DRAFT Minutes of the Meeting of the Full Governing Body

 CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERYONE IS VALUED, IS ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AND KNOWS THEY ARE LISTENED TO.  ENABLE EVERYONE TO BE AMBITIOUS FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING.  BROADEN THE HORIZONS OF OUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM THAT THE WORLD IS THEIRS TO EXPLORE.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Full Governing Body Held on Wednesday 1 March 2017 at 6.00pm in the School

Present: Ian Henderson (IH); Richard Hill (RH); Helen Hird (HH); Claire McFarlane (CM); Julie Norman (JN); Andy Smith (AS); Stephanie Wilcox (Head) Jenni Woodrow (JW) and; Catriona Wright (CW)

Associate members: Ishbel Coleman (IC) Rebecca Pine (RP)

In Attendance: Lisa White (Clerk)

1 Welcome & Apologies for Absence Apologies were received and accepted from Laura Davison (LD).

Declarations of Interest regarding items on the Agenda There were no declarations of interest.

3 Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 January 2017

Draft minutes of the meeting were circulated prior to this meeting and subject to two typos and a minor amendment were approved and signed by the Chair as a true record.

Confidential minutes covering agenda item 12 (Building Works Impact on Pre-school) and item 17 (Any Other Business – Pay Review Committee) of 23 November 2016 FGB meeting were circulated prior to this meeting and were approved and signed by the Chair as a true record.

4 Matters Arising from the above minutes Matters arising are recorded in the Annex.

Raising Standards 5 Head Teacher’s Report This was circulated prior to the meeting along with Autumn 2 data

Signed …………………………………………. Date …………………...…………………. Page 1 of 7 summary, Pupil Premium summary and SEN summary reports.

SW drew governors’ attention to the following: Achievement  Yr. 6 ARE % has increased in all subjects. Most notably Reading from 53% Summer 2 to 90%.  ARE % in Maths is exceeding writing in Yrs. 2, 5 & 6. The results reflect the increase in Maths teaching time. Whilst this is a great success, it was noted that the school cannot lose their focus on writing and the challenge is to maintain progress in all core subjects.  SEN children have made accelerated progress in Yrs. 4, 5 & 6.  PP ARE % especially in Yrs. 3 & 5 is an area for development.

Quality of Teaching  91% good.  An increase in children’s assessment stamina.  An increase in Maths teaching time means more time for learning and consolidation.  Introduction of maths mastery lessons.

Leadership and Management  Structured conversations with parents of PP children and those not on track have taken place and their attendance has increased from 47% Autumn 1 to 58% Autumn 2. Spring 1 data is not yet available but the hope is that there will be a continued increase.  Staff absence due to both long term illness and numerous bugs has had a major effect. The Attendance Policy has been updated and a new attendance tracking system is in place for all staff. ACTION Circulate policy to governors. SW

ACTION It was proposed and agreed that the Resources Committee review the updated Staff Attendance Policy. Resources

 HT participated in a Head Teacher / MP meeting about the proposed national funding reforms and governors were encouraged to take part in the consultations which close on 22 March 2017. Link is: https://consult/education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools- national-funding-formula2/

 A consultation date of 22nd March has been set for the community to view the proposed plans for the school extension. ACTION A governor asked if SW would like governors to be involved in the consultation. SW to forward details to governors. SW

It was noted that the number on roll is currently 319.

It was noted that attendance is slightly down but still above the school’s 95% target. Governors’ visits 6 It was noted that there have been no governor visits since the last FGB meeting. The next visit is Science which is scheduled for 16 March.  CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERYONE IS VALUED, IS ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AND KNOWS THEY ARE LISTENED TO.  ENABLE EVERYONE TO BE AMBITIOUS FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING.  BROADEN THE HORIZONS OF OUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM THAT THE WORLD IS THEIRS TO EXPLORE.

Resources to Support Raising Standards 7 Resources Committee Report AS highlighted the main discussion points as follows:  The budget continues to be extremely tight but it is hoped that the school will have a very small surplus at the end of the financial year  2017/18 budget is also looking very tight and Janet Whitton will be meeting with Janet Jallow shortly to put this budget together  The committee looked at funding allocations to cover the following: o Purchase of new maths books o Programme of laptop replacements for staff o Programme of desktop replacements in computing suite o Resources to enable use of computing options to allow other subjects to use computers/iPads

It was noted that the PTFA has agreed to fund some additional iPads and other options are being explored to help cover the costs of other items.

Property management, Health & Safety and staffing were also covered

At this point, the Chair referred governors back to the HT’s report advising that the formal complaint previously lodged has been rescinded.

8 British Council Language Assistant It was noted that this was discussed at the Standards Committee meeting and although it was not a low-cost option, there could be an opportunity to share an assistant between up to three schools and it was agreed to discuss this with cluster schools. JN advised the governing board that the Parish Council is more likely to provide funding for items that will broaden children’s learning and not on areas that schools should automatically be covering.

ACTION It was proposed and agreed to follow this up. IH Routine Business 9 Policy Review It was noted that as the recently updated model Complaints Policy from the LA contains various typos, errors and refers to a communication policy (which if the school does not have one, is not relevant) there is no need to adopt this policy until the mistakes have been rectified as the current model policy is ‘fit for use’. The Chair advised governors that MPS’s current complaints policy is fine but it was agreed that it will be checked against the new model policy once it has been re- issued.

