THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping, Meeting started at 17.59 1. Welcome and apologies MC welcomed governors to the meeting. The Clerk confirmed there were no changes to Pecuniary/Business Interests. wished to record how they were appreciative of all the work that CW had done for the school and the BoG in her many years as a Governor and they wished her well. signed a card for MC to send. 2. Elections and Appointments: i. Chair of BoG The Clerk advised she had received no nominations prior to the meeting HH proposed MC, RM seconded, the Clerk confirmed there were no other nominations and agreed unanimously for MC to be the Chair of the BoG.MC thanked and accepted the role of Chair. ii. Vice Chair of Bog MC proposed HH, seconded by JB and confirmed there were no other nominations, unanimously agreed for HH to be Vice Chair of the BoG. HH thanked and accepted the role of Vice Chair of the BoG. iii. Chair of Curriculum Committee - MC proposed JB, seconded by LM and confirmed there were no other nominations, agreed unanimously for JB to be the Curriculum Committee Chair. JB thanked and accepted the role of Chair. iv. Vice Chair of Curriculum Committee - MC proposed RM, seconded by HH and confirmed there were no other nominations, unanimously agreed for RM to be the Vice Chair of the Curriculum Committee. RM thanked and accepted the role of Vice Chair. v. MC informed that he had circulated details for Mrs Iryna Burke who he proposed as an Associate member without voting rights for the Curriculum and Resources Committees. discussed the completed application form and statement circulated on GovernorHub and HH seconded. agreed unanimously for IB to become an Associate Member without voting rights. MC and the Clerk agreed to liaise to finalise the processing of new members Action MC & Clerk. MC to inform IB of her successful application Action MC. MC proposed appointing 2 more Associate members Holly Bowman Head of the Nursery and Marsha Jones Children s Centre Manager and recommended that both have voting rights and sit on the EY&O Committee (HB to also sit on the Curriculum Committee), BW seconded, agreed unanimously for Holly Bowman to be an Associate Member with voting rights and sit on the EY&O and Curriculum Committee and for Marsha Jones to be Associate Member and have voting rights and sit on the EY&O Committee. vi. Lindzi Morgan MC informed that LM had been placed on the Curriculum Committee by mistake and proposed LM to be placed instead on the EY&O Committee HH seconded agreed unanimously. vii. Designation of Safeguarding Governor MC informed that with the resignation of CW that LM had agreed to become the Safeguarding Governor and he had contacted Governor Services who had informed there was a conflict of interest but advised it would be sensible to jointly appoint for the role so MC had agreed. MC informed that they would also include the LAC Governor role too. MC informed he had attended a Safeguarding training course last week and that LM & MC would work together Action LM & MC. confirmed that the Safeguarding audit was up to date currently. 3. Terms of Reference The Clerk reported that she recommended a change to the ToR agreed on 16/9/2015 and circulated on GovernorHub after changes agreed (Copy filed with minutes Action Clerk). had agreed to remove page 10 the Clerk advised that the responsibility list could be removed but that the rest of the page was applicable to all responsibilities and should remain. agreed unanimously to accept the ToR as stated with the adjustment to be made by the Clerk. 4. Minutes of the previous meeting - HH informed there was an error on page 3 which Action by MC MC&Clerk MC LM&MC Clerk Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 1 of 6
THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping, read that the SFVS was not needed in fact it was the SSIC (Statement of Internal Control) that was not needed. NC noted that 7 page 2 contained a typing error, the letter u missing in would, MC altered the minutes accordingly and initialled the adjustments and agreed unanimously that the minutes were a true record of the meeting and MC signed them. Two reports of Confidential minutes were agreed by the who had been present for each part of the meeting (MC removed wording he did not recall and initialled the changes) MC asked if she had read the Confidential minutes and she acknowledged she had. then agreed unanimously that both sets of minutes were both a true record of from meeting and were signed and sealed by MC. asked the Clerk what happened to the minutes that had been distributed and then collected? The Clerk informed that they were shredded and disposed of. 5. Matters arising from the minutes MC asked if there were any matters arising from the minutes. HH informed that page 2 had agreed to keep the owl to the right for the logo and the tree to the left but he noticed the policies were the other way. informed that it would take a number of hours to make the changes to every policy. discussed and agreed unanimously for the minutes to show that they accepted this format and did not require making any changes. MC asked to confirm all their actions were completed as shown on the minutes. MC informed he had two outstanding - p8 item 12 HH & MC was still outstanding Action MC & HH, P7 item 10 to discuss with MJ if the Complaints Policy should be applicable to the Children s Centre and this was also outstanding Action MC. HH reported p8 Head Teachers Performance Management date was changed and HH did not complete this but RM completed. MC thanked governors. 