PART 1 MINUTES FOR MEETING OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF
LINGFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL
Thursday 22nd October 2015
Debbie Marshall
Jane Blunt
Amanda Lowy
Kathryn Percival
Anna Sutton
Julia Tappin
Marion Unsworth
Sue Yates
DM
JB
AL
KP
AS
JT
MU
SY
Peter Gillespie
Maggie Vinten
Kelly Lancashire
Penny Batty
PB Clerk
PG
MV
KL
Topic / Purpose
Item
1
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were accepted from Caroline Henry
2
DECLARATION OF INTEREST
There were no declarations of interest.
3
PREVIOUS MINUTES
Previous minutes were agreed for:
FGM 16th September 2015
Resources June 10th 2015
C&L June 18th 2015
4
PUPIL PREMIUM
Prior to the meeting MV had distributed the attached Pupil Premium Report for
2015/2016 along with the Pupil Premium Impact Report for 2014/2015.
DM thanked MV for the reports. The impact report was very detailed in explaining how
the money had been spent in different areas and the impact that had been achieved. DM
observed that the report included all children receiving benefit from these initiatives and
not just receiving Pupil Premium. She questioned whether the report, although accurate,
did not read as strongly as it could. MV said that all schools will report differently but felt
that the LPS report for last year showed where the money had been spent and that it was
important that parents could see and understand these figures. JT agreed and said that
the report clearly shows the positive impact that Pupil Premium children are receiving and
that it was good practice to include that some of the children in the report are not Pupil
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Action
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Premium children.
MV advised Governors that each child had an individual breakdown on how much Pupil
Premium they receive and how the money was spent. KL asked if there were any
children who received Pupil Premium but did not need any of the money. MV replied that
there were and these pupils were shown on a separate spreadsheet. MV said that the
monitoring of Pupil Premium children was vigorous to ensure that each child was fulfilling
their potential.
Extra curricula clubs are available to all Pupil Premium children free of charge and these
clubs have had a notable increase in uptake over the last year.
Tuition sessions and Homework club have also proved popular and the parents of the
Travelling Children will be focused on next term to encourage them to use these facilities
during the months that they are not travelling.
THRIVE is a continuing success and there will be shortly be an additional 2 practioners
on site which will bring the total of qualified practioners to 5. KL sked if our THRIVE
practioners will be able to help at other schools and MV said that this would be developed
in the future. JT said that the SCC SMSC leader had recently been into school and she
had commented on the success of THRIVE within LPS.
Governors asked how many children were eligible for Pupil Premium this year and MV
said that currently this figure stood at 74 children
5
SAFEGUARDING
See Part 2
6
08.45 MV left the meeting
CHAIRS REPORT
DM had circulated the following report to Governors prior to the meeting. A copy of the
new prospectus was also distributed to Governors at the meeting.
Chair’s Report
Actions on behalf of the FGB since our last meeting:
1. Formula Funding Consultation – I read and agreed with the feedback of
JBL and JT to Surrey’s Formula Funding consultation and signed on behalf
of the FGB.
2. Complaints Panel – unfortunately Felbridge Primary School have a stage 4
complaint and I have agreed to offer them support by sitting on the
complaints panel.
3. Nick House – sadly I received Nick House’s resignation. His new role as
Head Teacher has placed constraints on his time and he feels unable to
undertake his role at LPS effectively.
4. Letters of thanks – I wrote to both Diana Murray and Nick House on the
Governing Body’s behalf, to thank them for their time, input and support
during their period as governors at LPS.
5. Clerk Appraisal (25/9/15) – I met with Penny to undertake her annual
appraisal.
6. Governor Recruitment – I have placed an advert in the autumn edition of
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Action
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Topic / Purpose
Item
the Community News for new governors, stating that we are particularly
seeking someone with HR skills. JB has contacted SGOSS and registered our
recruitment needs there too.
I have also attended:
7. Ofsted Training (12/10/15) – JB and I attended a training session on the
new Ofsted framework, which gave us an insight into the key changes to
the judgements and how to evidence our work. We were pleased to find
that there were no surprises and that we are already doing, or in the
process of implementing, almost all of the things suggested. In our next
safeguarding report we need to understand what steps we are taking as a
school to prevent radicalisation and extremism.
