Minutes of the Governing Body of Ingleton Primary School
held on Wednesday, February 20th 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), Carl Lis (CL), Jenny Thistlethwaite Chair (JT), Jenny Ward (JW).
In attendance: Jane Mellers JM (Clerk), Paul Baxter (PB) (Clerk)
| Minutes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Item | Minute | Action |
| Part ‘A’ – PROCEDURAL | |||
| 1 | Welcome and Introductions. | The Chair welcomed all to the meeting and introduced JM as the new clerk and PB as her mentor. JT stressed the importance of the governing body’s role in supporting the school, the staff and the wider community in these challenging times. |
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| 2 | Apologies for absence and to determine whether any absences should be consented to. | Apologies for absence were received from Rowan Knapton and Rachael Shults. These were both 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 | It was agreed that the consultation on the future of Clapham School would be discussed under any other 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 26th September 2018 were available prior to the meeting and these were proposed as a true record by AE and seconded by JC. | |
| 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. | Chair declared that item 24 would be a confidential item which will be excluded from the minutes made available for public inspection. | |
| 7 | To consider matters arising from the minutes for which there is no separate agenda item. | The Chair queried progress on item 13, the future of the website. The Headteachers confirmed that it had been decided to move to another company.
Item 14 Safeguarding, KH told the meeting that once issues with the North Yorkshire training package have been resolved Governors will be asked to complete the online training. |
|
| 8 | Consider Governor Vacancies/re constitution | The Chair explained that the make-up of the governing body needs to change if it is to be brought in line with suggested standards. The new body would comprise:
One Local Authority Governor It was confirmed that someone who had previously been a Parent Governor could become a Co-opted Governor. These changes were proposed by KH and seconded by JW. |
Clerk |
| PART ‘B’ – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT | |||
| 9 | Minutes of SI meeting 10 Oct 2019 |
A draft version of the Parents Questionnaire had been made available before the meeting and some suggestions to changes to the questions were discussed. These changes were accepted. It was agreed that the questionnaire would be handed out to parents upon arrival at the forthcoming Parent’s Evening and they would be encouraged to complete the questionnaire during the course of the evening. KH and DB have completed and despatched the bi-annual Safeguarding audit. |
Headteachers |
| 10 | HT Report – including School Development Plan and SEF Summary and SENCO update |
SENCO update. DB recently attended a SENCO meeting and learnt that the Local Authority are intending on changing the banding for Education Healthcare Plans from Sept 2019. This will have a positive impact on the funding for the pupils in school with these plans. Headteachers Report. The Headteachers have realised that they needed to alter the way in which they tracked pupil progress, moving from year on year tracking to tracking based on last point of formal assessment. In order to achieve this, they have devised their own system of tracking. This system is then used to highlight issues with individual pupils and to ensure that measures are in place to support them. They shared this with the group who felt that it was clear and straightforward. JC explained that they used this tracking to devise action plans with staff and to better target their classroom observations. AE commented that the range of out of school groups available to children was greatly appreciated by parents. SEF The Chair queried occasions on which the assessment was not 100% positive, but it was agreed that if this was to be a useful document then it needed to be unflinchingly honest. The Headteachers pointed out that the SEF will be very different in September 2019 when the new OFSTED framework is introduced. School Development Plan. There were no questions and it was agreed that this would be discussed further at the School Improvement committee. JC will meet with an IT |
SI Chair and group
JC All |
| 11 | Pupil Premium summary | DB has reviewed the strategy and with support from Rachael Shults intends to review pupil attendance | DB and RS |
| 12 | Sports Premium | Nothing to report | |
| 13 | Policies for approval | No policies to be approved. A new Complaints Policy was received a few days prior to the meeting, it was agreed to discuss it at the next meeting to allow time for proper consideration. |
Clerk |
| 14 | Governor monitoring visits | There is an ongoing programme of Governor visits. The link Governor and the class teacher must decide what it is most useful for the visit to focus on. Each Governor should undertake two per academic year and after each visit a monitoring form should be completed. |
All |
| 15 | Communication with stakeholders | There have been a number of Parent information evenings on specific subjects eg Maths and Phonics. These have been successful. There was a discussion around parent teacher communication and a plea was made by the parent governors for consistency | |
| PART ‘C’ – RESOURCES | |||
| 16 | Minutes resources mtgs 20 Nov 2018 & 15 Jan 2019 | Clerk had omitted to copy a confidential minute from the Resources meeting into the documents for this meeting. She undertook to do this as soon as possible. A brief discussion was held on the proposals for staffing and structure for the coming year, but it was felt that this should be discussed at the next School Improvement Committee | Clerk
SI committee |
| 17 | To receive budget monitoring report. | The budget monitoring report was introduced by the Chair who felt that overall the outturn was on track and that there were certain outstanding issues which would mean that it would improve. | |
| 18 | To review contracts for services provided to the school. | There were no contracts for review. The grounds maintenance contract will be discussed at the next Resources meeting | Resources meeting |
| 19 | To review School Financial Value Standard (SFVS) | This has been completed by the Chair. All Governors need to read this document and then notify the Clerk by email of their approval. The document must be submitted by the end of March 2019. It can be found in the meeting folder here | All Governnors and Clerk |
| 20 | Benchmarking | Benchmarking was reviewed by the Resources Committee. | |
| 20 | To consider and agree the maintenance programme and proposals for the use of devolved capital. | An audit of ICT needs is currently being undertaken, the results of this will require some capital expenditure. Plans are in place for improvements to toilets, to paths and to signage. A discussion took place on the feasibility of the installation of solar panels. The Headteachers agreed to investigate further. | Headteachers |
| 21 | 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 |
A meeting of the Headteacher and the H and S link Governor is planned for 5 March 2019. Rachael Shults has carried a visual health and safety check. All issues have been addressed from the advice report. There have been no near misses. EVC update. A new policy was introduced in the Autumn term and this has been adhered to in all recent visits. | |
| 22 | Governor Training | JT – monitoring; deficit management; website workshop and governor update network meeting AE – monitoring Rachael Schults – governance training Schedule of training for this academic year uploaded to SharePoint. |
Clerk |
| 23 | How has this meeting impacted on the welfare and progress of our pupils? | This meeting has examined the improvements made by the Headteachers in the methods of tracking pupils progress. | |
| 24 | To review staffing for 2019 and 2020. | Confidential item. This item has been deemed to be confidential and has been removed from the minutes available for public inspection. | |
| 25 | Headteacher performance Management | Chair and CL have undertaken Headteachers appraisal and the half yearly meeting is planned for May. | |
| PART ‘D’ – OTHER BUSINESS | |||
| 26 | To deal with matters agreed for consideration under item 4 above | A document outlining plans for the closure of Clapham School has been made public. The Headteachers feel strongly that it implies that Ingleton School is not an option for the children of Clapham. They were not consulted before the document was made public. They shared with the meeting a letter they have written to NYCC. It was felt that a letter should be sent to Ingleton School parents explaining the situation. JC agreed to draft this. Craven Wanderers have requested permission to carry out work on the football pitches. The Governors agreed to this request. Headteachers will convey this to them and to NYCC. |
JC
Headteachers |
| 27 | Date of next meeting 15th May 2019 at 6.30pm | Chair | |
