We started off with Sam’s head teacher report on the last half term’s activities in and around the school. These included an update on Jon’s work with pupil premium children, training on Fisher Family Trust for Sam and Diana Massa, a programme for subject leaders to work with colleagues to plan their priorities for the year, training for NQT mentors and four work experience students in the school at the start of term.
Sam discussed the attendance figures and also the number of pupils on roll (NOR) – how many pupils in each school year. We talked about the school homework policy which has now been approved and implemented. There had been positive feedback from parents about the policy. There was also positive feedback about the school timetable changes, with Assemblies taking place in the afternoon now. All the pupil voice groups had started up again.
Sam described the creation of an e-safety group of children, and an e-safety questionnaire which had gone out to all pupils. An e-safety information evening was arranged for new parents and those who had missed previous ones. The school has a new security entrance system for visitors to sign in, and Sam explained how it works.
There had been good attendance at the recent HSPTA meeting. A lot of school activities had taken place, including a second family walk in the New Forest, singing at the Hilt extravaganza, girls’ and boys’ football tournaments, an Essex Cancer Trust assembly, discos and many ongoing sporting groups.
There was now a class rota to looks after Sheldon the Tortoise and the children really enjoyed this role J
After her report, Sam then presented the details of the school strategic plan, and reminded the governors of the key headings and actions – these are Leadership and Management; Teaching, Learning and Assessment; and Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare. The plan also showed the current position and actions for these headings, with monitoring and success criteria so we could track the school progress.
As well as discussing the pupil premium work and funding, Jon talked about sports funding and how he is monitoring the after school clubs for quality and content. He then discussed his work on Prevention Duty, and identified the government website that covers child protection. Prevent Duty is part of the wider child protection and safeguarding remit, and Jon said he would be reporting back to the FGB on his upcoming Prevent Duty training later this term. He talked about the annual safeguarding audit which needs approval from the FGB. Jon took us through the details and explained how the evidence was applied.
Andrew discussed the governors’ skills audit and where we had gaps in our skills coverage. He was to prepare an advertisement for appointing new governors to fill the outstanding vacancies we have.
We talked about the Subject Leaders day in the summer term and how we could align governors with specific subject leaders (particularly English, Maths and SEN). This will be discussed further at the next FGB.
Debbie fed back from the Standards and Curriculum committee, where the homework policy had been reviewed with parental consultation. There had been a presentation on the SATS results; we noted that data could not be compared nationally until the Raise Online information was provided. Margaret had carried out a school visit on Music and had circulated her report on that.
Debra talked about the Resources Committee report, discussing the budget update for the school and Tree House, the capital budget, approved spending, along with policies and a staffing update.
Janice had attended a very good SEN conference, and Andrew would be attending his Chairing induction course soon. We agreed the upcoming Whole Governing Body Training for next year. Janice informed the governors that Hampshire is to be a pilot for the SEN Ofsted and that inspectors will be coming in to schools, but these have yet to be identified.
The FGB finished with a number of policies to be reviewed and approved, which we did.
Sam discussed the attendance figures and also the number of pupils on roll (NOR) – how many pupils in each school year. We talked about the school homework policy which has now been approved and implemented. There had been positive feedback from parents about the policy. There was also positive feedback about the school timetable changes, with Assemblies taking place in the afternoon now. All the pupil voice groups had started up again.
Sam described the creation of an e-safety group of children, and an e-safety questionnaire which had gone out to all pupils. An e-safety information evening was arranged for new parents and those who had missed previous ones. The school has a new security entrance system for visitors to sign in, and Sam explained how it works.
There had been good attendance at the recent HSPTA meeting. A lot of school activities had taken place, including a second family walk in the New Forest, singing at the Hilt extravaganza, girls’ and boys’ football tournaments, an Essex Cancer Trust assembly, discos and many ongoing sporting groups.
There was now a class rota to looks after Sheldon the Tortoise and the children really enjoyed this role J
After her report, Sam then presented the details of the school strategic plan, and reminded the governors of the key headings and actions – these are Leadership and Management; Teaching, Learning and Assessment; and Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare. The plan also showed the current position and actions for these headings, with monitoring and success criteria so we could track the school progress.
As well as discussing the pupil premium work and funding, Jon talked about sports funding and how he is monitoring the after school clubs for quality and content. He then discussed his work on Prevention Duty, and identified the government website that covers child protection. Prevent Duty is part of the wider child protection and safeguarding remit, and Jon said he would be reporting back to the FGB on his upcoming Prevent Duty training later this term. He talked about the annual safeguarding audit which needs approval from the FGB. Jon took us through the details and explained how the evidence was applied.
Andrew discussed the governors’ skills audit and where we had gaps in our skills coverage. He was to prepare an advertisement for appointing new governors to fill the outstanding vacancies we have.
We talked about the Subject Leaders day in the summer term and how we could align governors with specific subject leaders (particularly English, Maths and SEN). This will be discussed further at the next FGB.
Debbie fed back from the Standards and Curriculum committee, where the homework policy had been reviewed with parental consultation. There had been a presentation on the SATS results; we noted that data could not be compared nationally until the Raise Online information was provided. Margaret had carried out a school visit on Music and had circulated her report on that.
Debra talked about the Resources Committee report, discussing the budget update for the school and Tree House, the capital budget, approved spending, along with policies and a staffing update.
Janice had attended a very good SEN conference, and Andrew would be attending his Chairing induction course soon. We agreed the upcoming Whole Governing Body Training for next year. Janice informed the governors that Hampshire is to be a pilot for the SEN Ofsted and that inspectors will be coming in to schools, but these have yet to be identified.
The FGB finished with a number of policies to be reviewed and approved, which we did.