Present : Clenchwarton & West Lynn Primary Schools Minutes of the Joint Governing Body Meeting Held on Thursday 28 th April 2016 at 5pm in the staff room at Clenchwarton Primary Chair: David Marsh (), Joanne Borley Executive Head teacher (), Sue Lunnon- (SL), Georgie Tennant- () Jacky Calaby- arrived 6.05pm (JC), Michelle Barry- arrived 5.35pm (MB), Neil Mindham -Executive Deputy Head teacher (), & Stella Kaye-Clerk () Absent: None. 1. Consideration of Apologies Apologies were received from Alexandra Kemp and Charlotte Wales and accepted by the LGB. Apologies received from Jackie Calaby who was to arrive late, as she was on a school trip. 2. To Agree the Business of the Meeting Business was agreed as per the agenda. 3. Declarations of Interest No declarations of pecuniary interest were received. 4. Minutes The minutes of the meeting held on 11 th February 2016 were agreed and accepted as a true record by the LGB and signed by. The minutes of the meeting held on 22 nd March 2016 were agreed and accepted as a true record by the LGB and signed by SL. In response to a query raised by a parent, governors agreed, with effect from this meeting, the signed LGB minutes were to be upload to the school website. 5. Matters Arising From the policy meeting held on 22 nd March 2016, SL advised having looked at other schools and as it is not a statutory policy, the Community Cohesion Policy was no longer required. Agreed by governors 6. Update re February Monitoring Report Staff Governor Election for West Lynn: The Staff Governor election still to be carried out at West Lynn. Clerk to forward a copy of the Staff Governor Election pack to. Lunchtime Monitoring Visit at Clenchwarton: In the absence of CW this item was carried forward to the next meeting. Lunchtime Reward Stickers for West Lynn: advised the two schools had different systems at lunch time and West Lynn did not have the same members of staff available, so it would not be realistic to manage this system at West Lynn. House points were given to reward good behaviour. queried what the difference was. advised there were a lot more 1 to 1 staff. This led governors to ask if more MSAs were required and if any staff were on duty. replied more MSAs were not required. No staff were on duty during lunchtimes, but this may change from September. Governors agreed to look at this again in September SEND Monitoring: yet to meet with SENCO as meetings had unfortunately had to be cancelled. SEND Summary carried forward to next meeting. Safeguarding Audits: advised the safeguarding audits for both schools would be completed next week. Safeguarding Reports to be an agenda item for the next meeting. MB joined the meeting 5.35pm Joint Governor Training Sessions: The sessions had now both been held. See item 15. Item for West Lynn Newsletter: Item had been placed in the newsletter Page 1 of 5 CW
requesting new governors to come forward New Trust Governors: See item 7. Scheme of Delegation: WNAT had confirmed the Terms of Reference held were the Scheme of Delegation. Meetings would be quorate with only three governors present. The Trust currently had no plans to review the Terms of Reference/ Scheme of Delegation. Details of EYFS Subject Leaders: These had been issued to MB. MB requested the Clerk to send them again. Governor Lanyards: Lanyards had been ordered for governors and were in the office at Clenchwarton. Photographs were needed for the lanyards. All Governors were requested to send a head and shoulders photograph of themselves to. Clerk to email those governors not present and request them to do the same. Staff Wellbeing Questionnaire: This had not yet been carried out. circulated copies of an example questionnaire. After some discussion it was agreed that governors were to email their feedback on the questionnaire to, who would then compile a questionnaire to be issued to all staff members. Governor Email Address: A governor email address had been set up for both schools. to send details to. to include details on both school websites and advise parents via the school newsletters. Staff Signing in Book/System: advised a suitable system could not be set up using Pupil Asset. After some discussion governors agreed to not proceed with setting up a staff signing in book/system as it was not practical and too expensive. Parents Evenings: Governors asked if they could be notified in advance of the parent evening dates. to advise governors in September for the next parent evenings in October. 7. Membership of the Governing Body SL advised the Trust were happy for the LGB to nominate potential new Trust Governors. After some discussion Governors agreed was to put forward just one person as a possible new governor, a parent from West Lynn, who had put their name forward as a result of the item in the school newsletter. SL advised she had mentioned to the Trust about another trustee joining the LGB. This was down to individual trustees and unfortunately no one had volunteered. Staff Governor election was to be held at West Lynn. 8. DBS Checks for Governors In response to the Clerk s query, re the change in legislation which requires DBS checks to now be held for all governors, confirmed that DBS checks were held for all governors. There was one query which was being looked into. 9. Head teacher s Report Copies of the Head teacher s report were handed out to all governors present. asked if the Head teacher s Report could be issued to governors earlier. advised that Prevent training for governors needed to be arranged. Staffing Governors queried who was covering the Year2/3 Class at West Lynn. advised it was being covered by one of the teachers from Clenchwarton and two HLTAs. The Trust had given permission for an NQT to be appointed. SL asked who would be the NQT mentor. advised this would be. advised there would be one form entry next year. Time Off advised the 18 days shown for TA absence at Clenchwarton, was between seven different members of staff. EPM were aware and dealing with the long term absences. Monitoring advised she was unable to undertake the Science monitoring at West Lynn as the subject leader had left. PSHE was now booked for next week. All Governors All Governors & / / JC joined the meeting 6.05pm Page 2 of 5
