Governors meeting 13.07.09
DRAYCOTT & RODNEY STOKE
These minutes are subject to the approval of the Governing Body at their next meeting. A meeting was held of the school Governors at the school on Monday 13th July 2009, at 7.30pm.
The Governors present were: Mr Astle, Mrs Lowe, Mrs Chard, Mr Kinsman, Mr Percival, Mrs Watts, Mrs Talbot, Mrs Wdowski, Mr Hogan (Chair) and Mrs Douglas. Dr Devitt arrived late. Mrs Collins clerked the meeting.
Mrs Rawles, Mr Hilton and Mrs Hill were present for their reports on cohort progress.
Mr Percival opened the meeting with a prayer.
182/09 Apologies
Apologies were received from Mr Rickard and Mr Trist as they both have to work. Mr Trist has asked to step down from being a Governor as he feels he does not have the time to devote to carrying out his duties. A new Governor will need to be asked to replace Mr Trist.
183/09 Declaration of Interests
No Governor declared a Pecuniary interest in any agenda item.
184/09 Staff Reports to Governors on Cohort progress.
Class 1 – Reception. Teachers: Mr Hilton and Mrs Rawles.
The Job share is working well especially since Mrs Rawles is in all week. It is a small class of 12 children (5 girls and 7 boys) with support from 2 TA’s. A lot of the childrens learning is through playing games and a lot of outside activities, which the boys especially benefit from. All of the curriculum can be taught outside weather permitting. The children have learnt letters and sounds and now choose to write voluntarily. They love to write outside on the patio using chalks. There is a small group of readers who are daily readers. We continue to develop the link with playgroup, as it was a great start for the children last year having come up to the school on a regular basis before they had actually started school. They were able to start school knowing the staff, classroom and where various things were. This will continue again next year for the playgroup children though the Year 1 children will have to go up to class 2 for the afternoons when they visit. All children scored above 78 on Eye Profile which is evidence that the children are all ready to become Y1s. There have been a couple of trips for the reception children this year. Early on in their school year they visited a café at the local garden centre which they loved and were very well behaved. More recently they visited Animal Farm and Brean which again they really enjoyed. Next year it will be a reception and Y1 class, with consistent staffing. The plan is to link the subjects the children are learning with a topic. All the children in the class this year were motivated to learn. A Governor asked if the staff noticed a difference in the children learning outside but it was hard to answer as each year group is so different, but the teachers have noted that big progress has been made this year from when the children first started school.
Class 2 – Y1 and Y2s. Teacher: Mrs Watts.
It has been a large class of 30 children this year (12 girls and 18 boys). There are 21 year 1s and 9 year 2s, but in ability there is not much difference. The Key Stage 1 results show the value of each child is worth 11%, but due to the small year, the results do not have to be submitted. There are a couple of special needs children in this class.
Dr Devitt arrived at this point.
The 21 year 2s are busy and noisy but keen to learn and are doing well. The year 1 children need to work independently which they are. A Polish student started during the year and has extra support from Mrs Amey which has been necessary. Natalia is a very happy child and credit to all the children, who have helped her settle in. All the class were able to go swimming this year, which is a first for this class and all the children seemed to enjoy this. The children have been on both school trips and have had the opportunity to do out of school activities like multi sports at the Kings of Wessex school etc. Next year it will be a class of 21 year 2 children only, which Mrs Watts is looking forward to.
Class 3 – Y3 and Y4s. Teachers Mrs Rawles and Mrs Hill.
Busy year. The Y4 children have been taking part in a lot of activities. Some of the most recent events were their activity days with Mendip Outdoor Pursuits, visiting Wells Cathedral and Church to church day. All the children really enjoyed themselves and were fantastically behaved. The teachers would like to thank Mr Percival for all his help in class 3, to which Mr Percival replied by saying it was a great priviledge. The job share is working well due to the overlap that the teachers have to pass on information. There is 37 children in the class this year. They are a lovely class who work hard and have really gelled and work well together in mixed year groups. Mrs Head has done well replacing Mrs Kinsman. ALS has been brought in which is phonic based which works well with APP (Assessing Pupil Progress). Mrs Rawles has brought in after school maths clubs for both years at separate times. The teachers are looking forward to the new classroom. A new report format was introduced this year which has cut down on the amount of time it took to write the reports. There was a successful charities afternoon last week which the whole class got involved with to raise money for ‘Project for
Mrs Rawles, Mr Hilton and Mrs Hill left now.
