Full Governor Minutes – 16th September

Federation of Tiverton Schools

Full Governor Minutes 

Microsoft Teams

(AR)

Chair of Meeting

(LB)

(HH)

Apology

Chair/Co-chairs

Vice-chair/Co-vice-chairs

8.1

8.2

8.3

Agree the membership and the terms of reference of committees. 

Elect chairs of committees.

Ensure procedures for dealing with complaints, staff grievances, redundancy, and staff appeals are in place and understood by governors

16.1

16.2

16.3

16.4

16.5

Governor Expenses Policy – Federation Policy

Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy (September 2021) – individual school policy

RE Policy – RPS Policy

Collective Worship – RPS Policy

SMSC Policy – RPS Policy

Amended 2021-22 policies for each school

Amended 2022-23 policies for each school

Draft 2023-24 RPS

The Clerk asked for proposals. SIC proposed one year and this was seconded by LB. There were no other proposals.

It was unanimously agreed that the term of office for both chair and vice-chair would be one year.

2.1

2.2

Chair/Co-chairs. The Clerk asked for proposals. Lucy Bull and Andrew Rigamonti were proposed as Co-chairs by HH and seconded by SIC. There were no other proposals and AR and LB were unanimously elected as Co-chairs. 

AR took the chair.

Vice-chair/Co-vice-chairs

Sonia Chanell was unanimously elected as Vice-chair. Proposed by LB and seconded by AR.

Apologies were accepted from Sarah Child, Nicola Welsh, Teresa Sturtivant, Julie Scotting, and Simon Tong. 

Ellie Denno has resigned as a parent governor as she is now teaching at RPS and will work more than 500 hours allowed. She was thanked for all her hard work as a governor.

There were no declarations of interests.

JL will arrange for governors to check and sign their Declaration of Interests forms.

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting. Proposed by LB and seconded by SIC.

This was agreed at the L, P & W Committee meeting held on 23.06.21

All governors will need to sign to say they agree to abide by it for 2021-22.

JL will create a Microsoft Form containing the Governors Code of Conduct and will circulate for signing.

KCSIE 2021 has been circulated to governors. JL will circulate a Microsoft Form so that they can sign to say they have read and understood Parts 1 and 2 and Annex B and that they will abide by the information contained. 

JL will email a copy of KCSIE 2021 to RC.

8.1

8.2

8.3

Agree the membership and the terms of reference of committees. 

Committee membership was AGREED.

L, P & W Committee (primary and secondary): Flora Wood, Helen Hyland, Ian Fraser, Sammy Crook, Sarah Child and Roland Chant. Associate members: Teresa Sturtivant, Sarah Maude, Demelza Higginson, Julie Scotting, Simon Tong and Nicola Welsh.

Resources Committee: Sonia Chanell, Andrew Rigamonti, Sarah Child, Sammy Crook and Stephen Perriss. Associate members: John Cleaver and Jon Sowden.

Pay Committee – Sarah Child, Sonia Chanell and Stephen Perris.

Ethos Committee: Sarah Child, Helen Hyland, Lucy Bull, Ian Fraser and Sarah Maude. Associate members: Steph Jeffs and Liz Paxton.

Head of Federation’s Performance Management Committee – Sonia Chanell, Stephen Perriss and Roland Chant.

Governors who have not received training to book training when available.

SLC will contact Faith Jarrett to check if she is still the School Improvement Partner linked to THS and, as such, will advise the committee. 

The Terms of Reference for the Ethos Committee, Primary L, P & W Committee, Secondary L, P & W Committee, Resources Committee, Pay Committee and Executive Headteachers Performance Management Committee were AGREED.

Elect chairs of committees.

L, P & W Primary Committee: Helen Hyland was ELECTED unanimously. Proposed by FW and seconded by IF.

L, P & W Secondary Committee: Flora Wood was ELECTED unanimously. Proposed by HH and seconded by SIC.

Resources Committee: Sonia Chanell was ELECTED unanimously. Proposed by AR and seconded by FW.

Pay Committee: Sarah Child was elected unanimously. Proposed by AR and seconded by LB. SIC was ELECTED unanimously as vice-chair. Proposed by AR and seconded by LB.

Ethos Committee: It had been planned for Ellie Denno to chair this committee, but she has resigned as a governor. Sarah Child was ELECTED unanimously as chair and Helen Hyland as vice-chair. Proposed by FW and seconded by AR.

Safeguarding Governor and Deputy Safeguarding Governor: Helen Hyland was unanimously ELECTED as Safeguarding Governor and Sonia Chanell as her Deputy. Proposed by AR and seconded by FW.

SEN Governor: Stephen Perriss was asked to consider taking on this role while new governors are elected/appointed to fill vacancies. Proposed by AR and seconded by HH.

Ensure procedures for dealing with complaints, staff grievances, redundancy, and staff appeals are in place and understood by governors

Complaints Governor: It was unanimously AGREED that Sarah Child will continue in this role.

First and second committees/panels will be agreed as necessary.

A board with the photos of all the staff in the school is going to be put in the reception of each school. A sheet with the details of all the governors will be put in the staff rooms of each school.

Governors were asked to send their photos to the Clerk, and she will liaise with Steve Lodge, Oxygen Creative, who will produce this.

SCM informed governors that Tempest were visiting RPS on 27th September and governors could arrange to have their photo taken if they wanted.

Since Covid, and particularly now that Covid vaccinations are being offered to 12 – 15 year olds, SLC has had a few communications from parents that are threatening and vexatious. Parents often misunderstand information and are generally happy when it is explained to them but a small number have been very difficult without due cause. SLC and the other Heads said during the current climate they would find it difficult to be open with governors if meetings were open for parents to attend and would feel vulnerable.

