Derbyshire
County Council
Governing Body Strategic Briefing
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Welcome
Jeanette Hamilton
Head of Governor Support
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Derbyshire
County Council
Introduction
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Mike Longden
Cabinet Member for
Education
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Derbyshire
County Council
Improving outcomes for our
most vulnerable pupils
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Ian Thomas
Strategic Director
Children and Younger Adults
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children in Care
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Of all 0-24 year olds children in care make
up 0.4% of the population [0.3% 16-21]
 What % of the prison population were
CiC?
 1/8 young people are NEET. For CiC
the figure is 1/?
 59% of young people achieve 5 good
GCSEs. The % for CiC is?
 38% of young people go to university.
The % of CiC that go is?
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children in Care
Children and Younger
Adults Department
In addition Care Leavers are more
likely to be:Unemployed
Teenage Parents
In receipt of Mental Health
Services
Become parents to children
eventually brought into care
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children in Care
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Our legal obligation and shared
moral purpose is to ensure CiC have
the best life chances. Our response
is multi-faceted:
Corporate Parenting
Uni-Fi Creative Council’s Project
Virtual School…
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Derbyshire
County Council
Virtual School
Children and Younger
Adults Department
A network of teachers, social care staff
and other key stakeholders that track the
educational progress of CiC.
Key Features:
 Virtual School Head
 Highly skilled Designated Teachers
 A Governing Body consisting of key
stakeholders
 Access to DCS, School Governors and
Elected Members
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children in Care
Children and Younger
Adults Department
What we’d like you to consider
Appointing a governor to be the
designated person for CiC
achievement [other vulnerable
groups?]
Closely monitor the use of your
pupil premium
Escalate any unresolved concerns
with the DCS rapidly
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Derbyshire
County Council
Getting to Good
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Holding the school to account
The role of the governing body
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Derbyshire
County Council
Common weaknesses with governance
in grade 3 schools noted in inspection
reports
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Issues identified in inspection reports included:
• not ambitious about expectations
• lack of a critical friend approach
• over-reliance on information from the
headteacher
• lack of systematic visits to school
• lack of engagement with school development
planning
• limited role in monitoring, and none of it
‘independent’
• limited understanding of data and school quality
• limited understanding of the use of data in Ofsted
inspections
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Derbyshire
County Council
Common features of effective
governance noted in schools that
became good (see handout)
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Focus; sharp focus; raise achievement; improve teaching, robustly
focused; proactive; raised expectations; determined; active.
Positive impact; drive; strive; ambitious vision; more strategic; provide
clear direction; rigorously drives improvement; steer through change;
increasingly effective.
Strong team; work together; communicates; corporate; supports; unity
of purpose; partnership with senior leaders; effective critical friends;
shared purpose.
Effective challenge; pursue further improvements; monitoring;
evaluating; better informed; constantly review performance; clear
systems; monitor closely; collect own information on performance;
regular visitors.
Skilled; knowledgeable; understanding of strengths and weaknesses;
financial management; planning.
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Derbyshire
County Council
Getting to Good
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Ofsted Report September 2012
 holding school leaders to account
 effectively monitoring the work of the school
 at the helm of strategic development, working
alongside the headteacher
 actively took part in monitoring and evaluating
activities
 Clarity on expectations = full commitment
 Structured training programmes (inc induction)
 Partnership with other GBs
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Derbyshire
County Council
How do we hold the school to
account?
Children and Younger
Adults Department
The scrutiny questions
– see hand out
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County Council
Recording the challenge
Children and Younger
Adults Department
The minutes of the
governing body meeting
– see hand out
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Key documents for the
governing body
Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department




Raise on line – “blue to white to green”
LA data book – school and bench mark
School data analysis
Ofsted School Data Dashboard
 LA School Improvement Review Record (SIRR)
 School Self Evaluation Summary
 School Improvement Plan
 School Review and Evaluation – Impact Reports
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Maggie please insert the
RAISE sheet here on plain
background
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Maggie please insert the DATA
Book table here on plain
background
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Maggie please insert the 2 dash
board sheets here on plain
background
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Maggie please insert the 2 dash
board sheets here on plain
background
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Derbyshire
County Council
Ofsted questions
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Using a planned programme of regular, focussed and concise
briefings and meetings
including the careful use of the scrutiny questions, and the
active engagement in monitoring and evaluation processes..
governors should ensure they are in a position to confidently
and robustly describe key performance areas included in
the exemplar questions from inspectors
See hand out
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Derbyshire
County Council
A review of your GB
effectiveness
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Ofsted have alerted every Governing Body to the importance
of their own structured training and development
programme.
As part of that programme a formal review of your
effectiveness is a helpful starting point.
The effectiveness questions listed on the hand out will help
you in that process
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Derbyshire
County Council
Briefing items
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Ofsted update
Safeguarding
Anti-bullying
The governor website,
newsletter and other CPD
opportunities
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Derbyshire
County Council
Thank you and close
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Mike Longden
Cabinet Member for
Education
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