Governors
Training
We provide a comprehensive training programme for all school governors, clerks and head teachers, whether in maintained or academy schools. Places on training sessions are available to all schools - for subscribing schools these will be free of charge and for non-subscribing schools there is a charge per delegate.
If your governing board does not subscribe to Warwickshire Governor Services and you think it would be useful to do so, please contact Gurby Dhesi to discuss your requirements:
Email - gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone – 01926 745 137
These courses are scheduled to be delivered this term and there are still places available on them:
SENco and SEN Governor (please note that this course must be attended by both the SENco and the SEN Governor)
Wednesday 21 March 2018
17:00 – 19:00
Stratford – upon - Avon College, CV37 9QR
Clerks Conference
Thursday 3 May 2018
09:30 – 12:30
The Welcome Centre, Coventry CV1 2HG
Governors Conference
Wednesday 16 May 2018
09:00 -16:30
Honiley Court Hotel, Honiley, Kenilworth CV8 1NP
We are in the process of producing our new 2017 – 2018 Training Programme but in the meantime, you can view the courses that are available until the end of March by using the link to our current Training and Support Programme (April 2017 – March 2018) available here
If you would like to book on a course, please email your booking to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk, or telephone Governor Services on 01926 745120 or book via the WES website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wes
Please remember to quote the course reference number, title and date when booking.
For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Gail Evans:
Email - gailevans@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone – 01926 745 120
Maintained Schools – Subscription Reminder!
It is time to renew your school’s annual subscription to the Governor Training & Support Programme and The Clerking Service.
WES services have sent out service offers to schools asking them to make their decisions regarding which LA services they wish to purchase for 2018/19.
Governing Boards should be making the decision to subscribe to the Governor Training & Support Programme, GovernorHub, Learning Link and the Clerking Service.
All boards, no matter what type of schools or how many schools they govern, must be effective and encourage everyone involved in governance, especially those new to their role, to make the most of the resources, guidance and training available to develop their knowledge and skills.
Warwickshire Governor Services recognise that school governor’s responsibilities are wide – ranging, with boards facing new challenges on a regular basis. The service offered provides reliable, prompt and relevant advice, information and training enabling governors of all schools to fulfil their role in holding school leaders to account through support, challenge and driving school improvement.
Subscription to the Training & Support Programme entitles your Governing Board to:
- Unlimited access to best practice advice and guidance to Governors, Clerks AND Head teachers both via telephone and email;
- Unlimited bookings on centre-based courses as listed in the Training & Support Programme (subject to availability);
- Attendance for every new governor on the Induction to Governance course;
- Full access to the document resource library which contains downloadable resources including model policies, templates, checklists and tool kits;
- Regular email communications to Clerks and Chairs keeping them up to date with the latest legislation and good practice ;
- A two hour in-house training course (of your choice) chosen from our subject list and customised to the needs of your governing board. Delivered by one of our trainers at your school for your governing board on a date agreed with you;
- A reduction of 20% from the standard charge for further in-house training sessions;
- Access to Learning Link e-learning & GovernorHub at a reduced price;
- Attendance at Governor Briefings and the Governors’ Forum.
For more information please contact Gurby Dhesi
Email: gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk or Tel: 01926 745137
Dates for your Diary
Clerks’ Conference:
The Clerks’ Conference will take place on:
Date: Thursday 3 May 2018
Venue: The Welcome Centre, 47 Parkside, Coventry CV1 2HG
Time: 9:30am - 12:30pm
Further details to follow
Governors’ Conference:
The Governors’ Conference will take place on:
Date: Wednesday 16 May 2018
Venue: Honiley Court Hotel, Meer End Road, Honiley, Kenilworth, CV8 1NP
Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm
Topics will include:
- GDPR Training for Governors
- Dealing with Complaints
- Exclusions
Area Governor Meetings:
The Area Governor Meetings (formerly Patch meetings) will take place in the Spring Term, the dates are:
Date: Tuesday 24 April 2018
Venue: Stratford upon Avon School, Alcester Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 9DH
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
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Date: Tuesday 26 April 2018
Venue: Brooke School, Overslade Lane, Rugby, CV22 6DY
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
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Date: Tuesday 1 May 2018
Venue: Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bulkington Road, Bedworth, CV12 9EA
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
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Date: Thursday 3 May 2018
Venue: Aylesford School and Sixth Form College, Tapping Way, Warwick, CV34 6XR
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
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An agenda will follow in due course.
To reserve your place, please email your booking to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk, telephone Governor Services on 01926 745120 or book via the WES website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wes
Education Strategy Consultation
Our new Education Strategy will guide and support education in Warwickshire for the next 5 years.
