MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE
DIRECTORS MEETING HELD AT WINTER GARDENS ACADEMY
HELD ON THURSDAY, 2ND JULY 2015 AT 10.00 AM
indicates
attendance
1
Mr Simon Harbrow (SH) – Executive Headteacher 
Mr Mike Simmonds (MS) – Chair of Directors 
Mrs Tosca Boothman (TB) – Standards Director, Chair of
Winter Gardens 
Mr Darren Stoner (DS) – Finance Director
Mrs Catherine Stalham (CSt) – Acting Headteacher WG
Mrs Gemma Thurston – Acting Deputy Headteacher WG
In Attendance:
Mrs Emma Terris – Clerk 
Mrs Claire Sellick (CSe) – School
Business Manager 
Miss Jill Pullen (JP) – Chair of IEB of
WG 
Agenda Item
Minutes
Verbal handover report from Mrs Jill
Pullen – Chair of IEB
MS welcomed Miss Pullen to the meeting and advised that she
has been invited to the meeting in order to give Directors a verbal
handover report. JP gave Directors the following handover report
where the following points were noted:
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The QoT in school is fragile and needs to be further
addressed. The school needs to make up for neglectful
and inadequate teaching and especially in next year’s
Year 6 who have a lot of ground to make up.
All personnel issues, with the exception of one, which is
being dealt with by SH have been addressed.
3 Builders are coming into school today in order to quote
to remove the tree roots. An earlier quote of £3,000 has
been refused as it was considered excessive.
A meeting has been held with the pre-school and CSe
and JP where it was advised that the pre-school can
continue to be run the same way. The pre-school is very
well resourced and run. Two lots of ‘measures’ have
been declared on the pre-school if there is a need to
restructure.
JP advised the Directors to contact her if they needed any further
information. MS expressed his appreciation to JP and the IEB for
the work they have carried out. MS presented JP with a bouquet
of flowers. At 10.25 am she left the meeting.
2
Welcome and apologies for absence
MS welcomed everyone to the meeting. An apology for absence
was received and accepted from Mr Stoner who was unable to
attend due to work commitments.
It was agreed that the Clerk and SH will liaise in order to establish
a Google Calendar of SEAT meetings in the SEAT Google Drive.
3
Declarations of Business Interests/
Conflict of Interests.
Mrs Stalham and Mrs Thurston completed new declarations of
business interest forms. There were no declarations of business
interests or conflict of interest with any items on the agenda.
Members to declare any gifts or
Hospitality
There were no declarations of gifts or hospitality since the last
meeting.
4
Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 25th June 2015 were
reviewed, agreed and signed by MS as a true record of the
meeting.
5.
Mattes Arising from the minutes of the
previous meeting
Item 8: Westwood Academy
MS informed the meeting that as Mrs Vanessa Van Blerk has
been appointed Chair of Westwood Local Governing Body with
effect from 30th June and that she will be joining the Board of
Directors in the autumn term.
Item 8: Parkwood Academy
SH informed the meeting that since Directors approved the
support Staff structure, two members of the support staff have
resigned with a further resignation likely. One of the resignations
was from the Finance Administrator. An advert has been placed
in order to recruit a School Business Manager who has finance
experience.
Item 9: Winter Gardens School Conversion
At 10.55 am GT was asked to withdraw from the meeting in order
for Directors to ratify her appointment as Acting Deputy
Headteacher for the autumn term. The remainder of this minute
has been minuted as a confidential item. At 11.00 am GT was
invited back into the meeting to be informed of the Directors’
decision.
Item 10: Executive Headteacher's Report
SH informed the meeting that the three Headteacher’s of the
Trusts schools will be meeting next week in order to plan the CPD
of the Trust training day which is being held on Friday, 13th
November.
6.
Directors’ Responsibilities
MS referred Directors to the Directors’ responsibilities
spreadsheet which was uploaded onto the Google Drive. It was
agreed that TB will Chair the Winter Gardens meetings going
forward and from this point TB chaired the meeting.
It was agreed that SH will produce a Directors’ monitoring plan
which will feed into the Single Plan priorities for the school. The
dates for future monitoring visits will be included on the Google
Calendar.
7.
Report from the Acting Headteacher of
Winter Gardens Academy
CSt uploaded the Headteacher’s Report on to the Google Drive
prior to the meeting. Directors were given an overview of the
report and the following points were noted:
Ofsted 2014
Following the Ofsted Inspection in 2014, the following areas
requiring development are as follows:
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Improve the quality of teaching so that it is at least good.
Raise attainment and accelerate progress particularly at
KS2 in Reading, Writing and Mathematics so that all
groups of pupils, including disadvantaged, disabled, SEN
and the most able achieve well.
