Mrs Janice Rush, our Chair of Governors, writes this review of the school year and the activities of the governing body…
At the start of this academic year, the governing body decided to reconstitute under new government guidelines. We kept the same number of governors overall but made some changes to how we select governors. There are still five elected parent governor positions but the majority of governors are now appointed on the basis of the skills they can bring to the school, the most important of these being the ability to ask questions to make sure they challenge and support – this ensures the school is providing the best it can for all our children.
In January of this year, as Chair of the Governing Body, I was designated as a National Leader for Governance which means I will spend some time working with other governing bodies in the area and can bring back ideas to ensure Moortown Governing Body keeps working at a high standard
Parent governor elections were also held in January. Mrs Deyes was re-elected and Mr Millar elected, both for a term of four years. Our local authority governor (Councillor Charlwood) stepped down in February prior to the birth of her second child and the position has yet to be filled.
As most of you will already know, the Governing Body has spent much of this year working with various groups to try to secure some playing field space for the school. At the time of writing nothing has yet been finalised.
Teaching, learning and curriculum sub-committee
The Teaching, Learning and Curriculum committee is made up of six governors, Mr Roundtree and members of the school’s Senior Leadership Team as required. The main purpose of the committee is to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s work around pupil attainment and progress, but this year it has also been ensuring that a new curriculum has been designed and is ready to be fully implemented in September in line with new government regulations.
The committee has met every term and link governors for Curriculum Enrichment, Standards and Achievement (Maths and English), and Early Years have held regular meetings with relevant staff to monitor how all areas of the school are performing.
Pupil support sub-committee
The Pupil Support committee is made up of four governors, Mr Roundtree and members of the Senior Leadership Team as required. The main purpose of the committee is to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s pastoral work which includes areas such as attendance, behaviour, safeguarding, SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural provision) and health.
The committee has met every term and link governors for Child Protection, Heath and Inclusion, have held regular meetings with relevant staff. These meeting are to cover such areas as ensuring all Child Protection policies are fully understood and are correctly implemented by all staff, and to monitor how the government PE grant is being spent to improve provision.
Resources sub-committee
The Resources committee is made up of six governors, Mr Roundtree and Mrs O’Malley. The main purpose of the committee is to ensure that the school spending remains within budget and that all funds are spent wisely to best meet the needs of the pupils. From September, this committee will also have to ensure that the performance management process for staff is being correctly implemented and any pay decisions made are in line with our policy.
The committee has met every term but quarterly reviews have also been held with the local authority finance officer and a governor attends the monthly budget meetings.
A governor has also accompanied Mrs O’Malley on regular premises inspections.