It is very important to us that governors and clerks have an opportunity to give their views and as a starting point we would like to invite you to register your comments by completing the questionnaire at: https://ask.warwickshire.gov.uk/
Annual Governing Board Membership Return Reminder
As a Local Authority we hold a database of maintained school governing boards. Such information is needed for governor recruitment purposes, in cases of urgency, safeguarding, Ofsted inspections, and schools where there is a cause for concern.
Recording of names and categories of all governors, including vacancies, are also requested in order to effectively identify and manage the nomination process for any vacant LA or other governor posts. Clerks are responsible for supplying the information using the Governing Board Details Form.
For the reasons listed above, we also ask our Academy colleagues (especially from those who subscribe to our services) to provide us with their governor details with as, the minimum, contact details for the Chair of Governors and Clerk.
All data is stored and accessed in accordance with the Data Protection Act. The only piece of information we can give out publicly is the name of the Chair of the Governing board, which is already in the public domain. We do not give out personal contact details or any other information.
With contact details frequently changing we ask Clerks to notify us of changes made and on an annual basis we contact all schools and academies to provide us with their current GB Membership.
In October 2017 we emailed all schools / academies asking for the contact information but we are still waiting for 100 clerks to reply to us. If you haven’t returned your Annual form, please can you complete it and send it back to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk
We often send out communications from the LA to all schools and having up to date contact details helps you and certainly helps us to be better informed about local and national issues.
Have you confirmed your Staff Disciplinary Procedure?
Like a Complaints policy, you don't need your Disciplinary procedure ... until the day you need it.
But when the need does arise, the procedure has to be right.
Why? Because the first line of defence is always to challenge whether the school is following its own policy.
If yours is a school where the county council is the employer, or if your academy or VA or Foundation school participates in the Warwickshire Consultation Framework, the Warwickshire Disciplinary Procedure applies to your teaching and support staff.
It's essential that all employees should be aware of this, and have access to a copy of it (published by WCC Schools HR on the WES website, My Documents section).
It's important that the governing board should be aware of it, and where the GB is the employer, there should be a record in GB or committee minutes that they have adopted this procedure.
Do We Need a Code of Conduct?
Maintained schools
The Department for Education (DfE) has published statutory guidance on the constitution of maintained school governing bodies.
The constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools
Paragraph 16 on page 8 of the document says:
A code of conduct should be maintained and communicated to all prospective governors to set clear expectations of the governors’ role and behaviour.
Explicit agreement to the code of conduct will mean there is a common reference point should any difficulties arise in the future.
As this guidance is statutory, maintained school governing bodies must follow it unless they have good reason not to
Academies
The recommendation to maintain and communicate a code of conduct is also set out in section 4.1.2 of the DfE's Governance Handbook; (DfE Governance Handbook see pages 30 / 31) a document aimed at both academies and maintained schools.
Although the Governance Handbook is not statutory, and therefore academies are not required to have a code, it is considered good practice for them to do so.
GDPR – is your school on track?
With the new General Data Protection Regulation approaching quickly - May 2018!
Please click here to download a copy of the free ‘GDPR Readiness Tracker’ (original source ICO).
Pupil Premium – What is the Pupil Premium
The pupil premium is additional funding given to state-funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and other pupils.
The government does not prescribe what the pupil premium should be spent on, as it says schools are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need. However, schools are held accountable for how they use this funding to support the pupils eligible for it.
All schools must publish a pupil premium strategy
The Department for Education (DfE) has published guidance for what maintained schools must publish online.
The DfE guidance says that maintained schools must publish a strategy on their use of the pupil premium. It is no longer a requirement to publish a ‘pupil premium statement’.
For the current academic year, the strategy must include:
- Your school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount
- A summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school
- How you’ll spend the pupil premium to address those barriers and the reasons for that approach
- How you’ll measure the impact of the pupil premium
- The date of the next review of the school’s pupil premium strategy
For the previous academic year, you must include details of:
- How you spent the pupil premium allocation
- The impact of the expenditure on eligible and other pupils
The guidance says:
- Pupil premium funding is allocated for each financial year, but the information you publish online should refer to the academic year, as this is how parents understand the school system.
- As you won’t know allocations for the end of the academic year (April to July), you should report on the funding up to the end of the financial year and update it when you have all the figures.
The requirements for what Academies must publish online are set out in their funding agreements.
The DfE's guidance for academies says that, regardless of what your funding agreement requires you to publish, the Department recommends publishing the same information as maintained schools, listed above.