6. Committee reports - HH & MC advised they had provided written reports on GovernorHub. i. Curriculum Committee (30/9/2015) confirmed they have read the report and had no questions. ii. Early Years & Outreach Committee (14/10/2015) confirmed they had no questions. iii. Resources Committee (2/12/2015) confirmed they had read the report no questions. iv. Cluster advised there was nothing to report as the next meeting was not until April and that LM only attended one meeting a year. requested the Clerk to remove this as an Agenda item Action Clerk. 7. Governor training MC informed he had posted a link on GovernorHub to a piece that had been written by Gary Hewitt (external reviewer) explaining his views on how should approach training and for a higher focus on training. MC requested for a Governor to take the position of Training Governor to record training of the GB and advise individuals of relavant training. BW volunteered and after Governor discussion it was agreed for to place their training records in a folder on GovernorHub for BW to record when they complete training events and for the Clerk to place file on GH for Governor training records. Action Clerk, BW & All. 8. Children s Centre extension of Norfolk County Council contract i. Report on the visit of Michael Rosen, Director of Children s Services, (7/12/2015) reported he had visited on Monday. She reminded that this had been to look at the renewal of the Children s Centre contract and in response to letter of representations about the new contract finances for next 3 years. She explained how the LA had decreased the budget figure from 224000 to 140000 and had responded no to this suggestion and they had been going through negotiations since. She stated that he had agreed to increase the financial element but MC & HH MC Clerk Clerk, BW All Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 2 of 6
THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping, was waiting for a letter to confirm this. She informed that the Children s Centre team for Year 1 and Year 2 would remain the same financially as currently but with a new list of expected achievements and an additional new service specification that they were expected to join up with the West Walton Children s Centre. She informed that MC, HB, MJ and herself would be attending a meeting with Jill Davies (Head of the Windmill Federation which included the West Walton Children s Centre) about the scope to work in future together. RM asked To what end? To save money. MC explained that the LA were having to save a large amount of money and must deliver savings from somewhere. commented that in some counties Children s Centres were disappearing altogether. discussed how Action for Children a national charity was working with some Children s Centres in the country and how not many Children s Centres were linked to schools in the County. informed that MR had apologised about the letter which was sent and had explained it was a standard letter intended to all providers. also informed that he had recognised the huge amount of good work the Children s Centre do.* It was noted that the Year 3 figure will not be confirmed. discussed the reasons why this was being suggested and how two Children s Centres would cut costs if combined with only one salary for one Head Teacher, one Manager etc. invited questions.rm asked Do we know what it costs to run currently? Yes 224000 in the current budget with an expected 15000 surplus at the end of year. discussed budgets and explained payments to staff wages had been taken from the wrong departments and needed correcting therefore budgets are not true records until this is addressed by county. A Governor asked what was the minimum figure that was acceptable to run adequately? replied that 190000 could be acceptable to continue to offer the service. JD and teams would be meeting on January 6th to start conversations. asked the following questions: - How big is the West Walton catchment area? funding is smaller than Emneth so expected it was smaller, 500 families were currently served in Emneth. Has West Walton Children s Centre had Ofsted recently? 2011 inspected. discussed how Governance may be under question if joining. MC informed that MJ had done lots of work to fight for the services. ii. Proposal for switching dates of Curriculum Committee (20/1/2016) and Early Years and Outreach Committee (24/2/2106) MC explained the revised contract offer was being sent 14th December and was giving a deadline of 27th January 2016 to return contract documents and confirm if accepting the contract extension so would need to make that decision. MC recommended swapping the EY&O meeting to 20/1/2015 and recommended the BoG to delegate to EY&O the final decision on the contract. agreed unanimously to delegate to the EY&O Committee to make the decision whether to accept the contract or not. MC to post on GovernorHub and asked to comment/discuss on GovernorHub Action MC & All. iii. Proposal of delegating the final decision on the contract extension to Early Years and Outreach Committee on 20/1/2016 see Agenda item 8. ii. 9. Head Teacher Report (Copy on