MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE MULTI ACADEMY TRUST (“CMAT”) (CO. NO. 09379253) HELD AT THE OAKS ON THURSDAY 18th MAY 2017 – 9.30am

Directors/Trustees present:

Mr Jasbir Dhesi (JD) Mr Fintan Bradley (FB) Chair Mrs Emma Hooley (EH) Headteacher Mrs Gill Bremner (GB) Mr Simon Yates (SY) Mrs Andrea Herron (AHe) (arrived at 9.32) Dame Patricia Bacon (PB)

Also in attendance:

Mr Andrew Hubert (AH) Vice-Principal Corporate Services South College Mrs Jenny Gough (JG) Clerk Dr David Kay (DK) Deputy Headteacher 10.35am – 10.56am Mrs Carol Jones (CJ) Assistant Head Teacher 10.35am – 11.20am

Apologies from:

Mr Andrew Kent (AK)

PART ONE MINUTES – NON-CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS

1. Introductions and Apologies for Absence

The Chair welcomed those attending the meeting. Apologies were received and accepted from AK.

2. Declarations of Interest

JG advised that it was not necessary to verbally declare personal or pecuniary interests which have already been declared on the annual declaration forms. It was noted that the

Page 1 of 12 minutes going forward will refer to those forms and only new interests need to be declared at this item on the agenda.

Trustees were asked to declare any potential pecuniary interest or conflict of interests with the business to be discussed during the meeting. The trustees confirmed there were no new interests to declare and that they had no conflicting interests with the matters being discussed at today’s meeting.

3. Membership

Appointment of Janice Leverone (“JL”) EH and FB met JL. FB and EH put forward their recommendation to the board that she is appointed.

JL is an English teacher with MFL experience, who is currently working at Madeley High School in Staffordshire. She has previously worked at Sir William Stanier School. It was commented upon that her skills as a practising teacher would be valuable to the board.

The board unanimously agreed FB and EH’s recommendation. FB confirmed that there is an appointment procedure to follow and he will complete the necessary paperwork required by the sponsor body .

It was further commented upon that the timing and frequency of the board meetings may need to be considered for the next academic year.

ACTION JG to add the review of timing and frequency of meetings to the agenda for the July meeting.

Q. Is it worth approaching the recruitment service again to source another trustee? A. Yes.

The discussion continued. Paul Coleman has been approached to assist in finding a new trustee with a local business background. JD is following up this lead.

EH confirmed that the parent election process did not produce any candidates.

4. Minutes

Minutes from the Meeting on 16th March 2017

The minutes of the meeting were reviewed, confirmed as a true and accurate record of the meeting and signed by FB.

Review of the Action Log

The Action Log was reviewed by the trustees. See revised Action Log.

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The following new actions were agreed:-

ACTION FB to contact Amy at SGOSS again to find out if it would be possible to source another trustee.

ACTION JG to circulate clerking fees schedule for 2017-18.

ACTION JG to add the review of the complaints policy in line with the new model on the July agenda.

ACTION JG to add the seclusions matrix table as an agenda item for the July meeting.

ACTION JG to add the purchase of clerking services as an agenda item for the July meeting.

ACTION JG to add the review of GB’s meeting to review the safeguarding policy with Niall as a safeguarding agenda item.

5. Financial Matters

A budget update summary was circulated to all trustees in advance of the meeting and the following points were noted.

AH explained that there have been two main issues.

The first issue was that grant income had not been received. The school has now received £160K of grant funding this year and the funds have been received in two tranches. The first tranche of £80 was from the DfE for environmental capital work and the second tranche of £80K was from the Local Authority which was an agreed payment as part of the appointment of the sponsor body.

The second issue is the difficulty of unravelling the intricacies of the catering contract. It is difficult to set the budget for this provision going forward without having completed a full cycle.

The school is forecast to have a surplus at the year end, however without the grants which will not be received next year the school will only just make a surplus. Due to this and a reduction in the number of learners it was agreed that it will be necessary to review costs.

It was noted that the college is not re-charging for the services that the school uses however at some point in the future it will have to.

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The discussion moved on to the contractual relationship between the school and the caterers. It is believed that the school is contracted to receiving these catering services until January 2018 however neither party has a signed copy of the contract.

ACTION JD to discuss the issue of the catering contact with Evelyn Davies-Jones

It was confirmed that there will need to be a tender process before the school enters into any contractual relations with a new supplier.