185/09 Approve the minutes
The minutes were circulated to all Governors prior to the meeting.
The minutes of the previous meeting 21.5.09 were approved and signed as a true record.
186/09 Matters arising
- Resurfacing of the playground - £3000 received from Aggregates Levy, £1000 from PTA and the school will have to pay the difference. Mrs Bridgman is obtaining quotes. A parent had questioned whether there should be safety matting under the climbing wall but it is not necessary according to the company who installed the equipment. The Governors were happy that matting was not required.
- Mrs Collins is to buy a record book for the Governors surgery.
- Mrs Lowe has a book to record open afternoons in.
- A letter has been sent to the Brean coach driver
- Mrs Barritt has altered the signatories on the 3 accounts.
- Steve is in contact with
Hollie King re training - A visit to Chard school to see their Foundation unit has been organised
- Mrs Lowe has contacted Tilly’s colleague re pre school info evening
- Mr Percival has written a Governors report to parents, which has gone out.
- Mrs Lowe will write the Rarely Cover Policy
- We will contact Mr Hampton about decision re cup
- Mr Hogan has contacted Dick Gossling re the trees and he is coming to look at them 17th July.
- Ivy has been cleared
- The Knowles have been advised that it is ok to trim the tree.
187/09 Any other Business
Mrs Barritt wrote a report on the recent ADL meeting she attended. A copy was sent to all Governors prior to the meeting. Governors were asked if they had an opinion to whether Mrs Barritt should use OPEN ( Online Procurement for Educatoinal Needs). Governors felt that this was a decision Mrs Barritt needed to make as she is the person who deals with the ordering of supplies. They are happy to go along with her decision. Action WB
188/09 Correspondence
Mr Hampton handed in to the school, the renewal house insurance papers for school house, which were posted to his home address. Mr Hogan has taken the papers to look through and deal with. Action JH
189/09 Head Teachers Report
A copy of the report was emailed to all Governors prior to the meeting.
Mrs Lowe went over the report briefly.
- Next year we will have 71 children on the register
- Mrs Lowe is awaiting confirmation of the new computer licenses which were ordered on line.
- Mrs Lowe spread the new bark which was delivered last week.
- Fronter and APP will be on next years School Development Plan.
- The Health & Safety audit has been moved to 12th October
- At the next Strategic meeting (29th September 2009), Governors need to give serious thought on how to move the school from good to outstanding without compromising the school ethos.
The Chair thanked Mrs Lowe for her clear report.
Further to the recent parents questionnaire that went out, Mrs Lowe gave an analysis of the responses, though some more replies have come in since she collated this information. All governors had a copy of the analysis and Mrs Lowe will be endeavouring to tackle some of the areas where the scores were not so good.
- In September when we review the Governors roles, we would like to have a Publicity Governor, who will send out regular news to parents on what the Governors are doing etc.
- Staff will be sending out Half Termly diary sheets, so that parents know what their child is learning about.
Governors noted that it was pleasing to see that the there were high marks for the management and Reputation of the school. Though the latest questionnaires received give similar responses to those that are included in the analysis, Mrs Lowe will report back at the next meeting. Action CL
190/09 Chair’s Report
Nothing to report.
191/09 Clerk’s Report
Nothing to report.
192/09 Annual report to the Governors on Safeguarding Children
Mrs Lowe went over the report with the Governors. A First Aid Policy and Recruitment and Selection Policy need to be written. Action CL
A sentence in the comment box will be added, saying that we will put the missing policies in place. Governors approved the report.
193/09 Reports from the Governors responsible on SEN, RE, ICT, Literacy and Numeracy
SEN: Report from Mrs Wdowski.
Mrs Wdowski and Mrs Lowe met to review the ASN in the school on 29th June.
