Diocese of Portsmouth
Department for Schools
Park Place Pastoral Centre
Winchester Road
Wickham
PO17 5HA
Tel: 01329 835363
4th June 2015
To all headteachers, governors and clerks
School Governance Bulletin No: 12.15
This Bulletin is sent electronically to all headteachers, governors, directors and clerks for whom an
email address is held in the Department for Schools’ office. No hard copies will be issued. Bulletins
will be circulated as and when appropriate and will be numbered for ease of reference. The bulletin
will also be available on the diocesan web-site.
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In this bulletin:
1.
Welcoming local clergy into
the life of our schools
2.
Training for governors
3.
Nicky Morgan sets out
Conservatives’ vision
4.
Young People Not in Education,
Employment or Training (NEET)
5.
New School Direct Bulletin
6.
Information from the EFA
7.
Leadership Changes in
Rainbows Bereavement
Support GB
8.
Catholic education
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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1. Welcoming local clergy into the life of our schools
The presence of the clergy makes an immense contribution to the school community, and heads,
staff, parents, and children all enjoy welcoming their Parish Priest, or other members of the clergy
to school, and many are embedded into the life of the school.
However, all schools are unique, and different clergy have their own individual contributions to
bring to each community. These are some suggestions which would encourage and welcome visits,
without putting additional pressure on their already busy timetables.
Firstly, it is important to invite them explicitly to the school, especially if you have a new Parish
Priest or head teacher – this is key to establishing an effective relationship. Our children are our
best ambassadors, and always enjoy showing them around the school during the working day.
Coffee in the staff room is an informal introduction to the school community, especially if you
have a member of staff who has a particular community responsibility to ensure they are given a
warm welcome.
Other successful ideas from around the Diocese include:•
School tour during the working day, accompanied by the head or senior member of staff, to
introduce them to the day to day life of the school
• End of school day learning walk, with a specific remit e.g. focal areas, display, icons etc.
• Meeting with the R.E. manager to look at the current topic in God Matters
• Work during a staff meeting, to ensure consistency in planning Masses or Liturgies
• Clergy to lead information session for staff on an explicit area e.g. liturgical colours – this is
particularly appreciated by non-Catholic staff, who are often worried about making errors.
• Invitation to accompany the children on a local school trip
• A very popular area with families is the presence of the clergy at the school gate, to informally
chat to parents and carers.
• The presence of the Parish Priest on the governing body is of immense value, pastorally.
We have to acknowledge that many of our children do not attend church regularly, and meeting
priests and other members of the clergy may be the one chance in life that they have to establish
this important, lifelong relationship.
2. Training for governors
All governors are welcome to these sessions although they are aimed particularly at inducting new
governors.
Chairs are asked to ensure that all new governors (staff, parents and foundation governors)
attend this training as well as any LA training provided. Topics covered include:

Why the Church provides Catholic schools
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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
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Background information on voluntary aided schools, including the role of the Bishop,
Trust Deeds and Trusteeship
The ethos of a Catholic school
The roles and responsibilities of governors, particularly foundation governors
- Three core strategic functions of governing bodies
- the role of governors and the Headteacher
- appointment of staff, admission of pupils, premises
Information on religious education and school worship
The inspection of Church schools : Ofsted, Section 48 Inspections (RE & Catholic Life of
the school)
The role of the diocese in supporting governors
Useful resources
Sessions will be provided at :
St Walburga’s Primary School, Bournemouth on Tuesday 7th July 2015 7-9pm
&
St Teresa’s Primary School, Wokingham
on Monday 13th July 2015 7-9pm
To book your place at either of these sessions, please contact Maureen Simmons, with your
details on : schools@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
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3. Nicky Morgan sets out Conservatives’ vision on school reforms
Nicky Morgan said the priorities of her government are to speed up the process for tackling failing
schools, extend the academies programme to ‘coasting’ schools and deliver on the manifesto
commitment to open more free schools.
The process of turning failing schools into academies will speed up, at present, she believes,
bureaucracy and legal hurdles are put in the way of speedy academisation. The power to change
the leadership of failing schools will be vested in the Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs).
The article is available at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11610551/Nicky-Morgan-We-will-stepup-our-school-reforms-so-every-child-can-thrive.html
4. Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)
Information for January to March 2015 from the Office for National Statistics
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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•
There were 943,000 young people (aged from 16 to 24) in the UK who were Not in
Education, Employment or Training (NEET), a decrease of 20,000 from October to December
2014 and down 45,000 from a year earlier
•
The percentage of all young people in the UK who were NEET was 13.0%, down 0.3
percentage points from October to December 2014 and down 0.5 percentage points from a
year earlier
•
Just under half (46%) of all young people in the UK who were NEET were looking for work
and available for work and therefore classified as unemployed. The remainder were either not
looking for work and/or not available for work and therefore classified as economically
inactive
Governors of secondary schools should be monitoring destinations data and should compare their
data on NEETs with national statistics, monitoring how effective careers advice and guidance,
alongside active pastoral support, are in helping all students to move on to appropriate education
or employment.
