Agenda No ST MARK S C.E. JUNIOR SCHOOL MINUTES OF THE LOCAL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING #9 HELD ON Wednesday Present: Gareth Flemington (GF), Roy Bexon (RB), Jo Woods (JW), Ali Bailey (AB), Fina Stannard (FS), Stuart Perkins (SP), Neil Curtis (NC), Sue Bale (SB) In Attendance: Lisa Parrott (LP), Clerk ACTION 1 Welcome and Prayer: RB welcomed the Committee to the meeting. GF said a short prayer. 2 Apologies and Updates Apologies: Jim Findlay work commitment Karen Chalcroft personal commitment Lorna Reeve family commitment Pat Wain personal commitment Bev Dalton personal commitment Given the number of apologies the Chairman confirmed that the meeting was quorate. Updates: None 3 Financial Monitoring Report update (AB) (Appendix A) A copy of the monthly monitoring report was distributed at the meeting. Points to note: Employee Costs - lower than budgeted for as no DHT at present. Not indicative of next year. Educational Supplies and Services ASK (After School Club) o set up at a cost of 2,000. o Providing care for 30-40 children from St Mark s and Wyndham Park. o Use of external staffing has increased costs by 50%. o Bad debts relating to payment for provision were at worst, in the region of 2,000 process detailed in the Finance Manual has been followed to make steps to recover the debt. Catering o Meals are not subsidised. Cost of supplies has increased. o Current cost of a meal is 2.20. To be increased to 2.30 from September 2017, then by 0.10 each year until 2.50. o Cashless payment system has been introduced - AB thanked Clare King and the office team for facilitating the smooth transition to the new payment system. o Improvements in HC3S staffing has resulted in the provision of higher quality food. o Catering income is currently less than expenditure in the region of 3000. This is a short term issue, see below:
o To date, no income has been received in respect of meals provided for Exeter House pupils Dispute between Exeter House and HC3S around balance due GF to meet with HC3S representative to discuss GF NC Why is there an issue with catering payments from Exeter House when both schools are in SRET? GF Exeter House payment is to be paid to HC3S, via St Mark s. The electronic payment system should mean that such issues do not occur in the future. SP How much better off are Exeter House since St Mark s have been providing their meals? GF They were running at a loss of 35k approx. This has been reduced to 3k approx. Food is of a comparable quality. Longer term, I would like food to be provided in-house. This will increase the profit margin. Future Considerations: Staffing appointments have been made for September - money held in Reserve cannot be used for staffing costs unless it can be proved that it s sustainable. Repayment of the loan in respect of CIF bid for kitchen work must begin. Payment for replacement of the water pipe system is required. Loan in respect of the CIF bid for the replacement of the flat roofing. An appeal to be made in respect of the unsuccessful CIF bid to replace the toilets successful bids must meet 74% of criteria; 72% achieved. However, if successful, timescales for the completion of work and availability of contractors may prove difficult. Payment is being made to the current schools of new staff starting in September to enable them to visit St Mark s. No relocation allowances are being paid. 4 Budget for 2017-18 status (AB) (Appendix B) The draft budget has been prepared. There is currently an in-year deficit of 20k. GF and CK to reassess the whole budget to ensure no in-year deficit. Details of Pupil Premium funding have not yet been received, so do not appear in the draft budget details expected end of June/beginning of July. A Sports Grant of approximately 9.7k will be received. A working party containing RB, FS, LR and AB will meet on 9 June at 9.00am in GF s office to review the draft budget. o If any other Governor wish to join this working party, please contact AB. RS/FS/LR/AB ALL SCHOOL MATTERS 5 Updates Curriculum Committee Minutes from previous meeting are available on the website under Governor Documents. SEND policy has been amended. SRE, PSHE and E-Safety policies have been reviewed and alterations made. Conferencing with Disadvantaged Learners scheduled for after half-term. A survey of parents of Disadvantaged Learners may be carried out in the future o SB to obtain details of a survey carried out by another school SB AB thanked Clare King and the office team for facilitating the smooth transition to the cashless payment system A general discussion was held around the creation of an SEN centre of excellence for SEN pupils in Year 4 and below but not needing a special school. Access to an Educational Psychiatrist, play therapy and other resources would be available. Funding of 600k is available for the first year from WCC, to be divided between three centres. Provision must be self-funded after the first year. SATs GF thanked the Year 6 team for their hard work in preparing and supporting pupils during the SATs period. Children were well prepared. Breakfast club was well received.
