THE SOUTH NORWOOD ACADEMY
Strategy Committee Meeting
Monday, 27th February at 7.30pm
Name Governor Type Present Apologises
Leila Baker Parent X
Anthony Fernandez Parent X (AF)
Les Jones (LJ) Appointed X
Eileen Muwonge Chair –Appointed X (EM)
Anjola-Oluwa Adeniyi Appointed X
Stephen Schwartz HofS) X (HofS)
Ex officio
Keith Robinson Director X
Associate Governors
Sue Banfield (SB) Deputy Head X
Lisa Guy (LG) Deputy Head X
IN ATTENDANCE:
Julie Newman Clerk X (Clerk)
Loveday Trevisick Staff X
1. Welcome – Governors’ Formal Approval of Absence, Governors Register of Pecuniary Interests; Declarations of Interest
. Eileen Muwonge chaired the meeting.
Apologies All members of the committee attended the meeting.
Pecuniary Interests All Governors attending the meeting agreed that there had been no changes to their circumstance that would affect the Register of Pecuniary Interests completed and signed at the Autumn FGB meeting.
Declaration of Interest Governors attending the meeting confirmed they did not have any business
1 interests in any of the meeting’s agenda items.
2 2. Minutes of the meeting held on the 10th October 2016
The Minutes of the last meeting held on 10th October 2016 were approved subject to the amendments given by Keith Robinson. These amendments were included in the minutes. These minutes were signed by the committee Chair.
Matters arising:
ACTION 1: Outstanding: some pen portraits are outstanding. Governors are requested to send by the end of the week.
ACTION 2: Completed: the SEF on the website.
ACTION 3: Outstanding: governor’s core priorities /actions - See Item 3.
ACTION 4: Completed: Les Jones and Eileen Muwonge were present on the day of the Inclusion mark inspection.
3. Review of SSR
EM invited KR to take the lead on this item.
KR distributed a copy of the Governance handbook and referred governors to ‘responsibilities of governors’ as detailed on pages 28 to 35. KR reported that the SSR had been conducted on 18/11/2016 and had concluded that Governance requires improvement.
KR stated that he had been somewhat surprised by this as he had attended a number of governing body meetings last academic year and had been confident in governor’s abilities. KR said TSNA couldn’t allow their governing body to be graded ‘requires improvement’ because it would have an impact on the grade Ofsted award ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’. To support the strong leadership and management governors needed to work towards being graded good to outstanding.
EM asked where the evidence was for the SSR’s conclusion. KR gave the following as examples: Failure to complete the skills audit Failure to complete the pen portraits Failure to write a Governor’s action plan LT said she would welcome guidance on what an action plan might include.
Action 1: KR to send out Forest Academy’s action plan as an example
KR added that Roger White, director of the Trust, had attended last week’s FGB and felt it was ‘shambolic.’ This was disputed by AF and EM who said that despite unforeseen circumstances which prevented the Chair from attending AO had competently chaired the meeting and the agenda items had been fully discussed.
KR said that governors need to be mindful of Ofsted’s expectations and to be ready for an inspection in a year’s time. Governors need to have detailed knowledge of the school’s priorities and how it is addressing weaknesses.
3 Action 2: SS to send out 8 questions an Ofsted inspector may ask. Action 3: All governors to attend the session on accountability on 28th March at 7pm led by KR. Action 4: Governors to familiarise themselves with the key responsibilities as set out in the Governance handbook.
KR asked the teachers present what they would like from the governing body. LG said she welcomed the challenges to the data as this helped her to think differently and make improvements to practice.
SB said that teachers had been surprised and concerned about the SSR conclusion and would like governors to be more visible to parents, carers and staff.
EM reminded the committee that governors attend a half day visit two or three times a year which included time in the playground, classroom and having lunch with the children.
ACTION 5: at the next governors visit in June, governors to hold an open coffee morning for parents/carers to meet with and talk to governors. ACTION 6: Governors to contribute to the termly school newsletter to inform parents of recent work undertaken.
KR asked SS what he would like governors to do and SS said he would like them to be more proactive and to set the agenda for meetings.
EM brought the discussion to a close by clarifying the timetable for the action plan.
ACTION 7: By 2nd March AF to set up google doc By 24th March - all governors to have submitted ideas for the action plan to LJ By 31st March - LJ to have completed first draft
4. Promoting the Academy (how to increase the roll)
SS said this year we had 40 first choices which was down from last year’s 58 first choices. He said they would know by the end of March the actual number and he would hope this would be around 50 to 55. He was disappointed because results had gone up and they had rebranded the school. Governors asked which schools were seen as competition. SS said: Heavers Farm which was a 4 form entry and Oasis Shirley Park as this was a feeder school to Oasis Secondary Academy. AF said Ryeland had been refurbished and looked good and some parents were opting for Ryeland’s because it looked new with a welcoming entrance. SS said this was one of the reasons he had budgeted to refurbish the entrance.
SS said he would hope the perception the academy was changing. He said they had had more people through the doors at open events and the feedback had been positive.
EM said they could consider promoting the whole person not just the education ethos of the academy and focus on the areas that make us stand out from other schools in the area. She thought we could have a
4 ‘Wow’ assembly on the achievements of the academy.
KR said WTA was outstanding and had a lot of ‘Kite Marks’ and wondered if this would be worthwhile. SS said they were looking to attain Basic skills mark and the ICT mark. LB wondered who would see or notices the Kite Marks and we needed to look at ways to ‘shout out’ about our achievements. She said we could have an advert in ‘Families Magazine’. SS said he ‘twittered’ achievements and would start to look how we could utilise social media to promote the academy.
5. Academy Policies
There were no policies for review.
6. Confidentiality
There were no confidential issues discussed.
7. Date of next meeting
The Chair thanked governors and associates for attending and the meeting closed at 8.55pm.
Operations – 20th March 6.30 pm SUMMER TERM Operations – 24th April 6.30pm FGB – 15th May 7pm (and 19th June If needed) Governors Visit – 16th June (am) Strategy– 3rd July 6..00pm Operations – 3rd July 7.30pm(if needed) RA – 10th July 6.00pm
Signed by Chair …………………………………… Date ………………………………..
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