Minutes of the Governing Body of Ingleton Primary School

held on Wednesday, September 26th 2018 at 6.30pm at the school

Present: Mrs D Barry (DB), Mrs J Colledge (JC), Mrs J Thistlethwaite (JT), Mrs A Ellwood (AE), Mrs J Ward (JW), Mr R Knapton RK)

In attendance: Mrs M Hartnell (MH) (Clerk)

Key
Question
Answer

Minutes
No. Item Minute Action
Part ‘A’ – PROCEDURAL
1 Welcome and introduction of new Governor 1.1 Chair welcomed all to meeting and introduced Rowan Knapton, new co-opted governor. Prior to meeting Rowan had met with headteachers and chair, all governors received a copy of his resume outlining his expertise in education and especially SEND.

1.2 Karen Hayton, who joined as a co-opted governor earlier this year has now resigned due to other commitments.

2 Apologies for absence and to determine whether absences should be consented to. 2.1 Apologies for absence were received from Mr C Lis (CL), Mrs R Clements (RC), Mrs K Harrison (KH), Mrs R Shults (RS) and Ms S Brook (SB). Apologies were accepted by
all.
3 To remind governors of the rules of confidentiality & the need to declare interests, pecuniary or non-pecuniary.
To determine whether any part of the proceedings should be treated as confidential and excluded from the minutes to be made available for public inspection.
3.1 Chair reminded all present of the need for confidentiality at all times

3.2 No declarations of interest pecuniary or otherwise.

4 Election of Chair 4.1 AE nominated that JT remain as Chair and JC seconded this. JT stated she is willing to remain as Chair for the coming year.
5 Election of Vice Chair 5.1 JC nominated CL to remain as Vice Chair, AE seconded. CL had stated prior to meeting that he was happy to remain in post if no-one else wanted to apply.
6 Notification of urgent other business 6.1 No other urgent business.
7 To approve as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting of the Governing Body Meeting held on 16th May 2018 at 6.30pm. 7.1 Minutes of previous meeting 16/5/18 and extraordinary meeting 6/6/18 were available to read prior to meeting, approved by all as a true record.
8 To determine whether any part of the proceedings should be declared confidential and excluded from the minutes to be made available for public inspection. 8.1 Chair declared there will be a confidential item at the end of the meeting which will be excluded from the minutes made available for public inspection.
9 To consider matters arising from
the minutes for which there is no
separate agenda item.
9.1 Meeting 16/5/18 – item 6.1 Q: Did the maths lessons from parents happen in the summer term?
A: No, the term was exceptionally busy and these will now take place during the autumn term. Governors will be notified beforehand.
Item 8.3 Data – Q: Did any assessment moderation take place?
A: Yes, we were moderated for both foundation stage and KS2, all found to be in order.
Rachel Clements, English Subject Leader, qualified to be a
KS1 moderator and went to moderate other schools.
Item 8.4 – Q: EHCP in progress, has this been approved?
A: Yes, we now have 2 pupils with an EHCP
Item 11.1 School Improvement – Q: What was the outcome from Parent Questionnaires?
A: Good response, full details in SI minutes circulated with agenda. Some queries regarding communicating progress to parents, see item 15 of these minutes. It was decided ask parents to complete next year’s questionnaire at the February Parents’ Evening.
Item 20.1 Governors’ Action Plan – this is something for the Heads and Chair to work on which will reflect the school development plan.
9.2 Minutes 6/6/18 – no matters arising. Committee will be reviewed after revised budget in December.
HTs

HTs/Chair

10 Committee Structure & Governor Roles 10.1 School Improvement Committee to remain same with addition of RK.
10.2 Resources Committee to remain same. HT to ask caretaker, C Bickerstaff if willing to be co-opted onto committee with regard to health and safety.
10.3 Discipline/Appeals/Complaints and Attendance committees to remain the same.

10.4 Link Governors – will remain with same classes for now but this will be reviewed. Whether governors are assigned to a class or year group needs consideration.
Q: Would it be better to have specialists look across school rather than governors assigned to a class/year group?
A: This is has been done previously but the current focus is on learning rather than teaching, having a governor assigned to a class means they develop a connection with
those specific children. May be reviewed in the future.
10.5 Named Governors – Some changes were made to current roles; Health & Safety and Premises – CL; FOI Requests and Data Protection – JT; SEND – RK; JW will take on Sport alongside Educational Visits. Clerk will produce an updated committees list for circulation to all. Chair commented that she would like to see governors more proactive this year.

HT

Clerk

11 Governor Code of Conduct 11.1 All in favour of adopting the NGA model code of conduct but feel it needs a section adding to cover GDPR. Clerk to look out for updated version. Clerk
12 Dates of meetings and
committee meetings for the year
12.1 A list of dates was available prior to meeting. FGB meeting dates all accepted, committee dates to be confirmed at meetings.
PART ‘B’ – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
13 HT Report – including School Development Plan and SEF Summary 13.1 HT Report – available to read prior to meeting. HT
asked for any questions relating to the report? Q: Last summer’s Y6 maths results were low, was this expected?
A: The maths papers were very ambiguous and many children struggled with them. Several pupils only missed by a point or two.
Q: There are no results showing greater depth?
A: This is because it isn’t reported on, it is only shown in teacher assessment for Y6.
Q: Y5 data (now current Y6) shows a large percentage of pupils working below expected?
A: This has been a low achieving cohort throughout and contains a number of pupil premium and SEND pupils. This has been addressed by teaching them as a sole Y6
group of 19 to give maximum impact.
Q: Will it pose a problem with holidays that term dates are different in different authorities this year?
A: It is something we need to be aware of and obviously parents would prefer not to take secondary school pupils out during term time.
There will be more data information once the dashboard is ready, this will be available, along with further analysis, for the SI committee meeting.