Q. Can we send Helen Fox (the previous school business manager) an email to find out what her recollections of the catering contract are? A. Yes

ACTION EH to email Helen Fox to find out what her recollections of the catering contract are.

6. Safeguarding

This standing item for all future agendas was a direct request from the Chair’s Committee at the College.

GB and Niall Meenan are carrying out a piece of work to review the school’s safeguarding policy.

EH confirmed that safeguarding is now a standing agenda item for all internal school meetings.

The Dean Trust produced a safeguarding action plan for the school.

JG highlighted the deadline for the S.157/175 Audit as set out in the Director’s Report.

7. Governor Visits Schedule

This item was discussed as part of the action log review.

It was suggested that the board could set out trustee links to certain parts of the curriculum for next year. It was agreed that as soon as the dates for the board meetings for next year are agreed then a plan can be put together. Trustees can be linked to subject heads for the core subjects. The trustees will then be able to gather an oversight of self-assessment, the student focus and the staff focus.

8. IT Plan

EH tabled the IT Refurbishment Plan at the meeting. An asset register has been completed.

The cost of works to the switches is £9,374.16.

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Three options for the purchase of new equipment are listed on the plan ranging between £16,434 and £22,089.

It was commented upon that not only does the school need a plan on what equipment could be purchased now but what would happen in years 2 and 3 following such investment. JD explained that it may be a possibility that SCC could sponsor a computer suite at the school. This would be a complete re-brand of a room which would include furniture and fittings so that students would have the experience of SCC at school.

ACTION EH, AH and JD to meet and discuss this possibility and bring a 4 year plan to the board.

The school’s aspiration for the future would be to have an IT presence in all classrooms.

Q. Could you clarify what computers the school owns now? A. There are 66 computers which are owned by the school and 71 machines leased from a company called Stone.

Q. Why have some machines been leased? A. Due to cost. The school’s machines are old and need replacing. The Stone machines are adequate.

Q. Has the individual who carried out an audit of the equipment linked it back to the Academy Improvement Plan (“AIP”)? A. No. The individual works in a technical computer role. It will be necessary to look at how the IT plan links back to the AIP.

Q. Is there a maintenance provision in the lease from Stone? A. Unknown.

Q. Does SCC have purchasing power which the school could utilise? A. Yes. Any purchases will be undertaken via the college.

Q. Is the work to the switches essential? A. The server would not go down but in order to maintain the system it is necessary to do the work to the switches.

It was expressed that the £9K work to the switches did not look to be negotiable.

Q. Is the school comfortable with firewalls? A. Yes this has been reviewed by the SCC technical team.

ACTION EH to look at the computer equipment lease from Stone.

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9. Health and Safety

The Health and Safey consultant from Cheshire West carried out a familiarisation visit. A report will not be produced from that visit. He will return to do a full report once the annual risk assessments have taken place.

The school has been successful with its Condition Improvement Fund (“CIF”) bid for the fire alarm, but unsuccessful for the second phase of the window repair work. Three companies are in the process of tendering for the fire alarm. Criteria for the choice of contractor includes price but also the timescale for the works.

EH has asked the Health and Safety consultant to do a separate visit to the science department and to produce a report. There are housekeeping issues regarding the cleanliness of the preparation room and the amount of chemicals being stored there. Some chemicals have been there for twenty years. The new head of science, the science technician and EH have put a plan into place. There could be a considerable cost to dispose of the chemicals that are no longer required. EH is in dialogue with other schools to see if they want to collaborate to share the disposal costs of unwanted chemicals.

EH confirmed that the chemicals at the school are being stored safely and there are no issues with the labs or the staff.

Q. Are the chemicals stored separately? A. Yes those that need to be stored separately are separate. They are low risk but they do need disposing of.

This problem has arisen because historically the chemicals have not been managed effectively. The new head of science will take on this role.

10. Risk Register

The risk register has been drafted with the SCC one as a precedent. EH needs to discuss the first draft with AH and JD.

ACTION JG to add the review of the risk register to the agenda for the July meeting.

It was noted that the risk register will need to be reviewed regularly and the trustees will need to agree the review cycle.

11. Dean Trust Exit Plan

It was originally envisaged that the Dean Trust would provide support for one year, however due to funds being available it was agreed that the support would be kept in place. It was agreed by the trustees that the support would be wound down and terminated by December 2017. Between now and December 2017 the Dean Trust will carry out an intensive Ofsted style inspection.

