ST MARK S C.E. JUNIOR SCHOOL MINUTES OF THE LOCAL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING #10. HELD ON Wednesday 21 June 2017

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1 Agenda No ST MARK S C.E. JUNIOR SCHOOL MINUTES OF THE LOCAL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING #10 HELD ON Wednesday Present: Gareth Flemington (), Roy Bexon (), Jim Findlay (JF), Jo Woods (JW), Ali Bailey (AB), Fina Stannard (FS), Stuart Perkins (SP), Karen Chalcroft (KC), Sue Bale (SB), Lorna Reeve (LR) In Attendance: Lisa Parrott (LP), Clerk ACTION 1 Welcome and Prayer: welcomed the Committee to the meeting. JF said a short prayer. 2 Apologies and Updates Apologies: Pat Wain - holiday Neil Curtis work commitment Updates: None 3 Financial Monitoring Report May 2017 A copy of the report was distributed at the meeting. SP The Finance Sub-Committee met on 9 June to compare the budget and monitoring report. Reserve should be at least 8% of the budget. Excess held in reserve, so decision taken by school and agreed by SRET Directors that 50k of the reserve to be released: o 30k to clear loan taken in conjunction with CIF bid for kitchen works. o 20k to be used to complete essential works on sewerage system, trunking for wiring in main corridor ceiling and creation of office space for new DHT ahead of her appointment in September. Will some of this spending be rolled into next year? No, work will be done using current year s budget. SP Has next year s budget been accepted? No. Other schools within SRET have not finalised their budgets so the meeting has been deferred until the beginning of July. More work will be carried out on our draft budget to improve figures. Staffing for next year will be finalised following a final appointment on Monday 26 June. FS Has there been an over spend in PE? No, some invoices are yet to be settled. Once that has been done, the report will balance. After school clubs are well attended. 190 children participate in a wide range of activities. AB concluded that the meeting served as a good opportunity to discuss school finance and share ideas ahead of the LGB meeting.

2 4 Budget See above. SCHOOL MATTERS 5 Written Headteacher s Report A copy of the report was made available on Google Docs ahead of the meeting. Existing fencing around the school perimeter to be replaced. invited the Committee to ask questions. There were none, but a general discussion was held around the school s complaints procedure. If someone wishes to complain to the Governors about an issue, they should state their grievances in a letter addressed to the Chair of the Governors. Once received a holding letter is issued. Investigation is carried out and a written response is issued. stated that he has visited parents in the past to discuss their grievances. If they are unhappy with the outcome, then a complaint form must be completed and the formal complaint procedure is followed. SATs results are published at the beginning of July. The SRET Standards Committee meets on 20 July to review the results from each school. 6 Safeguarding Training + Issue In the absence of PW, Governors will receive training in September. PW (designated Safeguarding Lead Governor) was contacted by a parent recently regarding DBS checks on ASK (After School Club) employees. She met with the ASK manager, shared her concerns and was reassured. ASK is an externally run company and have applied for Ofsted registration. Registration may take up to six months. In the meantime, all staff are covered under DBS checks carried out by SRET. Staff understand the Safeguarding procedure: o Issues are raised and recorded, then investigated by Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) (). o There are clear reporting lines - if or DSL not available issue to be raised with DSL at Wyndham Park in the first instance or DSL at Exeter House if they are not available. o Safeguarding documentation is stored in Google docs and in paper format in a file in the staffroom. Amy Scammell (new DHT/DDSL) will attend a training course in September. A general discussion was held around using the DBS check update service. It was concluded that this is not generally used unless a member of staff is planning to more to another employer in the near future. An annual Safeguarding audit is carried out each November using Ofsted grades. stated the need for a second Safeguarding Governor that could be contacted in the absence of PW. This will be revisited in September. Please let know if you are interested in this role. Safeguarding to become a standing issue on future LGB agendas. AB referred Governors to the Safeguarding training module on Modern Governor. LP to send Modern Governor website details to Governors JF stated the Salisbury Diocese may be able to provide training. to investigate. ALL LP MAT RELATED 7 Update Following an external review SRET was advised that the current Governance structure and parts of the website are not compliant with current legislation. A