The PSHE actions were discussed. SL suggested getting advice from Jane at the Pre- School regarding PSHE for the EYFS. advised a new sex education video had now been obtained. MB queried if parents have to agree to their children seeing the video. confirmed yes parents would have to agree. A staff meeting had been held about British Values. talked through the learning walks she had undertaken that week, in all three schools, regarding the learning environments and presentation. There had been quite different reactions by the staff at Clenchwarton and West Lynn. West Lynn staff had taken it well and been positive. Taking down displays and putting up new ones. showed governors photos of the new displays. The response by the Clenchwarton staff, to date, had not been so positive. explained she had offered to stay and help after school, given ideas and offered overtime for TAs. asked what the feeling of the staff was. JC advised staff felt they had done their best. The way forward was discussed and governors undertook a walk around the school at the end of the meeting, to look at the classroom learning environments and the displays. Governors agreed as presentation was a focus for Ofsted, the learning environments would be a focus for any governor learning walks or monitoring next term. Performance Management: advised this was ongoing and did take time. Health & Safety In response to a query from governors, advised health and safety was overseen by the Trust but the regular checks were carried out by the caretaker. SL informed the meeting that she had mentioned the condition of the Clenchwarton swimming pool to the Trust. reported that when it rains at West Lynn the area around the mobile classroom floods and a bridge has to be made. The cost of a new soak-away had been looked into, but this would cost thousands of pounds. Safeguarding There had been no racist or bullying incidents reported at either school. There had been no exclusions at Clenchwarton. There had been two exclusions at West Lynn, one of which had been a permanent exclusion. Attendance informed governors that the attendance percentage figures were for the last two terms and not since September. The aim was to achieve over 95% attendance. Cluster MB queried how the Cluster SEN funding would be allocated. advised this would be spent on providing 1 to 1 support. 10. SEND Summary See item 6 February Monitoring Report Update. Item carried forward to the next meeting. MB raised an issue that had come up in relation to the permanent exclusion at West Lynn. agreed to raise this with S. White (SENCO) at their meeting next week. 11. Leadership and Management Report The Leadership and Management Report carried out by SL had been issued to all governors prior to the meeting. asked what SL s main assessment had been of the governing body. SL advised the governing body was low on numbers, which impacted on its ability to cover the monitoring required. The Governing Body Ofsted evaluation schedule indicated the school was not yet at Good. Possible training for governors was discussed and it was agreed that should approach Mike Capper and ask if he could provide any Ofsted inspection preparation training for governors, tailored to the schools. Clerk to check if any similar training was available via NGLS. SL concluded that she was very happy with the Senior Leadership Team. Page 3 of 5
12. Review of Data Spring Data sheets were handed out to all governors present Clenchwarton advised for Maths two children were just below and seven were well below. Five of these were SEN. Assertive mentoring was in place. The reading test the schools had been using was not accurate, but currently there was no alternative. Writing looked below target. Progress was being made in maths, but in Reading was missing the target. Progress was being made in writing except in years 5 & 6. In year progress was being seen. West Lynn advised the school needed another two children in Year 6 to reach expected progress. Extra support was being provided The reading data was in the same situation as Clenchwarton, with the reading test not being accurate. asked for data for girls compared to boys and asked about the gaps re FSM pupils. advised she would provide governors with cohort data and gap data for the next meeting. advised the school would be glad when the threshold was known in July, but they wouldn t know progress until November. Year 1 Phonics informed governors that 88% at Clenchwarton would achieve this. A new child had just joined who would not make the level. At West Lynn all but one child should reach the required level. There were two Year 2 retakes at Clenchwarton. One child would probably not achieve the level. There were four retakes at West Lynn the results would be 50-75%. One child was statemented and another was new to Year 2. Governors asked if there was any information regarding Pupil Premium. advised this would be presented at the next meeting. Governors asked if was happy with the Pupil Asset system. confirmed she was. 13. SIDP talked through the joint SIDP and highlighted the following items. The teacher and TA peer observations had not taken place. to speak to staff about going ahead with this. The effective deployment of TAs by class teachers was now being done. Spelling diaries were being used. Spellings were sent home as part of the homework. added from September KS2 spelling awards would be given; gold silver etc. Spellings would be tested like maths. commented that homework for one class was sporadic, when it should be set weekly. was requested to advise if no homework was set for this particular class this week. A discussion took place as to if a system could be set up that would show homework was being set and the number of pupils that completed it. MB asked if homework was differentiated. advised a lot of staff do. queried how the school could assess if homework was being differentiated. replied the only way would be for all homework to come to her. The use of the Show My Homework system, which was used by some local high schools, was briefly discussed. to look into further information on this, although it was felt the cost would be too expensive. The twice weekly GPS sessions were taking place and cross curriculum writing was being looked at. The mental maths work at West Lynn was now all taking place. MB asked if a team building day for staff could be arranged. Possible options for a well-being day were then discussed. 14. To Agree a Questionnaire for Parents Evening MB felt a question about Homework should be included. The question as to if or how feedback from the questionnaire could be given was discussed. The option to tick a box if individual feedback was required was to be considered. Page 4 of 5
15. Governor Monitoring & Training Monitoring: Governor Monitoring Timetable/Schedule to be an agenda item for the first meeting of the academic year. Learning Walk to be arranged focusing on Presentation. Item 9: Monitoring refers. SL had checked the school website to confirm it complied with current requirements. SL commented the Pupil Premium was too vague and governor names and business interests needed to be added/updated. to arrange with a meeting date for the E-Safety Committee Training MB,, CE, SL and JC attended the joint Understanding Data training and Preparing for Ofsted with the governors from Snettisham Primary. Governor commented the delivery of the Understanding Data training had been terrible. Meeting closed at 7.45 pm Minutes prepared by S Kaye Total number of pages 5 Page 5 of 5