Aboyne Lodge School Governors' Newsletter. Summer Term 2014

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1 Aboyne Lodge School Governors' Newsletter Summer Term 2014 Hello and welcome to our Summer Newsletter, which also doubles as our annual report about the governors activities over this school year. 1. Parent-Governor Meeting We are aware that much of what we do is simply part of the silent running of the school and not always visible. Should you wish to learn more and have an opportunity to talk with the governors then we shall be holding our annual parent-governor meeting from 7pm to 9pm on Thursday 10 th July, at the school. Refreshments will be served. We will send a reminder closer to the date, with more detailed information about exactly which classroom we will be using for the meeting, but we look forward to seeing you then. 2. Annual report, Our last newsletter covered some of the important ways in which we have been active this year, including our oversight of the academic performance of the school, in tandem with our Hertfordshire improvement partner, the remit of our committees, and our ongoing programme of training. We have given particular focus this year to governor visits. These are formal visits made to the school by individual governors to study a particular subject or theme. Each governor is expected to make at least one such visit annually. Given the number of governors at Aboyne Lodge, this ensures that the school is visited at least once per month during term time. It is important that such visits are constructive, collaborative and fact-finding. They are not intended to be some form of observation of the teaching skills of the staff, akin to an Ofsted inspection or teacher training. At Aboyne Lodge we are very much encouraged to spend time in school and are always made welcome. The themes of our recent visits have ranged from looking at the potential areas for best spending the School Sports Premium (the sum of 9,000 given to each school to encourage sporting activity and continued interest following the Olympic Games in London) to evaluating the school s preparedness for teaching the New Curriculum, which comes into effect in the next academic year. Often the areas studied tend to have both budgetary and teaching implications and need to be understood by governors sitting on the Resources and the School Improvement committees. Typically a governor will spend half a day in school, liaising with the relevant member(s) of staff and then report his/her findings to fellow governors. This structured approach brings with it a number of benefits. Principally, it gets governors into the school they govern. This is vital to get a sense of how things are working, which no amount of time spent reviewing budgets and policies or attending governor meetings can provide. It allows time to talk with the staff and hear their thoughts and concerns directly and, most rewardingly, it enables governors to see the children, who always impress us with their politeness, engagement and work ethic. Indeed we have been fortunate to really see this first hand this year as a number of governors acted as invigilators at the recent SATS examinations (the double intake of Year 6 demanded all hands to the pumps to ensure that there were the required number of adults in attendance during each exam). The pupils were a real credit to both themselves Aboyne Lodge School Governors Newsletter Page 1

2 and the school, but it should also be mentioned how well the teaching staff prepared the children for the exams. They managed to stress the importance of what the children were about to undertake but carefully balanced this with reassurance, encouragement and a sense of fun (for example, providing a light hearted quiz to warm up everyone s brains before the exam). Indeed, if one wanted to see an example of skilled, professional teaching then watching the staff of Aboyne Lodge in action during the SATS examinations would be a good place to start! Next month, visits will be looking at what the school does to prepare the children for the transition from primary to secondary education. Things have moved on considerably from the cursory nod in this regard that many parents will have experienced during their own school days. We are looking forward to seeing how the children are readied for this major change in their lives. A second vital area of governor oversight covers the budget, which runs from April to March and is monitored at the regular meetings of the Resources Committee. We are pleased to say that the state of play at the end of the year, was healthy, and we agreed the new budget for at our last meeting of the governing body in May. Since our meeting, Mrs Abley received the news that funds to repair the roof and windows of the school would not be available for as communicated in a previous ParentMail because the money has been allocated to schools in a worse condition than Aboyne Lodge. Both the head and chair of governors have expressed their disappointment to the local authority, but there is no appeal against the decision. Some 60 schools, including Aboyne Lodge, will have to wait until next spring to find out if central funding is available for In the meantime, the school is pressing ahead with work to redecorate the outside of the buildings. The financial position for is summarised below: The school receives the majority of its funding from the local authority, Hertfordshire County Council ( County ), as shown in the first pie-chart. Our revenue income includes pupil premium income ( 14,400) and a sports grant ( 5,500). During the year, additional income was received both from County and as a result of the all day sessions offered by the nursery. Our final income was 1,091,373, which was, excluding catering and trips and visits, 11% higher than originally budgeted. Aboyne Lodge School Governors Newsletter Page 2

3 Sources of income 34,381 17,453 6,835 1,032,705 Revenue Income Catering Income Trips & Visits Income Capital Income We had a small carried forward surplus of just over 4,000 at the end of 2012/13, half of which we planned to use in 2013/14 to cover a small projected deficit. However, the additional income and control over costs has meant that we have been able to carry forward a revenue surplus of just over 22,000 which will help us to plan for the additional costs of implementing the new curriculum in 2014/15. As planned we have retained the whole of our capital budget. This was in anticipation of needing to make good following the planned replacement work on the roofs and windows which it is hoped will be funded by a County grant. As mentioned above, it is hoped that this work will take place during 2015/16. The main costs are staff related and premises costs. Together these account for 85% of our spending. This chart further illustrates how our funding is spent. How the money is spent 5% 2% 6% 0% Staff & Related 4% 4% Admin & Professional Services Catering Departments & Learning Resources Trips & Visits ICT 79% Premises Aboyne Lodge School Governors Newsletter Page 3

4 Staff related costs were 4% higher than budgeted. Variances for the other areas of revenue expenditure are compared against the budget in the chart below (catering expenditure and trips and visits expenditure are shown net of related receipts). The additional spend compared with budget generally represents our use of the additional income. The most significant increases compared to budget, as you can see from the bar chart below, were spending on learning resources and initial preparations and training for the new curriculum. This will continue into the next year. Replacement of ICT equipment has increased ICT costs compared to the budget as funds are not set aside to replace accidental damage. Additional funding will be required from the ICT budget next year to replace some of the oldest school administration computers. ' Other revenue expenditure Budget Actual Admin & Professional Services Catering Learning Resources Trips & Visits ICT Premises Finally, it is good practice to list governor attendance at governing body and committee meetings. This table shows the number of possible meetings attended by each governor who served during (up to June 15 th this year). Aboyne Lodge School Governors Newsletter Page 4

5 Full Governing Body Resources Committee School Improvement Committee Nick Ridout 5/6 3/3 Andrew Hill 6/6 3/3 Anna-Ruby Yates 3/6 1/3 Sal Cameron-Griffiths 4/6 2/3 Amanda Abley 6/6 3/3 3/3 Neal Patel 1/1 Sue Noon 5/6 3/3 David Stacey 5/6 2/3 Sally Hayes 5/6 3/3 Vicky Evans 1/1 Amanda Handley 4/6 2/3 Nikki Loan 5/6 3/3 David Hope 2/6 2/3 Deryn Grisenthwaite 3/5 1/2 Christy Roach 4/5 1/1 Rajeev Kaja 2/2 Let us take this opportunity to wish you all a fine summer (with fingers crossed, particularly, for June 28 th, the day of the Summer Fair). With best wishes from, The Governors ( Aboyne Lodge School Governors Newsletter Page 5