Signed …………………………………………. Date …………………...…………………. Page 3 of 7 It was noted that the Policy Review is in progress and will be issued shortly. 10 Academisation – Next Steps The Chair advised the governing board that any academisation information that has already been circulated will be uploaded to the school website. It was noted that the Chair’s recent email regarding academisation suggested that where LA’s are graded as ‘Requires Improvement’, schools in that area will be forced to academise, however, following a recent conversation with a governor in another county, this may not be the case and the Chair has attempted to seek clarification from both the LA and the Regional Schools Commissioner but as yet has received no response.

During a previous discussion, the following options were looked at: A) Set up our own Single School Academy; B) Set up our own MAT (Multi-Academy Trust); C) Join an existing MAT (Primary only); D) Join an existing MAT (Mixed Secondary & Primary); E) Join a D-MAT (even though we aren’t a church school).

At that time, options A and E were rejected and therefore the SLT and Chair have since spent some time exploring options B, C and D and are now at a stage to share information with the governing board.

The Chair therefore proposed that either a core group be set up or a series of regular EGMs be held to explore these options in greater depth and asked for governors’ thoughts.

The Chair then went through a series of documents relating to academisation that will be uploaded to the governors’ section of the school website.

SW then shared her current thoughts on the three options with governors and reiterated the importance of taking time to explore each option thoroughly to ensure the right decision for the school is made.

B) Set up our own MAT (Multi-Academy Trust) – huge time implications for the SLT and whilst interesting, she is not sure there is enough time to do this. C) Join an existing MAT (Primary only) – various advantages including this being most likely to have an ethos that fits with MPS as primary practitioners but there are disadvantages in that there are not many established Primary MATs and it is uncertain what benefits MPS would gain from joining a Primary MAT.

D) Join an existing MAT (Mixed Secondary & Primary) – the DfE is encouraging all-through education and the benefits of specialist teaching and the support for transition from Primary to Secondary school that a mixed MAT could offer are attractive but would it have the pedagogy and ethos that MPS value?

A governor asked whether the Secondary School MATs that are being considered already have Primary Schools in them and it was  CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERYONE IS VALUED, IS ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AND KNOWS THEY ARE LISTENED TO.  ENABLE EVERYONE TO BE AMBITIOUS FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING.  BROADEN THE HORIZONS OF OUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM THAT THE WORLD IS THEIRS TO EXPLORE.

noted that the CAM Trust does. It was noted that the need for it to be a local MAT and that there is CPD benefit for staff is of high importance. It was also noted that if MPS are in a MAT from the beginning, it will have the opportunity to shape the ethos of that MAT.

A governor asked if the school looked at joining an alternative MAT to that which Melbourn Village College is part of, could it damage the strong relationship between the two? It was confirmed that this is a risk but if MPS were to join a Primary MAT, the risk would lessen.

ACTION Following this discussion, the following actions were agreed: 1. A core group to be set up to carry out in depth research on each of the options and then feedback to EGMs. This core ACTION group to comprise SW, IH, AS, RP, IC and CW. 2. IH to email governors details of a link to the school website where all academisation literature would be uploaded. Post meeting note: http://www.melbournprimaryschool.org.uk/access/academis ACTION ation/ 3. It was agreed that if any external adviser was invited to talk about academisation all governors would be given the opportunity to attend.

11 Termly Briefing  National funding update A presentation from recent governor briefings was circulated prior to the meeting. The Chair reminded governors of the importance of taking part in the consultation mentioned during the HT’s report and drew governors’ attention to the appropriate links.  Learn Together Hub A handout on how to access this was circulated prior to the meeting.  School Improvement Report During a recent Clerks’ Briefing, it was advised that this had been circulated to all schools. A handout with relevant information was passed to SW and it was noted that Standards Committee would be covering this at their next meeting. Standards Committee to look at School Improvement ACTION Report.

12 Edubase It was noted that at the last FGB meeting, governors were not happy to provide some of the personal information required for Edubase. The Chair proposed that the governing board submit information that as a board they are happy to provide and for this to be minuted. After further discussion, the following was proposed and agreed:

Signed …………………………………………. Date …………………...…………………. Page 5 of 7 The governing board’s interpretation of the Edubase requirement is that we are not currently obliged to provide all of the requested information and following a vote, the governing board’s decision is to not provide this additional personal information. It was noted that this was agreed unanimously.

A second vote was held with regards the information that is already provided by governors for DBS checks and it was noted that the governing board agreed unanimously for this information to be updated on Edubase.

13 Date of next meeting: Wednesday 3 May 2017

14 Any other business School Expansion A governor asked if there were any changes to the previously shared building plans and it was noted that there have only been a few minor amendments. SW confirmed that a note has been included in the school newsletter regarding the proposed expansion.

Fully Funded Workshops The Chair drew governors’ attention to two fully funded workshops that are being run by The Leading Governance Partnership:  Disadvantaged Children – what governors need to know and  Forming or Joining a MAT

It was noted that CM will attend the workshop on Disadvantaged Children and IH, SW and possibly RP, IC or CW will attend the workshop on Forming or Joining a MAT.

The Chair advised governors that notification of training workshops are usually sent to himself by the clerk but asked if other governors would also like to receive them. It was proposed and agreed that HH ACTION should also be included on the circulation of these emails. LW

Camclerk SLA The Chair asked the governing board if they were happy to continue to subscribe to the Camclerk SLA for 2017/18. The governing board agreed to subscribe for the next academic year.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 7.45pm.  CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERYONE IS VALUED, IS ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AND KNOWS THEY ARE LISTENED TO.  ENABLE EVERYONE TO BE AMBITIOUS FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING.  BROADEN THE HORIZONS OF OUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM THAT THE WORLD IS THEIRS TO EXPLORE.

Signed …………………………………………. Date …………………...…………………. Page 7 of 7