Make sure that actions taken to improve pupils’ behaviour
and attendance are followed up.
Improve the effectiveness of leaders and managers.
TB informed the meeting that Ian Morton, a member of the IEB,
has carried out a monitoring visit on Pupil Premium. TB advised
that she has prepared a report and this will be forthcoming. TB
added that as the previous records are incomplete the IEB agreed
to draw a line under previous data and only use the current
recorded data for monitoring purposes.
CSt informed the meeting that following a visit from Maz Norman
on 7th July, she has been signed up for a leadership course for
disadvantaged pupils. The course will run for a period of one year
and Directors were advised that there will be no cost to the
school. CSt added that Maz Norman will shortly be coming into
school in order to carry out a one day School Health Check with
the Leadership Team.
HMI March
CSt advised that HMI have visited the school in December 2014
and March 2015 where it was identified that the school is not
making enough progress towards the removal of special
measures. Although, it was noted that HMI reported that the
school is addressing the concerns and that there has not been
enough time for impact. The full copy of the HMI Report has been
uploaded onto the Google Drive for information.
Board Assurance Framework (BAF)
Directors were advised that the BAF was created at the request of
the Chair of the IEB. The BAF has been very useful to highlight
any risks and track actions and progress against these.
Governors were given an overview of the BAT where it was noted
that there are no areas that are red and that everything is either
amber or green.
Directors considered this to be a useful document and it was
agreed that the BAF will be implemented across all the Trust
schools. MS requested that any threats are to be included in the
EHT’s report for discussion.
Impact Document
The Impact Document was crated with an LA advisor and has
been useful to record to the impact in areas other than the main
priorities of the Single Plan. In time, the Impact Document will
feed directly into the Single Plan.
In response to a question from a Director, CSt advised that Keith
Pullen and Maz Norman have been into school during the course
of the term in order to carry out lesson observations. It was
noted that 90% of the lessons that Maz observed good lesson
behavior was evident. This has increased from 29% at the
beginning of the term. There has been a shift in teaching from
Inadequate/RI – RI/Good.
Single Plan
CSt gave Directors an overview of the Single Plan. The following
points were noted:

Priority 1 – Raise standards and achievement in Reading,
Writing and Maths.
CSt advised that when she joined the school it was very
difficult to find data. Moderation has taken place in KS1
where it was found that the data is accurate.
63% of students achieved GLD. This exceeded the target
set of 60%. 67% of pupils passed the Phonics Screening
Test. This is lower than the target of 80%.
Marking and feedback to pupils has been addressed. The
Single Plan is being reviewed at staff meetings and areas
that require attention are highlighted.
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Priority 2 – To improve the quality of teaching and
learning to consistently Good (70% good or better)
The pitch of lessons for numeracy and literacy has
improved. The school is now addressing low/high ability.
CSt advised that going forward she would like moderation
to take place internally between the Trust schools.
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Priority 3 – To develop the school as a professional
learning community
CSt advised that priority 3 is concentrating on all leaders
taking responsibility of their area. The IEB and the LA
undertook monitoring of the leaders. CSt advised that at
the end of the term a one page summary will be produced
highlighting a summary of the subject areas
responsibilities and next steps.
Staffing
Directors were advised that at the time of CSt’s arrival there were
5 members of staff on long term sick, 4 day to day supply
teachers and several inadequate teachers. With the assistance of
Westwood, the LA and the IEB, five new members of staff have
been employed and started employment after Easter.
At this point, there is only one teacher on long term sick, one day
to day supply who will be leaving at the end of the term and one
inadequate teacher who has been taken out of class.
Directors reviewed and agreed the staffing structure for Winter
Garden Academy for the 2015/16 academic year.
Directors were advised that a document outlining the roles and
responsibilities for September 2015 has been uploaded to the
Google Drive. It was noted that Stacy Moore who was the
Headteacher’s PA has been appointed to the role of School
Business Manager and will be line managing staff all office staff.
MS advised that a timescale will need to be produced for the
appointment of the Headteacher during the autumn term. Advice
will be sought from Essex HR in regard to advertising externally.
Budget
Directors were advised that the budget has been a high risk area
due to the amount of staff on long term sickness, the need for
settlement arrangements and the need to over staff for cover
possibilities. Last year there was a carry forward of approximately
£131,000 however, there has been an overspend this year of
£97,000, mostly attributable to overstaffing, supplies and long
term sickness issues, and therefore the carry forward is
approximately £14,000.
