Governors' News & Events

Spring Governing Body Meeting

21 Mar 2016

Governance update March 2016
 
The Spring Governing Body meeting took place on Tuesday 15^th March.  The full minutes will be available following ratification at the May meeting.   
 
Committee Meetings
Reports were received from our committee meetings; Resources and Teaching & Learning, who met twice this term.  Mrs Chetty has provided an update to governors regarding Maths at school and Ms Addai has informed governors about changes and improvements in ICT.
 
Head Teacher’s Report
Governors received the Head Teacher’s report and discussed;

• Science week; a number of governors are visiting school during this week
• Pupil Premium
• English as an additional language (EAL)
• Sport
• Attendance
• Performance management reviews of teaching
• Barnaby Barford’s art installation and the work the children have been doing in connection with this.
• Easter booster school for our year 6s.
• Premises improvements to Willow corridor that took place during half term.
• Staff absence monitoring
• Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) inclusion
• School Effectiveness Advisor visit on 9^th March.
• School budget – which has a healthy carry forward for next year.

DfE changes to school assessment
All schools are no longer using national curriculum levels.  Our year 6 children, after sitting their SATs, will not be given a level as before, but will instead be given a standardised numerical score.  The school and governors will continue to track the progress of pupils throughout school, and parents will be made aware if their child is at Age Related Expectation (ARE) or working towards or above.  Governors wish our year 6s every success in their SATs.
 
Training
Governors have attended training this term as follows:

• Effective Link Governance
• Safeguarding
• Governors’ Briefing by the Local Authority
• Primary Curriculum
• Monitoring School Finance
• RAISEonline and Data Dashboard (i.e. Reporting and Analysis for Improvement through school Self-Evaluation)

School Development Plan
Governors reviewed the School Development Plan, assessing progress against targets and school priorities agreed at the beginning of the year. 
 
Governor Mark
Governors agreed to go through the Governor Mark, external assessment process again as it is almost three years since being awarded the accreditation for outstanding governance.  Handsworth is still the only school in the borough to have been awarded Governor Mark.
 
National Leader in Governance
The chair has received designation this term as a national leader in governance (NLG) and will continue to share Handsworth’s governance practice with other local schools.
 
Academy Status
In light of the government’s announcement, that all schools will be required to convert to academy status, governors at Handsworth have begun initial discussions around academy conversion for Handsworth.