th September 2019 6.30 pm at Ingleton Primary School