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5.
New School Direct bulletin
News and information for schools and teacher training providers running School Direct
programmes. Contents include
 Plan your summer recruitment
 Marketing and recruitment
 UCAS
 Updates and reminders: Urgent appeal for returners case studies, School Direct (salaried)
£6,000 grant funding uplift, Additional allocations for academic year 2015 to 2016 still
available, School experience programme, Overseas degree equivalency table now live and
more
6. Information from the EFA
i) Information: free meals in further education
The free meals in further education guide for the 2015 to 2016 academic year is now available at
https://www.gov.uk/16-to-18-education-free-meals?utm_source=EFA%20ebulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e-bulletin&mxmroi=2305-21601-23726-0
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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This advice has been produced to help institutions understand their obligation to provide free
meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18 year old students in further education funded institutions. The
guide also provides advice on administering free meals in line with the requirement.
ii) High needs place numbers 2015 to 2016 for institutions funded by EFA
The EFA has published the high needs place numbers for the 2015 to 2016 academic year, which
show the high needs places allocated to institutions and local authority location.
This will be updated in August 2015 to reflect any changes in institution status as of 1 August
2015. It can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-high-needs-allocated-placenumbers?utm_source=EFA%20e-bulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebulletin&mxmroi=2305-21601-23703-0
iii) Reminder: EFA independent appeal panel online complaints form
Academies are reminded to instruct clerks contracted to run their admission appeals to include a
link to the admission appeal complaint form in the panel’s decision letter:
https://form.education.gov.uk/fillform.php?self=1&form_id=cJjpB3CdBfq&utm_source=EFA%2
0e-bulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e-bulletin&mxmroi=2305-21601-23699-0&1
The 2014 review of academy independent appeal panel complaints provides advice to help ensure
appeals run correctly. It can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/406977/Academies
_admissions_appeals_review_2014.pdf
iv) Budget forecast return - online form
In March, The EFA published a workbook and guidance to help academy trusts complete their
2015 to 2016 budget forecast return, due 31 July 2015:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-budget-forecastform?utm_source=EFA%20e-bulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebulletin&mxmroi=2305-21601-23693-0
Academy trusts will need to submit their budget forecasts using the new online form, which will
be published by 30 June 2015. Academy trusts are encouraged to use the workbook and guide to
help prepare their forecast prior to completing the online form.
A webinar will take place on 17 June. Registration is now open (see EFA training - Overview),
and the EFA will publish a training video by 26 June to help academies complete the return.
v) Providing academy trust contact information
Academy trusts have 14 days to notify EFA when there is a change to the chair of the board of
trustees, accounting officer or chief financial officer.
The online form for you to provide your trust’s contact information is available at
https://form.education.gov.uk/fillform.php?self=1&form_id=bNPgW4UqfQv
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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There are different requirements depending on your trust’s funding agreement. Please check this at
https://www.gov.uk/updating-academy-trust-governance-contacts?utm_source=EFA%20ebulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e-bulletin&mxmroi=2305-21601-24182-0 before
completing the form.
Unfortunately, academies cannot currently view the contacts that the EFA holds on the institution.
The EFA is planning to introduce a new system that will resolve this issue.
In the meantime, if you are in any doubt about whether the EFA holds the latest contact
information for your trust then please submit the relevant details and the EFA will replace any
existing contacts.
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7. Leadership Changes in Rainbows Bereavement Support GB
Rainbows Bereavement Support GB now supports children and young people grieving a
significant and often devastating loss in their lives in over 1065 schools in Great Britain; many of
these are Catholic schools. Two newly appointed National Co-Directors commenced work on May
1st: Katrina Avery takes responsibility for the south and Sarah Knightley for the north. Both will
be delighted to respond to any requests you have for information, training or to participate in
diocesan conferences exploring bereavement and loss.
Contact Details from 1st May 2015:
Katrina Avery, National Co-Director (Southern Region) katrina.rainbowsgb@btconnect.com
Sarah Knightley, National Co-Director (Northern Region) sarah.rainbowsgb@btconnect.com
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8. Catholic education
“An educator is himself in need of permanent formation. It is necessary to invest so that teachers
and supervisors may maintain a high level of professionalism and also maintain their faith and the
strength of their spiritual impetus. And in this permanent formation too I would suggest a need for
retreats and spiritual exercises for educators. It is a beautiful thing to offer courses on the subject,
but it is also necessary to offer spiritual exercises and retreats focused on prayer! For consistency
requires effort but most of all it is a gift and a grace. We must ask for it!”
Pope Francis 13th Feb 2014
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Diocese of Portsmouth – Department for Schools
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