Q. Where are we up to with Ofsted?

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A. It should be a further 12 months until Ofsted inspect again unless something triggers an inspection from Ofsted.

It was agreed that the school needs to have a cycle of reviews about being ready for an inspection. EH went on to explain that she is meeting with the head teacher at about the possibility of four schools collaborating to do quality assessments for each other. The trustees agreed that this collaboration is a positive arrangement.

ACTION EH to meet with Tarun Kapur of The Dean Trust to plan the support between May and December and to bring costings to the July meeting.

ACTION JG to add the review of services from the Dean Trust to the July agenda.

10.35 – DK and CJ arrived.

14. Academy Improvement Plan

Two members of the Senior Leadership Team (“SLT”) came to the meeting to present on the Academy Improvement Plan. A copy of the Academy Improvement Plan was circulated to all trustees in advance of the meeting. A copy of the presentation slides were tabled at the meeting.

Dr David Kay (Deputy Head teacher) presented on the following:-

1. Priority 1 – Improvement 1 – Developing processes that support middle leaders to conduct rigorous self-evaluation that informs planning and leads to improved outcomes.

DK explained the work that has been done with regard to conducting self-evaluation. He expects that all of the work listed will be in place and established by September.

Q. What does ‘engaged’ mean with regard to the fourth bullet point? A. There is no issue with Curriculum Team Leaders (“CTLs”) not being engaged. Some CTLs have needed more support and needed their skills developing in order to carry out the self-evaluation needed.

Q. Are there any serious concerns that some CTLs will not be able to reach the desired standard? A. Yes.

It was commented up on that giving ownership and responsibility to a team is a stepped process and the school is moving the CTLs along their journey.

2. Priority 1 – Improvement 3 – Establishing Consistency with Non-Negotiables

The visits referred to in the presentation slides are the drop-ins that the SLT do. In general there has been an upward trend. The standard of the fortnight in row two,

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“students standing to articulate learning” does have a downward trend but the trend is attributed to the timing of the standard. It was focused upon just after Christmas.

DK explained that students probably do not like standing to articulate learning, but it is good for them to be able to do it and if they cannot articulate what they are learning then it is an indicator that something has gone wrong with the lesson. The objective is always to have well planned lessons with transparent learning aims. The pupils do stand up to articulate learning, but they also stand up if a visitor comes into the classroom. EH remarked that she would ask the class to stay seated if she was only entering the classroom for a short period.

Q. Has the confidence and attitude improved? A. Yes. The statistics get broken down into subject areas and then those statistics are shared with the CTLs.

At 10.56 DK handed over to CJ. DK left the meeting.

Carol Jones (Assistant Head teacher) gave a presentation on the Academy Improvement Plan Priority 1 – Improvement 2 – Establishing a revised Teaching and Learning Framework across the school which is in line with the academy’s core values to “Inspire, Believe and Achieve”.

The teaching and learning in 79% of lessons has now been deemed to be good and outstanding.

Q. What was the percentage last time? A. It was as low as 59% in the early days of the school, however most recently it has been in the early to mid seventies. The robustness of the assessment is good because the only teachers that carry out the judgements are EH, DK and CJ.

There are two members of staff who are not consistently achieving good practice yet. There is a good system in place to identify those that are not achieving good practice and support is put in place to aid them.

The results for the members of staff who have done the Improving Teacher Programme (“ITP”) are good and it is clear that the programme has been of benefit. At the moment the ITP has only been completed by teachers who are new to the school and newly qualified teachers, however it has been agreed that the ITP will be rolled out to all members of the teaching staff.

Q. What support is available to those teachers who are not achieving? A. It usually involves the deployment of a coach on a 1:1 basis.

DK has been visiting primary schools recently as part of the overhaul of the year 7 curriculum.

The CPD for the whole school next year will have a focus on growth mindsets.

The Oaks Academy Faculty Review was tabled at the meeting. The document makes it clear for each CTL to see where their department ranks.

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Q. In row 6 does that refer to year 11 results? A. Yes. It was agreed that there could be a row for key stage 3 and key stage 4 data. The trustees agreed that it is important not to just focus on GCSE data. The school will be judged by its results but the school needs to demonstrate the good work that is being done lower down the school.