7 children on the special needs register, none above School Action. Three are moving on to Fairlands in the autumn and the main remaining issue seems to be around speech and language. Two children with medical needs and 1 child has English as an additional language. 6.4% of children on free school meals. Eight children are on the gifted and talented register.
Mrs Wdowski and Mrs Lowe met to discuss and revise the Disablity Equality Scheme. We are keen that the school continues to develop its inclusive character which is emphasised in our mission statement and other documents. To this end we are aiming to ensure that all staff gain the best possible training and support in welcoming any diverse learners who join the school. Since speech, language and communication difficulty seems to be the most common currently, and since they can have an impact upon children’s behaviour and support staff’s understanding, Mrs Wdowski has agreed to run an inset training session for TAs and any staff who would like to attend on Monday 14th September from 10.45 to 12.00.
Inclusion and additional support needs will continue to be monitored through the school development plan.
RE: Report from Dr Devitt.
The children follow the agreed syllabus of the
During our Church services in St. Peter’s, which occur fortnightly on Wednesdays at 11.30am during school terms, we develop and celebrate the themes which have been explored in class. The children join enthusiastically in discussion, singing and dramatisation of Bible stories. The services are lead mostly by myself , with our new vicar Sue Rose Officiating once or twice per term. All are welcome to these services.
We have had some special services during the year, which were also attended by the children’s families and other friends of the school. These were for Harvest, Mothering Sunday and following the death of Jane, our Chair of Governors, we had a very moving Memorial Service. This was attended by Jane’s husband Harry, and her daughter , who were touched by the participation of the children.
There is specific RE training available and I am about to attend the annual SACRE seminar, on RE resources, collective worship, promoting spiritual development and the contribution of RE to community cohesion. Hopefully this will generate some ideas to enable us as governors to think about the quality of our RE and collective worship provision.
ICT: Report from Mr Percival.
School Development Plan Statement of Intent for ICT 2008/09 reads:
‘To improve the quality of ICT provision throughout the school by replacing machines in the Key Stage 2 classroom.’
‘To improve the quality of ICT in the other two classrooms by replacing the computers.’
Evidence to support SoT:
- cabling costs for Class 3 have been checked by schools IT officer and work will be going ahead in the summer holidays to install trunking and cabling into the new Class 3 build.
- new computer equipment across the three classes has been researched and approved for cabling, PC’s, wireless points, computer trolley, printers, licences and laptops. The funding for expenditure of approx. £11,000 has been agreed and sourced.
Fronter – ‘With the Fronter Platform, children from as young as 5 years old can now take part in a new generation of e-learning. The concept of 'learning together' can be slowly introduced within a multimedia environment, where pupils can work and express themselves as they discover a wide world filled with possibilities’ – says the introduction.
Mrs Lowe and Mrs Watts are slowly assessing the implications of Fronter for
Governor Training
The Chair,
ICT Governor target for 2009-10
To consult more closely with Mrs Watts regarding ICT use across the school, For example, its use in APP (Assessing Pupil Performance).
NUMERACY: Report from Mr Hogan.
1 Incorporating APP (Assessing People Progress) into Maths and Literacy.
At a recent conference on ICT at which I was fortunate to be able to attend, Pam Counsell, senior advisor for National School Strategies, stated that in a recent survey in a number of schools assessment was one of the weakest aspects of teaching at the schools. It was good therefore to see that assessment was an area for development in our School Development Plan and within that was to incorporate APP into Maths and Literacy. Together with the schools objectives and outcomes, APP is regarded as an important means of making secure judgements of attainment, tracking pupils progress over a key stage or longer and using diagnostic information about pupils strengths and weaknesses, to improve learning, training and rates of pupil progress. Once we iron out some of the problems associated with its implementation it should prove to be a very useful tool in the future. Currently it is being used for Literacy only.
2 Priority to improve the standard of Maths
In addition to using APP one of our priorities this year was to achieve improvements in the standards of Maths. For example in Key Stage 2, year 4 results show improvement at the higher level 4 whilst at level 3c+ it is just in line with 2008. Overall the assessment by Terry Mortimer, the School Improvement Partner, is that achievement is ‘good’. Thanks must go to Mrs Lowe, Mrs Rawles and all the staff for their efforts this year. It is clear thatthey are all working for improvement in both planning, teaching, and tracking results.