8. Super Spelling Workshop (15/10/15) – along with other governors, I
attended a super spelling workshop in year 5. There were a number of
parents present, who felt the session was interesting and informative. The
children were engaged with their learning and enjoyed showing parents
and visitors what they knew about words with silent letters, such as comb,
knight, solemn etc.
9. Head/Chair meetings – JT and I have continued to meet fortnightly. Our
discussions have covered attendance, new initiative – top table, SMSC,
staffing structure and CPD, SDP, parents’ forum, OFSTED inspection,
appraisal system, governing body structure and roles/responsibilities,
academisation and Julia’s acceptance onto the NPQH programme. You
have to pass an assessment in order to undertake the NPQH. I would like to
congratulate Julia for passing the assessment and share with governors
that Julia was given “above” the entry level standard for each of the
seven competencies.
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Action
By
Topic / Purpose
Action
By
Item
7
PREMISES
PG distributed the following report prior to the meeting.
Item 7 – Premises, Maintenance and Health and Safety
Summer Maintenance update:
The following works have been completed over the summer:
Early Years
Day to day
Ramp in Reception
£2,250
KS1 path
Reception soft surface
£621
Sarah’s path
Reception & KS1
canopies
£1,183
PG gates
Total
Budget
Balance
£4,054
£10,000
£5,946
Redecoration
KS2 Toilets
KS2 classroom doors
KS2 corridor
£35,000
£8,970
£4,195
Total
Budget
Balance
£48,165
£45,000
(£3,165)
Light switch
Woodlice door
Parasol
Fixed wiring
Locker doors
£814
£960
£564
£146
£1,060
£175
£2,194
£4,113
Total
Budget
Balance
£10,026
£15,000
£4,974
Grand total
Budget
Balance
£62,245
£70,000
£7,755
The over spend in the redecoration budget related to higher than expected costs in the
redecoration of the KS2 corridor.
Health and Safety:
The health and safety schedule (as discussed in the Resources Committee meeting of 10
June 2015) has been updated based on those improvements that have been made to
address identified risks.
A health and safety walk now needs to be arranged to confirm that the improvements are
satisfactory and identify any additional health and safety items. JBL has suggested that
these take place on a termly basis.
Action – PG to arrange the Christmas term health and safety walk with Sarah
Marlow.
Statutory Safety checks:
The schedule covering statutory checks (again, as discussed in the Resources
Committee meeting of 10 June 2015) has been updated. The revised format includes a
checklist to indicate whether a check has been performed in a given year.
Action – CH to confirm if any of the minor items that were outstanding by the end
of the last year remain outstanding.
Rolling maintenance plan:
Now that the summer maintenance schedule is complete, the next objective is to produce
the three year rolling maintenance plan as previously discussed in June. This will be
developed over Christmas term 2015 with a view to report to the board in early 2016 to
tie in with the next budget.
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Topic / Purpose
Action
By
Item
PG explained that he had met with Janice Blatcher earlier in the term and she had
confirmed that all work that had been scheduled to be done during the summer holidays
had been completed.
A rolling 3 year maintenance plan is being drawn up and this would be submitted to
Governors at the January FGM.
The Health and Safety walks would be carried out on a termly basis and the statutory
checks would be incorporated into these.
ACTION
PG to produce a 3 year rolling maintenance plan.
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FINANCE
JB had produced and distributed the attached Finance report prior to the meeting.
The August FMR is also attached.
JB said that whilst staffing costs have been reduced, supplies and services costs
have increased significantly with money being spent on the new Singapore Maths
scheme and the increase in expenditure on the improved classroom displays
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CURRICULUM
The following report on the recent Curriculum Monitoring Course had been
distributed by MU prior to the meeting.
Notes from Curriculum Monitoring Course
29 September 2015
 There was an emphasis on having a vision and plan for 3 – 5 years to
enable the school to plan efficiently. We should ask the question- What will
the school look like in 3-5 years time and our plans should work towards
this, not just one year at a time. We should ask ourselves - Is it time
bonded? What will be the difference?
 Governors should be ambitious and have high expectations.
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PG
Topic / Purpose
Item
 We should say this is what we want to achieve and hold the HT to
accountability
 We should be asking if what we do is value for money and if it is the best
resource for the money spent
 Parents are now seen as much more of partners in learning. There is a
need to publish information on the website of the curriculum
 There is a sports based Maths curriculum for boys in particular who are
disaffected by maths but love sports
 We should make sure we are focusing on our more able children to ensure
that they are working even better
 What do we do to stretch our more able. Do they join the local secondary
school to stretch them . Who needs more stretching work. The more able
need to work on an individual basis.
