NEWBURY COLLEGE CORPORATION
GOVERNANCE & SEARCH COMMITTEE
Minutes of a Meeting held on Monday 16 March 2015
Membership: 1.
*
2.
3.
4.
5.
*
*
Jonathan Hopson
Nick Carter
Geoff Knappett
Sue Wood
Vacancy (HM)
External Member
External Member
External Member
External Member
External Member
2 Members required
3 present, meeting quorate
*
*
Simon Burrell
Anne Murdoch
Clerk to the Corporation (Clerk)
Principal
*
Present at meeting
Quorum:
In Attendance:
Chair
Vice Chair
PART 1 – NON CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS
ACTION
54.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
(3.30pm)
Nick Carter.
55.
DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
There were no Declarations of Interest made.
56.
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
The unconfirmed Minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2014 were confirmed as
a correct record, and were signed by the Chair.
57.
MATTERS ARISING
There were no Matters Arising discussed that were not considered elsewhere on the
Agenda.
58.
MEMBERSHIP OF THE CORPORATION
A written report was received and considered. The Clerk advised that there were no
vacancies on the Corporation. However, Peter Gale had confirmed his intention to
leave after the next Corporation meeting (30 March 2015). Peter had advised that his
Deputy Head would be interested in joining the Corporation and it was agreed that the
Principal should invite him in for an informal discussion in the near future
It was noted that four Members’ terms of office were due to expire in 2015 (Tony Allen,
Julian Bellmont, Fiona Hawkins and Sue Wood) and that Roger Hunt had also advised
he would be retiring from membership of the Corporation later in the year.
The report was noted.
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Principal
ACTION
59.
ADOPT A GOVERNOR SCHEME
A written report was received and considered. The Principal outlined proposed links
under the Adopt a Governor scheme for 2015/16, and re-affirmed those links for
2014/15. She stressed that should the Corporation re-determine its structure the links
may need to be amended.
It was RESOLVED that the links proposed under the Adopt a Governor
scheme be agreed, subject to any possible changes to the Corporation’s
determined structure.
60.
CORPORATION MEMBERS’ ATTENDANCE: AUTUMN TERM 2014
A written report was received, considered and noted.
The Clerk highlighted those Members who had not achieved the target of 75% for
attendance at formal meetings.
The Principal advised that she had spoken to two Members whose attendance was
below target, and it was noted that their attendance had still not improved.
61.
RESTRUCTURING OF THE CORPORATION
(3.47pm)
A written report was received and considered. In reviewing the proposals the Ctte felt
that if the minimum number of external members was too low there would be a
difficulty in ensuring the right skills were brought to the Corporation. The proposal
showed a range of 7 to 9 and it was felt that 9 would offer a greater opportunity to
meet determined skills needs. In addition, the Ctte stressed the need to ensure that
any changes to the Corporation would deliver a positive change to the impact on the
service given to learners.
The Principal highlighted that at the recent inspection Ofsted inspectors wanted to
discuss education and they (the inspectors) wanted to know that all members knew
about the curriculum, and that moving to a revised determination would help with that
aim.
It was also proposed that some key performance indicators needed to be developed
that would show the impact of the changes, eg. attendance, adopt a governor
involvement, impact of reports from the adopt a governor visits, Members
attendance/contribution at other College functions, more engagement with curriculum
staff, undertaking learning walks covering staff and students. The Principal and Clerk
were requested to develop a set of suitable KPIs for consideration at a future meeting.
The Ctte also stressed the need to ensure that governor training activities were
designed to ensure that all Members understood the overall strategy of the College in
order to help them make informed decisions, and to help in the process of going from
‘good’ to ‘outstanding’. It was suggested that with fewer external Members each
Member should have a personal development plan that would assist them in gaining a
greater insight into the work of the College.
In reviewing the proposed meeting schedule based on the Corporation meeting 6
times per year, the Ctte felt that this would improve the decision-making process
considerably as more regular meetings meant that decisions would be made on a
more timely basis.
It was RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to the CORPORATION that the
Corporation agree to re-structure from 1 September 2015 on the outline
set-out in the report, based on an overall determined membership of 12,
made-up as: External Members – 9, Principal – 1, Staff Member – 1 and
Student Member - 1
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Principal/
Clerk
62.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
There were no items of Any Other Business discussed.
63.
EVALUATION OF COMMITTEE MEETING
The Ctte completed the Evaluation Form for the meeting. There were no matters
raised.
64.
DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS [Meetings commence at 4.00pm unless stated]
Monday 15 June 2015
Autumn Term 2015
TBA
(4.28pm)
Meeting closed
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