3 Current actions being taken. Examples
All classes using New Framework for planning and delivering maths curriculum.
Maths clubs after school have been run for year 3s and year 4s – separately.
Buzz clubs. With other schools in the
Teachers from Cheddar Valley Schools meet termly to work on developing maths in the valley.
4 The Challenge.
The challenge for the coming year is to make further progress towards improving the ‘good’ achievemement.
To consider the further use of technology for helping the underachievers.
Perhaps some governors could give support to Mrs Rawles in the after school maths club.
Visit www.swgfl.org.uk for some very useful comments and information.
LITERACY: Report from Mrs Watts.
There is a new framework for Key Stage (KS) 1 and 2. APP is just starting.
194/09 Approve committee minutes
FINANCE & PERSONNEL 07.07.09
- Minutes were approved and signed as a true record.
- All Governors were handed an’ update on changes to Redundancy and Redeployment procedures’ and the actual Procedures were approved and signed as a true record.
- Mr Hogan read out the updated list of signatories to the Governors who all approved the details. Mr Hogan signed the sheet. The change of signatories on both accounts have been confirmed by the bank.
- The bill which has been received for the water meter in School House is for £437. Governors felt that the amount that the tenants should be charged and whether the bill should go directly to the tenants in future, is to be discussed at the next Finance committee meeting. Action WB
- All Governors were handed a copy of the Finance Report. No Governor had a question during the meeting.
- Mr Hogan read through the SIC ( Statement of Internal Control). The Governors approved and Mr Hogan signed it.
CURRICULUM AND SDP 16.06.09
Minutes were approved and signed as a true record.
PREMISES & SDP 02.07.09
Minutes were approved and signed as a true record.
195/09 Foundation Stage Update
Governors felt that it would be better to discuss this at the next meeting, after the visit to Chard school to look at their unit.
196/09 School Development Plan
See Headteachers report.
197/09 Admissions
Ongoing.
198/09 Computers – new and disposal of old
Governors approve that the old computers need to be disposed but have not made a decision on how. Mrs Collins is to put it the next FGB agenda. Action MC
199/09 Approve Policies
A copy of all policies went out to Governors before the meeting.
GOVERNORS INDUCTION POLICY
REDUNDANCY AND REDEPLOYMENT PROCEDURES
ACCESSIBILITY PLAN
RISK ASSESSMENT POLICY
PROCEDURE FOR THE ADMINISTRATON OF PERSONNEL ACTIVITIES
STAFF GRIEVANCE AND DISPUTES POLICY
All policies were approved and signed as a true record.
200/09 Memorial to Jane
Governors had a discussion about what they thought would be an appropriate memorial. The decision they made was to name the new Foundation Unit after her and also to put all the money collected towards a sculpture to put in the little garden at the back. A letter is to be sent to Mr Hampton with the proposed ideas. Action JH
201/09 Financial Monitoring
Covered under Finance and Personnel minutes.
202/09 Scout Activity weekend
Mrs Lowe received an email from Thameside Grand Union District scout group, asking if they could bring around 100 scouts and leaders to stay at our school, whilst visiting our area for an activities weekend. Governors felt that the school would not be a big enough place for the scouts to stay, so Mrs Lowe will contact the Assistant Commissioner to advise him of this and to recommend some possible alternatives eg Draycott Village Hall, Fernhill Farm, Charterhouse or
203/09 Training
- Mr Percival is still waiting to hear from Somerset Governors Services (SGS) regarding training.
- Finance training – There will be training at
Wedmore First School
204/09 Health and Safety
Mr Kinsman has been on a training course. There is a Health and Safety audit on the 12th October 2009.
Mr Kinsman completed a Health and Safety walk around the school. Mrs Lowe has the report which she will go through at the next Premises meeting.
205/09 SEN
As discussed earlier.
Mrs Wdowski recently went to Taunton Rugby club where she was awarded with a long serving governor certificate. As these certificates were handed out to nominated Governors, Mrs Wdowski wished to thank whoever nominated her.
Date of next meeting is 14th September 2009.