 Do we monitor our extra curriculum activities particularly the artistic,
creative and sporting activities. Ofsted will look at this. Do we have a list of
clubs and who is running themselves
 OFSTED – no-one is immune from discussion eg committees . We should
ask for timetables eg how much maths/ English is taught.
 Reports Do we have subject leaders evidence on how the children
performing. We need to triangulate between what is reported and the
actual results
 What is our new assessment measure
 How do you know what the new curriculum is? What have been the
challenges of the new curriculum
 How do we maintain a strategic approach with our new governing model?
 Do we have data per class?
 Who is our Data champion?
 What have been the trends of performance over the year per class?
ASSESMENT
 What assessment system are we using now?
 What happens with inter- school transfers?
 What has been the impact of the two systems?
 Do we still moderate, with whom and how?
 Babcock have written some new assessment materials?
 Are we getting information on children who are falling down the cracks
 Do the governors get enough information to carry out their job effectively
 Does the HT report give us enough information for us to ask questions?
 Do we all get a report of the Learning Partner's termly reports. These
should be available to the governing body not just the chair. This is
because we are a corporate body and information should be available to all
of the governing body
 How has the new assessment system helped teachers to plan better
lessons?
 Closing the gap – Look at this from evidence from moderation and
assessment
 Make sure the minutes of the governing body demonstrate that they ask
probing questions
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Action
By
Topic / Purpose
Item
 Collect information re- children who go off role and where they go. A record
needs to be kept of where they have gone
 Governors need to triangulate 1. Quality of lessons taught 2. Work in books
3. Pupil; progress data. Governors do not need to look at the actual
evidence but they do need to receive reports to enable them to triangulate
appropriately
PREVENT DUTY
 Ensure staff receive Prevent training
 Build children's resilience – identify children who are loners on the edge of
groups i.e. vulnerable to extreme behaviour
 Where does the curriculum build resilience
SMSC
 OFSTED ask Primary School: How do we prevent our children from being radicalised?
 What groups are susceptible – what do we do to promote different
cultures and faiths
 They assess how we have implemented the new Prevent Duty
 How has the curriculum been adapted
 How does practice meet the duty
Members of the Governing Body
 Governing body skills base
 We need to identify who is responsible for what e.g.what are the head's
duties and what are the governors and reference this against the school
plan
 How is the school plan broken down
 What are the school strengths and areas of development. Do we know the
risks and what the school is doing?
Governor visits
 These school monitor against the targets set in the school plan. What and
when will it be delivered? What does the progress data tell us?
 Design a visit to show how it is working
 Provide a report to the Governing body. Annex the report any unanswered
questions
 Minutes and reports – questions should be clearly identified.
MU said that she found the course very informative and was pleased to report to
Governors that LPS were already following the suggested guidelines.
MU said that following the course a Curriculum meeting was held (notes attached)
with the 3 Curriculum Governors (MU, KP and SY) and Cassie Ladbrook. Each
Governor would take responsibility for the following areas, English, Maths,
Science and SMSC.
MU said that the current classroom displays and working walls were excellent and
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Action
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Topic / Purpose
Action
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Item
DM suggested that the displays should be photographed and a record kept for
future reference. SY agreed to do this.
SY told Governors that the extra curricula clubs were popular and suggested that
Governors should take time to visit them in order to appreciate how much the
children are benefitting from them.
09.15 SY left the meeting
MU suggested that a record needed to be kept to ensure that over the school year
all areas of the curriculum are covered. JT said that this was already in place and
that the focus for this term was Science.
ACTION
SY to start a portfolio of all classroom displays
SY
10
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Governors agreed to the Terms of Reference for both the Pay Committee and
HTPM which had already been circulated prior to the meeting.
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PHONICS FOCUS VISIT
AS distributed the list of criteria that Governors should be evaluating during their
phonics focus visit along with a copy of the Phonics/Spelling action plan.
Governors then split themselves into small groups and agreed to reconvene in the
meeting room in 30 minutes.
ACTION
SY to write up the report on the visit
MEETING ENDED 09.15
SIGNED: ……………………………………………
DATE:
…………………………………………….
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SY