13.2 SEF – summary available to read prior to meeting. Very self-explanatory, it is a working document and there are always areas for improvement.
13.3 School Development Plan – available to read prior to meeting. This list areas to look at over next few years.
Q: Is this a potential inspection year?
A: Yes, we were last inspected in May 2016.
Q: Does the new website need attention?
A: There have been problems with the new website and these will be looked into, need to ensure all information correct and up to date.
JT volunteered to help with updating content.

SI Commitee

JT

14 Safeguarding 14.1 Safeguarding – new DfE document available to read prior to meeting, a sheet to sign to confirm this has been read will be taken to committees.
14.2 A full safeguarding audit will take place in the spring term.
Q: Are we up to date with governor training in prevent/safeguarding?
A: This will be reviewed and brought back to the committees.
All

Clerk

15 Committee Update and Minutes
of meeting held on 11th July 2018
15.1 Minutes from 11/07/18 available to read prior to meeting.
Q: Is it possible to track progress of certain pupils using anonymised data?
A: This can be done. AE to liaise with HTs
Q: Questionnaires flagged up a concern with communicating pupil progress to parents, what can be done to improve this?
A: This will be discussed at the next SI committee meeting. Currently information is given on twice yearly reports, working towards/at standard etc. Maybe need to give
information on whether making expected progress. This will also be discussed with teaching staff.
Overall, very positive response from questionnaires.
HT/AE

SI Committee

16 Governor monitoring visits 16.1. Governor monitoring visits this year will be arranged between teacher and link governor, rather than having all governors in on one day. More convenient for all. Governors will be observing learning rather than teaching; speaking to children and asking questions agreed with teacher. A pro forma will be completed after the visit and
governors will feed back to committee meetings.
All
PART ‘C’ – RESOURCES
17 Update and Budget Letter 17.1 Chair gave update as no summer term meeting was held, arranged meeting was not quorate. Currently 6 months into budget and all looks to be in line with expectations. Budget monitoring and revised budget will take place this term with HK (SBM). We are currently in a good financial position however, forecasts show this could change over next few years unless provision is made. A letter to this effect has been received from the LA, a response outlining contingency plans has to be made before 30th November. Chair explained that this can be addressed as we have members of staff on temporary
contracts which would not be renewed. We should also be looking to increasing income from other avenues, such as lettings.
Q: Are any member of staff applying to go through threshold to upper pay scale?
A: We have members of staff who are in the position but have not received any applications yet. Applications are dependent on performance management.
Q: Have we thought of employing PGCE students who actually learn whilst in role?
A: Not currently, although we do have students coming in on placement which generates income for the school.
There will be a January Nursery intake which will increase
numbers and generate income.
Chair
18 Pupil Premium summary 18.1 Available to read prior to meeting. This is an overview of how funding is being spent. Our current priority is social and emotional wellbeing; programmes started last year will continue. Mr Prince (Y6) is working with the Nourish programme in conjunction with St John’s Hospice. Teaching Assistants are working with groups of children on Units of Sound, a programme which is focussing on memory and learning. We are also preparing pupils who need extra help in tests, working with scribes etc. Last year’s Compass Buzz training was very successful and this year teaching assistants will be completing levels 2 and 3.
Q: Why are school visits listed on the spending overview?
A: This is to cover the cost of children in receipt of pupil premium funding taking part in school visits and residentials.
19 Sports Premium 19.1 No current updates, although Jen Middleton (PE Subject Leader) keeps a spreadsheet of all monies spent; this includes buying specialist coaches to work with pupils and for CPD, equipment, tournaments, travel etc. Full information will be available for Resources Committee.
91.2 Last week we held a cross country event for local schools and 380 children competed at our school. The event was a great success and we were congratulated on
the organisation.
Resources Committee
20 Caretaker Update 20.1 We will be coming out of the LA Building Cleaning Services (BCS) on 31st December and will employ our caretaker and cleaner directly (we currently have a vacancy for a cleaner). Craig Bickerstaff, our current caretaker, will continue and will be employed as a cleaner and site supervisor with a slight increase in hours. All costings were done in line with HR job descriptions and payscales. MH will liaise with HR and BCS in December. MH
PART ‘D’ – OTHER BUSINESS
21 Governor Training 21.1 Several training opportunities arising – information given to governors those interested to give names to MH to make bookings. Reminder will be sent out to those not at the meeting.
21.2 Clerk to look into costs of holding introduction to governance course in school.
Clerk
22 Confidential Item 22.1 Confidential minute
23 Correspondence 23.1 Resignation letter from Clerk – MH has resigned as Clerk, due to workload as administrator. This will be her last FGB meeting but will continue to minute committee
meetings. Resignation accepted. MH to look into alternative arrangements through private clerk or NYCC Clerking Service.

23.2 Letter received from Jayne Morphet, GTA, requesting 3 days unpaid leave to go on holiday with her husband. They own a caravan park so going away in summer holiday
is not an option. Agreed by all, clerk to reply to letter.

Clerk
24 Review Fees – Blue Moose Dance 24.1 Fees were wavered for summer term following letter to governors. All in agreement that this period should have allowed for an improvement in their financial situation and fees should be charged again with immediate effect. Clerk to write informing them of our decision. Clerk