Date: 15 February 2013 Time: 10:00am-11.15am
Present:
Keith Cockman (Chair of Governors), Fiona Ives (Chair), David Kennedy,
Michelle Jaggs, Sally Pringle, Dave Allman
Apologies: Lauren Morbey (maternity leave)
Items
Apologies for absence
Accepted
Declaration of interests
Keith Cockman declared he was Governor of Rye Park Nursery School.
Approval of Personnel Minutes held on 9 November 2012
The Headteacher mentioned that David Mansfield had taken up a post in
China as the new Headteacher of Dulwich College and would no longer be our School Improvement Partner. The Headteacher would look into appointing someone else.
Matters arising
The Company Secretary updated governors on the school policies and said this was going to be an ongoing issue. Stone King, Solicitors will provide us with up to date policies. The Personnel Policy had only just arrived
In relation to personnel related policies we are moving to having them written by Stone King as HCC no longer fit with the law.
The situation as far as policies are concerned is that the Company
Secretary recommended that governors approved these policies. The
Capability Procedure is not required to follow the governments’ prescribed requirements for appraisals. There are others being done for other schools but staff are very positive.
The Chair asked whether the policies written by Stone King had been implemented with our staff in mind, and whether we needed to show them to recognised unions. The Company Secretary confirmed that there were no existing cases affected by this.
The Chair of Governors asked if we do get union presence can policies change. The Headteacher said we did not have to do that. The Company
Secretary showed governors where the policies, Annual Report, Articles of Association and Funding Agreement could be found on our school website.
The Headteacher said it was very important to show these because we run the school as a business and need to show where things are on our website.
We needed to be transparent at all times and this was one of the reasons
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Items why we would be an outstanding school.
We have to make sure that we consult with staff, discuss any issues and that everything is transparent. Our solicitors were very impressed with the school.
The Company Secretary informed governors that we are required to publish all our values, ethos and curriculum information on line and show our pupil premium which would show what we spend and where the money goes.
The Headteacher informed governors that if we do not comply to this we run the risk of being put into special measures. All our papers are up to date for audit and are all clearly set out on our website.
The Company Secretary would replace all the new policies on the school website.
The Chair asked whether all the policies that were needed are shown on the website and the Company Secretary confirmed that they were. The
Chair therefore gave authorisation for the Company Secretary to continue updating the policies as and when was required.
The Company Secretary said he would remove the line ‘to be revised on’ from our policies since this was no longer required.
The Chair asked if the Company Secretary had compared our policies to other schools and the Company Secretary confirmed we were well up to date with all the legislations and law.
The Headteacher confirmed that these policies would be presented to full governors at the next meeting by the Company Secretary.
Items of other urgent business to be considered at the end of the meeting
None
Headteacher's Report
The Headteacher commenced by reporting that he had seen truly outstanding teaching and marking from Miss Andi Petrou one of our
English and Media teachers today. He went through his report paying particular attention to the maternity leave arrangements and informing governors to whom this applied.
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He confirmed that, although the government had suggested there was no need for rigorous CRB checks to continue, we as a school were happy to carry the CRB checks as normal.
He handed over to the School Bursar for her to briefly explain to governors what ‘Real Time Information’ meant. The Bursar explained
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Items that this meant that we would have to report back to HMRC monthly rather than yearly as had been the case in the past.
The Chair of Governors asked who dealt with our payroll and the Bursar informed governors that a company called Dataplan did this for us. She informed governors that recently the Chair of HASSH had enquired who dealt with our payroll because they were hoping to move from HCC since
HCC had caused them a few problems.
The Bursar confirmed that the school received a very good service from
Dataplan and that we had been happy with them.
Report on new training projects NPQSL and NPQML
The Company Secretary briefly outlined what this entailed and said that he and Mr Jeremy Scott, Deputy Headteacher would be going to Cambridge to be trained in order to facilitate this certificate at evening sessions to staff and others. We had invited Leventhorpe School and Burnham Park along with some other schools to participate in this qualification. It was hoped that this would commence in September and this would contribute to our bid to become a teaching school.
The Chair asked if the Company Secretary would keep all governors updated of the progress of this new training project. The Company Secretary confirmed that he would do so.
The Chair requested that the next meeting be changed to 21 June in view of the fact that she had other commitments on the previous date. All governors agreed to meet on the 21 June.
Next meeting: Friday 21 June 2013 at 9.00am
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