GovernorHub and filed with minutes Action Clerk) and HB responded to HH questions on GovernorHub and HH thanked them for their quick response. Questions raised were: - What action is being taken on the children with attendance of less than 85%? asked the Clerk (SD also the School attendance Office to answer this question). SD explained how the Head Teachers report showed 16 children being persistent absentees however today s figures show 11 children and of those cases 1 has received a fixed penalty notice (fine), 1 is undergoing court action, 1 is part time due to their needs and is currently under 5 so legally it is not compulsory for the child to be in *Unsure about this as at the meeting it was discussed that this was unconfirmed MC informs me that it is confirmed so this should be omitted Can you let me know which it is for the minutes please MC & All Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 3 of 6
THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping, school and no legal action can be taken on Reception class children although letters, phone calls from the office and conversations are still normal practise for 2 other Reception children, 1 child had a holiday and school were unable to take action, 1 was a new pupil who had 2 days illness and 1 was low attendance due to medical reasons. SD explained how at this time of year 85% can be only 5 days off school which could equate to 2 bouts of sickness bugs. She also explained how not all of the absences were unauthorised as some were genuine reasons for absence but the percentages still indicated low attendance even if authorised. asked if Ofsted take into account the Reception children? informed they do not. agreed they would like figures without the reception children included next time. Would you give examples of Communication Friendly Spaces and explain how the outcomes are being evidenced? Would you explain the principles of Sustained Shared Thinking? Is there any indication of any outcome from the visit by Michael Rosen? It is pleasing that parents were impressed with immersive learning. Would you indicate examples of the useful feedback received? HH informed he had been pleased with the detailed answers on GovernorHub and the full response from Holly. asked for any other questions. Ian Taylor who is he? A nationally recognised expert in Maths who was the staff inset day trainer. LM informed that the school have also adopted his Maths policy. MC thanked for her report. 10. Self-Evaluation asked if they had seen it? advised they had seen it last year and agreed to put on GovernorHub Action. School Improvement and Development Plan (to be known as SIP in future) - requested to put on GovernorHub again in a PDF format as some had been unable to look at it before the meeting Action. It was agreed that this could not be discussed as not all the had been able to access it so was moved to the next meeting. agreed to remove the word development from the title in future and for it to be named SIP as there had been some confusion as to which it was called. It was agreed for all to access on GovernorHub and MC requested they all comment and discuss Action All. discussed the layout of document. informed she will evaluate progress against key objectives and feed back to them and how it was a live document and explained how some items may not be important now as they were when it was written in September. explained how additional pages were added at end of every full term and how it was a plan and she will add a section to the page and write action points and the impact of what had been completed and that this would be added on every page. She informed that HB will do so too on the Nursery section. MC queried that there was a box for Governor monitoring and a named Governor but it was not on all pages? answered that the Nursery had not done this yet on their input and agreed she would add this. Action. MC raised his concern that and the Staff made a huge effort on this and that do not participate as they should do. agreed to work towards participation Action All. expressed a mixed reaction to the new layout of the document. MC stated he could not see reference to resources as had been on previous SIP (it had been in a separate column). explained that the Budget is set as to what is in SIP and she agreed that it should be on there to demonstrate to Ofsted. agreed to add on when she does the next evaluations Action. MC asked why the headings were all curriculum based headings and that the site, property was not showing. then discussed that this was included in the Buildings and Premises All All Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 4 of 6
THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping, Development Plan document (which added had been a 3 year plan). agreed to update and send out to Action. discussed progress and achievement and setting of targets. HH suggested that a Resources point to relate somewhere to the SIP would be a good idea. agreed to address this Action. 11. School Improvement Audit 9/11/2015 MC informed that the report had been placed on GovernorHub and required a response from. MC advised he had prepared a response and wanted governors to see it to give a corporate response. explained it had been a beneficial event to take part in and the report had highlighted some issues which were already being addressed but also highlighted some others. stated that she agreed with MCs response and asked if had any questions about report itself. explained how the last BoG meeting did challenge her in Maths and SPAG and addressed the issues. Classroom visits around the immersive learning environments have also now been completed. unanimously agreed to the response as written by MC. discussed with information of being currently recognised as a category A school a cause for concern by the LA and Racheal Judd, Intervention Officer,was attending the school to address this and support and the Primary School. 12. Policy Reviews - informed that the following policies had been distributed at the last BoG meeting to and had been updated as required and placed on GovernorHub and that formal approval was now required. discussed and it was agreed to move the Single Equality Scheme to next meeting, ESafety and Teaching and Learning for the Primary school would go to the next Curriculum Committee. LM raised that she had seen a statement on the attendance policy referring to parents keeping their child at home. discussed that it had possibly been on the Nursery policy and agreed for LM to re check Action LM. i. School Behaviour ii. Special Educational Needs iii. Admissions Arrangements iv. Home-School Agreement Document v. Equality Information and Objectives Statement for Publication vi. Early Years Foundation Stage vii. Early Years viii. Administration of Medicine and First Aid ix. Attendance x. Drugs xi. Looked After Children xii. The Use of Force to Control or Restrain Pupils xiii. Single Equality Scheme xiv. Whistleblowing xv. ESafety xvi. Teaching and Learning Primary xvii. Teaching and Learning Nursery xviii. Settling In xix. Supervision xx. Calculation xxi. British Values and Vision xxii. Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs xxiii. Breast Feeding thanked governors for their attention to detail in checking the policies. MC requested a master list for policies - an updated list and asked to put on GH Action LM Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 5 of 6
THE EMNETH FEDERION MEMBERS TENDED: - Hayley Auffret, Jackie Brenchley, Michael Clayton, Neil Copping,. agreed unanimously to accept all the policies above except for the named policies before the list above. advised there were still some outstanding policies and she would send them out as soon as ready Action. 13. Ratification of Acting Chair s Actions i. MC explained why he made the decision as an urgent matter to commission an external governing body review by Norfolk Governance and Leadership Service and that he had since been advised that it was not a matter of urgency. He explained that under the provision in legislation for the Chair to take decisions for themselves in matters of urgency that he should have called a special meeting. He advised that he had consulted RM & HH and they had been supportive for MC to go ahead. discussed the decision as being quorate as 3 members had agreed. MC apologised to for his actions and discussed and agreed that he had made a decision in what had been a difficult time and they supported his decision completely. agreed unanimously to ratify MCs decision after the event. 14.Items for Information:- i. Performance management of Head Teachers MC informed that the annual performance management reviews for and HB had been completed by RM & NC. ii. Handout provided by MC (copy filed with minutes Action Clerk), MC explained that he was informing governors of his actions to date which included Buddying with the Chair (AC) of Upwell Community Primary School and they had discussed good practice to build relationships between GBs. Next year MC intended to invite AC to a BoG meeting and the Chair had agreed for MC to attend one of their meetings. He also advised they had discussed sitting on each other s panel hearings if needed. Visit to Diamond Learning Trust MC informed this had been initiated by CW before her resignation and he would feedback to governors in the future. 15. A.O.B. i. Website MC informed that the Clerk had previously advised him that this should be on an agenda and he asked the Clerk to inform of her recommendations. The Clerk informed that they were legally responsible for ensuring that the school Websites contained their details as listed in The constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools (August 2015) Page 10, items 25 to 27 - being a legal requirement as advised from the Department for Education. It was also noted how the information about governors should not be on a document it should load directly on the page. The Clerk then read out the individual requirements as individually listed on the above document. discussed this and MC volunteered to complete this on Christmas Day Action MC. 16. Correspondence The Clerk confirmed there was no correspondence. 17. Date of next meetings The Clerk informed of the following meetings; - Extraordinary BoG meeting Wednesday 16 th December 2015 at 6pm Early Years & Outreach Committee Meeting Wednesday 20 th January 2016 at 6pm Curriculum Committee Meeting Wednesday 24 th February 2016 at 6pm Resource Committee Meeting Wednesday 16 th March 2016 BoG Meeting Wednesday 20 th April 2016 18. Private and Confidential The Clerk confirmed there was nothing to discuss. Meeting ended at 20.18 Minutes recorded by Sally Deneri Page 6 of 6