Sandhills School Paper

Marsh Baldon C.E. Primary School The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford, OX44 9LJ Telephone (01865) 343249 Facsimile (01865) 341496 Email: [email protected] Headteacher: Mr Nick Pitson

Minutes of a Meeting of the Full Governing Body of Marsh Baldon School Held at the School on Thursday, 31st January 2013 Present: Sue Benton (SB) – Community/Chair Joe Singleton (JS) - Parent Geraldine Lydon Burke (GLB) – LA /Vice Emma Timms (ET) – Parent Chair David Rawlinson (DR) - Parent Nick Pitson (NP) – Head teacher Veronica Sandilands (VS) – LA Shirley E Bull (SEB) – Staff Christina McCormick (CMC) – Foundation Arj Arul(AA) – Parent Sonia Hobbins (SH) - Foundation

In Attendance: Alison Porter (AP) – Clerk The meeting was quorate. 1. Apologies & Welcome Action There were no apologies. The Chair welcomed the new Foundation Governor, Christina McCormick.

2. Declaration of interests. There were none.

3. Minutes of Meeting held on 29.11.12 Agreed as correct.

4. Matters Arising GLB will organise the display of photographs of the governors. GLB Lesson observations – Lorraine Kingsman is coming on 21.1.13 to participate in observations. Link with Slough – Jude Aspinall is acting on this. Summary of RaiseOnline statistics – NP will prepare a summary. NP Marking – a meeting to explain the marking system is in the calendar for a week before NP the parents’ evenings.

5. Reports from Committees The minutes of the committee meetings had been circulated in advance. Curriculum – no meeting has been held. Finance and Premises - AA reported as follows by reference to the minutes of the last meeting: Budget Monitoring Report: The report included a number of changes to the original budget but most had previously been approved and there were only some minor new items. The overall position was a budget underspend. This had caused the projected carry forward of revenue reserves to move from around £13,000 to £24,000 before the £6,000 to cover the extra costs incurred during NP’s absence. We are on the border of clawback based on a percentage of our revenue. The report was accepted by the governors. Proposer: JS Seconder: VS Cleaning: The contract with Carillion has been terminated. The need to give three months’ notice was waived in view of the poor service received. There were time pressures, in particular the risk of losing the prospect of a new provider and being without cleaning services. Finance governors had voted by email, later confirmed in the meeting, and it was not possible to obtain three tenders but they were satisfied that the quotation from Regency seemed fair and in line with other companies. The contract was awarded to Regency. Play Surface: The full report from the surveyor has not yet been received but he has said he is satisfied that the proposal made by STM will solve the drainage problem and should cope with normal conditions. He has proposed optional additional drainage but this is not necessary and will not be pursued at this time. There is a large difference between the money which the insurers will pay (around £14,000) and the actual cost (around £19,500) these being net figures as we can reclaim the VAT. However, the extra cost can be met by the capital budget which would reduce the risk of clawback. There was now a risk because the council had changed its policy so funds held for over three years were at risk unless there were solid proposals for a future capital project. This is something that governors need to consider long term but at the moment there was about £7,500 at risk if not spent by next year so appropriate to be used toward the play surface shortfall in costs. It was agreed to install a fence about one meter high around three sides of the playing area. The cost of this will be about £5,500 but extra with a safety rail on top. However, the fence should lengthen the life of the surface as