3 SB change programme is being implemented to address these issues. Possible options are: 1. No change, but address compliance issues. 2. Address compliance issues and investigate growth decide whether to invite in due course other schools to join SRET. 3. SRET to join an existing Academy. Decision made to follow option 2 and reorganise Governance structure. Any decision will need to be agreed and signed off by the RSC. Option 3 was dismissed as SRET may have the existing Academies policies and procedures imposed on them and may lose a place on the Board of Directors, thus losing decision making and voting rights. Matt Sambrook (new HT at Exeter House) has experience of such issues and is writing a report and a plan. Is growth compulsory? No, and we will only do so if it is appropriate for SRET. A general discussion was held around the current Governance structure, which although compliant when SRET was created, is no longer permitted. It is not possible for Chairs of Governors to become Academy Directors due to possible conflict of interest and accountability. The employment of an external CEO and/or Board structure has been discarded due to cost implications. An organisation, Academies Ambassadors offer services for free, so may be considered when introducing a new CEO. The Articles of Association will be rewritten when a decision has been made. SP As an LGB, we do not have a say in how the future structure should be organised, but what are the implications for us? Ultimately, SRET are accountable, but each LGB must hold the SRET to account. The current Scheme of Delegation will be revisited and lines of duty defined. Improved clarity will make jobs easier. AB Could SRET revisit the original vision; autonomy and working together for the benefit of the children?. Ofsted are looking closely at Academies. We must ensure that we are compliant and that the creation of SRET has had a positive outcome for the education of it s children. PLANS 8 SDP/ SEF/Tracker updates (/SP) SDP and SEF Kim Line, the SIA is visiting school again on Monday 26 June to review the updated SDP and SEF. Her final report will be available in the evidence room on Google Docs. Tracker SP has written a report summarising details on the Governor Action Tracker and this was distributed ahead of the meeting. SP thanked the Governors for this continued input into the Tracker. thanked SP for creating and overseeing the tracker throughout the year and for a well written summary report. The Governor version of The Key an online directory of the most up to date information on policies, compliance and general information. LP to forward details to Governors as soon as it is available. SP created a 13 point action plan prior to LGB #9. This will form the basis of next year s Tracker. SP to resend this document to the Governors. SEND and DL to remain a high focus area. LP SP AB Did the process work? SP Yes I believe it did. If Governors believe that the Tracker added value, I will continue to update it. It is essential that Governors involved in the process and continue to provide supporting evidence. Next year s tracker will be more succinct

4 and will be reliant on more planning at the beginning of the year. I would like someone from SRET to look at the Tracker and confirm that what we are doing is as expected. 9 Minutes from last meeting () LGB #9 17 May 2017 signed the minutes as a true and accurate copy. 10 Matters arising () Issues around outstanding catering payments from Exeter House have been resolved. Payment was been settled and the introduction of a new payment system should ensure that such issues do not occur in the future. SB looked online for suitable surveys for parents of Disadvantaged Learners and was unable to find anything suitable. She has found an SEND survey and will issue it to parents in the future. Minutes of the Staff Well-Being meetings are available on Google Docs. to meet with Kim Lane tomorrow to discuss maths. KC to send summary of meeting with PSHE subject leader to SP. SB KC 11 Next year s LGB meetings/planner LGB Meeting Planner The draft planner shows 10 meetings. After a brief discussion it was concluded that a final plan will be drawn up when Governors have more details about delegated duties. Governor Hub, an online database that holds documents and a calendar. will confirm when it is available for use. An independent peer review will be carried out at the beginning of November by Senior Leaders from another school. A written report of their findings will be produced and forwarded to the Governors as soon as it is available. The cost of this review will be funded from the 8% budgetary reserve. JF and FS are standing down at the end of the school year. thanked them for their hard work and support during their term as Governors. FS was presented when a card and chocolates. JF was presented with a card, a bottle of wine and gardening vouchers. 12 Clerk Items eg: Pecuniary Interests, Training, Correspondence etc New Declaration of Pecuniary Interest and Governor Eligibility forms were distributed at the beginning of the meeting. These were completed and returned to LP. Declaration forms to be stored at school. Declaration of any Pecuniary Interest (standing item) None. Governor Eligibility Forms - Nothing to report. Correspondence - List distributed prior to the meeting. No questions or comments raised. Disqualification by Association - Nothing to report. Training Courses - Nothing to report. 13 Any Other Business advised that a parent, who is a graphic designer, has produced a draft of a new logo. Still keeping the Winged Lion theme, the new logo shows the lions head, school name and wings, symbolising independence. Additional work to be carried out before the final design is agreed. KC thanked Miss Halski for organising and running the recent swimming competition. The results were excellent as was the children s behaviour.

5 14 Dates of future LGB meetings There being no further business, the meeting ended at 8.05pm. Directors #6 Wednesday 28 June 2017 Approved by the Local Governing Board on: Date: and signed by Chairperson