It was noted that the current priorities for next year’s budget are
resources to support the new curriculum, an IT overhaul and
canopies for EYFS and Year 1 outside area. MS commented that
Parkwood have not spent their allocated IT budget which was
approved by Directors and suggested that this is reneged in order
for an order to be placed for both schools, which may result in
greater savings. CSe agreed to ascertain where Parkwood are in
regard to the purchasing of IT equipment.
Autumn Single Plan
Directors were given an overview of the ideas for priorities for the
autumn term, which are as follows:
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Literacy – implementation of Talk for Writing, reviewing
Read, Write Inc.
Numeracy – implantation of Numicon and Abacus
Assessment – moderation of bands and steps, ensuring
assessment informing planning through gap analysis
Provision for vulnerable pupils – PP, SEN, CiC
Leadership – leaders to take responsibility for their areas.
Possible support/work with Trust
CSt proposed the following support/work with the Trust going
forward:
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Trust wide moderation to include joint staff meetings each
term for teachers from each school to moderate their
judgements.
Teachers to be given the opportunity to observe good
practice in order to develop ‘mindset’.
Leaders to spend time with the relevant leaders in the
other schools to have planning meetings (SENCOs, AHT,
DHT, EYFS leads, Attendance Officers)
Stacey Moore, the new SBM to receive further support
from CSe as she is new to the role.
Monitoring Areas for Directors
 Pupil Prorgress – Data analysis
 Pupil Progress and T&L: Single Plan Priority 1,2,3
 Safeguarding
 Attendance
 Behaviour for Learning
 Provision for and progress of SEN children
 Progress of disadvantaged children
 Sports premium use of funds and provision
 Finance
SH agreed to produce a report of the Headteacher’s meeting as
evidence of discussions.
Threats
The following threats were noted and discussed:
 Potential issues surrounding the teacher on long term
sick.
 Attendance – currently 94.3%.
 New staff – ensure good induction and consistency
 Safeguarding (currently 2 children on Child Protection, 20
children are cause for concern, 10 referrals/advice from
Social Services in the last term)
 Staff conduct issues to address
 Very low baseline data, especially Year 5, which will be
the Ofsted data.
 Provision for vulnerable children (29% of the school are
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PP, 15% SEN, currently 6 Chidren in Care)
Potential illness/cover issues
Capacity of SLT
Directors commended CSt on her very detailed and thorough
report.
8
Executive Headteacher of SEAT Report
to Directors
SH informed the meeting that conversion has taken place as
planned on 1st July 2015. The pre-school has transferred to the
Academy. There is an issue regarding the use of Lake View Hall.
This is currently being addressed.
A qualified teacher needs to be employed in the pre-school and
advice is being sought regarding the school’s options.
.
9.
Identify an Governance Priorities for
Winter Gardens
This has been covered in the Acting Headteacher’s report.
10
Policies to review and adopt
Pay Policy
The draft Pay Policy and Staff Structure for the Trust was
uploaded onto the Google Drive prior to the meeting. Directors
were advised that staff have been consulted and no issues have
arisen. Subject to the Staff Structure for Winter Gardens being
shared with staff, Directors were unanimous in agreement for the
Pay Policy to be adopted.
Financial Regulations and Scheme of Delegation
The draft Financial Regulations for the Trust was uploaded onto
the Google Drive prior to the meeting for review. Directors were
advised that the Financial Regulations have been modified to
meet the needs of the Trust and the regulations have been sent to
the Trust Headteacher’s for review. Following discussions,
Directors agreed that the LGB of the Trust schools are given
responsibility in regard to managing their budgets to include the
virement of money within own budget. Subject to the above
amendments, Directors were unanimous in agreement to adopt
the Financial Regulations and Scheme of Delegation.
Winter Garden Policies
Directors were unanimous in agreement to for all current Winter
Gardens policies to be adopted with a view to review them as
appropriate.
13
Dates for meetings 2015/16
The meeting dates for 2015/16 have been uploaded onto the
Google Drive. The Clerk will arrange for the dates to be added to
the calendar on Google Drive.
14
Directors Monitoring/Planning
This item has been covered in the Acting Headteacher’s Report.
15
Acting Headteacher's PMR
It was agreed that the date for the Acting Headteacher's PMR will
take place on Friday, 11th September at 9.15 am at Winter
Gardens Academy.
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Data and time of next meeting
Tuesday, 29th September 2015 at 2.00 pm at Winter Gardens
Academy
With no further business the Chair thanked everyone for attending. The meeting closed at 12.30 pm.
Actions
AGENDA ITEM/
ACTION POINT
Prepared by:
Emma Terris
Authorised by:
……………………………….
Chair
RESPONSIBILITY
Date: …………………