Q. What does SMHW Analysis mean? A. Show My Homework is a computer package which allows students and parents to view the homework that has been set. It is important to analyse the quantity and quality of homework being set.

The Oaks Academy Self-Evaluation Framework Teaching, Learning and Assessment document was tabled at the meeting. The board was informed that DK set up this document and together DK and CJ populated it to show the progress being made in line with the AIP. A trustee noted that this is a good document which enables trustees to see the progress being made.

The document called Teaching and Learning Review May 2017 was tabled for information.

CJ left the meeting at 11.20

12. Marketing

The trustees confirmed that they agreed to go ahead with the Bumblebee Digital proposal which was discussed at the last meeting. The marketing consultant will release 1-2 videos per week. A big area of the consultant’s work is going to be producing the new prospectus. The prospectus needs to be ready by 4th July.

The board agreed to delegate the responsibility of approving the prospectus to FB.

EH confirmed that she has targeted six primary schools and has had contact with all six of them. It has been arranged for some of the primary deputy heads to visit the school.

The marketing consultant is working on the school’s unique selling point. The Oaks is the only school in Crewe that offers the Duke of Edinburgh award. The primary school visitors will take part in a mini Duke of Edinburgh challenge and each activity will be linked to an area of the curriculum.

It was also agreed that the school should maximise the use of the newly appointed mayor.

13. Head’s Report

A report on Year 11 was circulated in advance of the meeting. EH explained that the table on the first page gives a direct analysis between the mock data from December and the mock data from April.

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It was noted that 49% of the current year 9 who have chosen their options will be eligible for the Ebacc qualification. The school is now in line with the national expectation for the number of students who are eligible.

EH explained that the new grade 4 will be the expected grade. Grade 5 is good and then 9 is the highest grade that can be received.

It was noted that the mock papers have been marked robustly and half of the English papers were marked by the AQA examination board.

The English grades are down but this is the first time there has been no element of coursework.

50% of students are on course for a combination of grades between 9-4. A Saturday club has been set up to encourage these students to revise. There is also an extended day on a Thursday for year 11 students with the incentive of receiving a meal at the end of the session. Three quarters of the year group are attending these sessions.

The trustees were advised to discount the media figure on the Foundation Subjects Summary page because the media students did not take a mock exam.

Q. Why did the media studies students not sit a mock exam? A. It was a policy decision made at the time due to a teacher absence. The students needed to focus on coursework at the time mock exams were being taken.

Q. Why is the analysis of mock exams more rigorous than before? What work has been done? A. The following:-  All subjects which had a big disparity have had extended validation through the Dean Trust  There has been a standardisation of exam responses.  Work has been done with Sir Thomas More school to cross-reference marking.  50% of English papers have been marked by AQA examination board.  The recent Dean Trust report highlighted that the position in maths is more positive than the data suggests.  Internal strategies have been set up.

It was highlighted that the changes to the grading of english and maths is nationwide.

15. Director’s Summer Report

JG noted the following for the trustee’s attention:-  Chair’s email account  The new recruitment guide  IR35 legislation changes  New model HR policies  S.157/175 audit deadline

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16. Dates of Future Meetings

It was agreed that the June meeting would be cancelled. The next board meeting will be held on Thursday 20th July 2017 at 9.30.

17. Impact Statement

The Chair asked trustees to reflect on the work of the board during this meeting, and the impact which the discussion and debate, and the decisions taken, may have on the

 clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

 Hold the Head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school; and  Oversee the financial performance of the school ensuring value for money

Trustees reflected that matters considered and decisions made at this meeting would have particular impact on the above namely the board:

 clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

The review of the Academy’s improvement plan, presented by senior leaders allowed governors to scrutinise the work of the school in the achievement of the above

 Hold the Head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school; Governors scrutinised the results of Mock1 and Mock2. Governors challenged areas of concern seeking assurances that appropriate actions are being taken to support pupils fulfil their potential  Oversee the financial performance of the school ensuring value for money

Governors consider financial report and ITC report. Governors sought clarification about the budget situation and what was being done to mitigate against potential overspends in school catering. Governors also consider the financial efficiencies of the current ITC arrangements.

18. Any other business

EH announced that the school proposes to plan a trip to Cern in Switzerland for year 8 and year 9. The board agreed to the trip in principle subject to the usual planning, safety and risk assessments. Further details will be provided.

The meeting moved to part 2 at 11.46

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Chair:……………………………………

Date: ……………………………………

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