Results will be available to school on 5 July. Available to parents a week later AB You are prepared to receive low scores. Has sufficient data been compiled on progress though the school? GF Yes. It is being compiled. Evidence has been validated by the SIA. Zoe Bailey (HT at Wyndham Park) has confirmed that entry data was inaccurate when children started at St Mark s. Moderation carried out last year resulted in an improvement in scores overall Internal moderation is being carried out now, with external moderation to be carried out on 8 June by Andrew Howard (Adviser for Assessment, WCC) Teaching and Learning outcomes are robust and good progress has been made since pupils were in Year 5. This has been well documented and proves that issues are cohort specific. Case studies have been created for specific SEN pupils. FS left the meeting at 7.07pm. Standards Term 4 T4 standards have been summarised into the Chevrons document available on the school website. A SRET Standards Committee has been created; to meet three times a year o First meeting was held on 16 May. o SRET SEF to be created. o Standards to demonstrate what is being done to improve standards, identify weaknesses, and steps taken to improve. o Recording of data and tracking of standards to be consistent across the MAT. o Committee to meet on the last.day of term to discuss SATs results and create SRET SDP for 2017/18 AB How does being part of SRET benefit the school? Will the Standards Committee define this? GF Mark Rist, the new Year Leader starting in September is a specialist leader in education (Maths). Kim Lane (current year 6 leader) is an expert in English. They, along with Helen Fiddy (English) will work together to improve the teaching of Maths and English within St Mark s initially and then at Wyndham Park and Exeter House. 6 Verbal Update from HT including staffing There are significant changes to staffing next year. Significant support is required for the new Year 3. This will be provided by existing staff as there is no budget available for the employment of additional staff. There will be 11 TAs next year. The new DHT will teach two days a week. Money saved will pay for SENCo. SP Do you have any concerns over having a completely new SLT? GF Some. However, having a mixture of new and old ideas will provide a good balance. AB It will be a great opportunity to build a strong team. GF The two new Year Leaders applied for the HT post. Sarah is an expert in Depth of Learning so will bring knowledge and experience to her role. Both new Year Leaders are aware that the new DHT beat them in recruitment, but they are both keen to improve their teaching. 8 Staff Wellbeing Agenda and minutes from meeting with staff are available on the school website. Minutes from the meeting with SLT to be added to the website. Focus to be made on points which will benefit the children. Please can all Governors read the documents produced. GF ALL GF stated that some immediate changes have been made: o staff have been given the opportunity to express a preference over which year group they teach next year. o The final TD day this term will be used to enable new year groups to meet for planning and to discuss the new cohort.
GF emphasised that work around staff well-being should be ongoing and impact should be tracked. A review will be carried out at the end of the year. The marking policy is to be reviewed. Steps to be taken to avoid duplication. Subject Leader expectation to be reviewed to ensure consistency. The induction policy has been reviewed and issues addressed. Staff are aware of reporting lines around well-being. Work to be carried out around rights and responsibilities and the interpretation of expectations. GF concluded by thanking Governors for the time spent with staff discussing wellbeing. On the whole, the intervention had been well received by staff, but that some still felt uncomfortable discussing well-being. SB left the meeting at 7.55pm. 7 GAP Tracker where are we? (SP) The GAP tracker is up to date and has been shared with Governors. In Maths, PSHE and PE, there is no evidence recorded of meetings with subject leaders please arrange meeting with subject leaders and records discussion. NC/FS/KC A general discussion was held around whether exit interviews should be held with Year 6 children to discuss the how widely they felt the school motto was embedded. This had been considered an issue in the past. It was concluded that following work carried out by JF and SB and the most recent SIAMs inspection, the necessity for this was no longer there. SP is to write a report stating work done by Governors, what has been learned, next steps and improvements to be made in the future. RB thanked SP for overseeing the GAP and all Governors for their contribution to the whole process. Next steps will form the basis of the 2017-18 GAP. The new document will be shorter, more focussed and actions will be more meaningful. SP MAT RELATED 9 Update from Directors #5 10 May 2017 (RB) Matt Sambrook, the new HT from September 2017 attended the meeting. The Five Year Plan was reviewed in a meeting last week. RB gave a brief summary of the history of SRET stating that the structure although acceptable at the time the MAT was created is no longer compliant. It is not acceptable to have an HT as CEO due to a possible conflict of interest. There is a requirement for perhaps two independent members to join the Board of Directors in the future. RB concluded that the creation of SRET was good. The landscape has changed and the existing structure is not permissible now. Employment of an external CEO might be necessary as it is no longer possible for the HTs to fill this role. A general discussion was held around the employing of a CEO, to be funded from the budget reserve held by each school. RB advised that more details would follow at LGB #10. RB It was concluded that SRET was ahead of the game in instigating this change prior to a future Ofsted visit and that all three schools were working together as a cohesive team to find the correct solution. PLANS 10 SDP/SEF/ Tracker Updates SEF SDP document is up to date.
SDP Actions shown in red will not be completed. Main focus for 2017-18 will be writing. GF concluded that he is pleased with the current status of the SDP. Staff have provided input and have taken ownership of the document. 11 Minutes from last meeting (RB) LGB #8 24 April 2017 These had been circulated prior to the meeting. The minutes were agreed, and then signed by RB as a true record. 12 Matters arising (RB) Safeguarding training will take place in LGB #10. GF 13 Clerk Items eg: Pecuniary Interests, Training, Correspondence etc 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. 14 Dates of future LGB meetings There being no further business, the meeting ended at 8.35pm LGB#10 Wednesday 21 June 2017 Directors #6 Wednesday 28 June 2017 Approved by the Local Governing Board on: Date: and signed by Chairperson