Governors recognised that they could lose more than could be gained by agreeing that FGB meetings could be open.

It was AGREED that FGB meetings would be closed this year and it would be reviewed in September 2022. Proposed by AR and seconded by LB.

Governors were reminded that anything discussed in Part 2 should not be discussed by governors outside of the meeting. Part 2 minutes are given out at meetings and all copies collected once the minutes have been agreed.

Most governors have completed their skills audit and the Clerk has added the details to a matrix. This did not pick up that there are gaps in SEN and primary and secondary education on the board.

JL will contact John Walker to arrange the second part of the PEX training.

The Key for School Governors has links to some training sessions. FW reported that she had done the Pupil Premium one and had found it to be short and punchy.

Babcock’s Governor Briefing sessions are being held on 28th and 30th September.

The Clerk to remind governors about links to training sessions.

Due to the vacancies on the governing board there are gaps which need to be filled before the board discusses succession planning.

There are now two parent governor vacancies and the Co-chairs and the Clerk are working to ensure the integrity of the process is secure.

When nominations close AR and LB will meet with the parents that have nominated themselves to set expectations.

SLC has met with Steve Lodge and they are going to create a social media policy for parents at THS. This will be shared with DH and SCM and could be generic.

LB asked about sanctions for parents who post offensive comments about the schools or staff on Facebook. Steve Lodge, Mandy Slevin and Meg Hepworth all monitor Facebook. LB said the Governors Code of Conduct needed to be tied into the policy. JL will email the Code of Conduct and the Complaints Policy to Steve Lodge.

It is hoped to agree the policy at the FGB meeting on 7th October. 

There is also a staff governor vacancy and the election process will be started. LB will write a letter for the process.

There are also co-opted governor vacancies and AR is looking at options for recruitment.

Until new governors are elected/appointed the following areas will be covered by:

Attendance – Sonia Chanell. This would be suitable for a new parent governor.

Website – Flora Wood

Training – Clerk

Governor Visits – Clerk

Parental Engagement – LB to work with the Clerk and a new parent governor.

Staff wellbeing – it was suggested the new staff governor could take this on.

A safeguarding question section is included in the Governor Visit Report Forms and governors were asked to look at suggested questions and contextualise this. HH can give advice.

A vulnerable groups question is also included.

FW will review the wording on the evidence section of the form.

L, P & W Committee Working Group: following the E-visit to HPS the school was considered to be a long way into Requires Improvement and there were specific points leaders were told needed to be worked on. LB and AR recognised the need for immediate action to be taken and used Chairs Action to form a working group that have been meeting weekly to monitor the pace of the Action Plan.

This term it needs to be broadened out and it will be delegated to the L, P & W Committee. The group will meet once a twice a term and, using the HPS SIP, will focus on areas that need particular focus.

The L, P & W Committee will look at the RPS and THS SIPs to decide on focus areas.

The LA were surprised that the working group were meeting weekly but pleased that it was happening.

School email addresses are already shared. Personal email addresses and phone number will be shared internally by the board, for use by the board only.

Documents will be shared using school email addresses to comply with GDPR.

Setting up a WhatsApp group was suggested during a Babcock briefing.

Governors should email the Clerk and Co-chairs with their apologies if they are unable to attend a meeting. Governors should give their reasons for non-attendance as the board will need to sanction their absence,

The DfE require governor attendance details to be published on the website.

The change since the report at the FGB meeting on 08.07.21 is marginal

Progress 8 is + 0.8. The DA gap has got wider.

Boys English and Open Basket results are of the most concern. There is no single subject where leadership can see that boys have bombed. SLC thinks that boys moved their focus to what they needed to get for their post 16 place and took their foot of the gas.

The final version will be sent to the Clerk for circulation to the board.

SLC will share the generic slides from her State of the Nation talk to staff on the first inset day.

16.1

16.2

16.3

16.4

16.5

Governor Expenses Policy (Federation Policy). AGREED.

Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy (September 2021) – individual school policies for each school. This is the Babcock model policy personalised for each school. AGREED.

RE Policy (RPS Policy). AGREED.

Collective Worship (RPS Policy). AGREED.

Proposed by LB and seconded by HH.

SMSC Policy (RPS Policy). This policy was not ready for agreement.

17.1

17.2

17.3

Amended 2022-23 policies for each school. The HPS and THS policies were agreed. The flexi-school information was missing from their amended policy and the Clerk will ask the LA to add it back in.

Draft 2023-24 RPS. The flexi-school information was missing from the draft policy and the Clerk will ask the LA to add it back in.

SCM said RPS would like inset days at the start of each term for staff to do preparation. There are 2 days in September at the start of the autumn term, 1 day in January at the start of the spring term and 1 day in April at the start of the summer term to be used for a mixture of training and preparation. 

Due to an extra day being agreed for the late spring bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee an extra day off during 2021-2022 has to be agreed as a payback. This was AGREED as 4th July 2022. This will be after SATs and GCSE’s.

The 2022-2023 calendar will be finalised for the FGB meeting on 7th October.

FW asked for data drop dates for L, P & W Committee meetings.

16.1 Governor Expenses Policy (Federation Policy)..

16.2 Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy (September 2021) – individual school policies for each school. 

16.3 RE Policy (RPS Policy)

16.4 Collective Worship (RPS Policy)

17.1 Amended Admissions Policies for 2021-2022 for HPS, RPS and THS

17.2 Amended Admissions Policies for 2022-2023 for HPS, RPS and THS

17.3 Draft Admissions Policy for 2023-2024 for RPS

17.2

17.3

Chair