Governors are expected to know how the funding is being used and in particular what impact this is having on the pupils who receive the funding.
Governors must remember that not all the pupils receiving Pupil Premium will be struggling with school work. The pupil premium ‘group’ may also contain high-achievers or those with the potential to achieve highly and it’s important that the school has sufficiently high expectations of all pupils.
Interventions put in place should be properly matched to individual needs in order to allow all pupils to achieve their best.
Most governing boards now have a designated governor for Pupil Premium who will report to the remaining governors and this may make monitoring more effective and focused.
We have listed some questions that any governor could ask regarding Pupil Premium.
Pupil Premium Questions for Governors to ask?
- What is the PP gap in school? (for English + Maths, Reading, Writing, Maths?)
- How does this compare with National? How has this changed over time? How are we tracking the changes?
- Who are the PP pupils in school? How many? Boys/girls by year group? What is the overlap with other groups – EAL, BME, G&T etc.?
- How much PP funding do we receive? Can you detail how it is used? Who decides how it will be spent? Is it used to support pupils other than PP?
- What do we do to encourage parents/carers to claim Free School Meals (even if they don’t use the meal)? Do they understand how much money can benefit the school and their child?
- Does our school website meet the requirements for reporting on Pupil Premium?
- How are Governors involved in monitoring Pupil Premium? Do we have a designated governor assigned to Pupil Premium?
- What interventions/actions has the school used to narrow the gap? What was their impact? How was it measured? What is the most effective strategy the school has used to reduce the PP gap?
- Do class teachers know who the PP pupils are in their class? Do teachers have PP targets as part of their performance management? What support do teachers receive in order to address PP gaps?
- Do we have Pupil Premium pupils who achieve national expectations but who ought to be achieving more highly? What does the school do for them? Could more be done?
Revised KS2 and early years data available through Analyse School Performance (ASP)
The Department for Education (DfE) have released an update regarding the data available on analyse school performance (ASP), the government’s replacement for RAISEonline:
- revised 2017 data is now available for key stage 2 and the early years foundation stage
- the revised 2017 data for key stage 4 will be available this month
Governors are encouraged to access ASP and use it as an essential resource for knowing your school(s) well. To set up governors please follow the steps in this video link here
SGOSS is now Governors for Schools
SGOSS: Governors for Schools is pleased to announce their relaunch. They are now known as Governors for Schools
Short video on Primary Assessment Changes
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has published a short video setting out changes to primary assessment. This video for school staff will also be informative for governing bodies for a brief overview. Click here.
Updated Career Guidance for Schools – Feb 2018
The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its careers guidance for further education and sixth form colleges. This guidance incorporates the Gatsby Benchmarks into the careers strategy for post-16 providers. This means that colleges and sixth forms should provide:
- A stable careers programme;
- Access to learning from careers and labour market information;
- A programme which addresses the needs of each student;
- A curriculum linked to careers;
- Encounters with employers and employees;
- Work experience placements;
- Encounters with further and higher education;
- Personal guidance.
You can view the guidance here
Key dates for School Governors
Maintained schools
Suggested Spring Term Tasks for the Governing Board
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Agree curriculum plans
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Review school improvement plan progress
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Publish proposals and admissions arrangements for next autumn
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Review special educational needs (SEN) policy
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Review equality information and objectives
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Review equality information and objectives
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Review pay policy
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Agree budget and staffing structure
15th March
Admissions authorities must send a copy of their admission arrangements to the LA by this date - School Admissions Code
31st March
Deadline for submission of schools financial value standard (SFVS) – Schemes for financing schools
Academies and MATs
March
ESFA issues 16 to 19 allocations, including student support (16 to 19 Bursary Fund and free meals in further education where applicable).
ESFA publishes 16 to 19 student support eligibility and operational guidance.
ESFA publishes CIF outcomes.
15th March
Deadline for sending a copy of your admission arrangements to your LA.
31st March
Deadline for publishing your admission arrangements for entry in September 2019 on your website
ESFA issues academy revenue funding allocations for 2018/19
Request and review an internal report on likely outcomes of summer examinations
Key tasks for the board of trustees to complete by the end of the spring term (or for the local governing body if delegated).
- Review school improvement plan progress
- Review special educational needs (SEN) policy
- Review equality information and objectives
DfE Updates
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools - How schools can buy, install and maintain an automated external defibrillator.
Multi – academy trust performance measures: 2016 - 2017 – Statistics on the performance of state-funded schools in multi-academy trusts in England.
An update to correct the Key Stage 4 MAT EBacc weighting and the Key Stage 2 MAT writing progress bandings.
Characteristics of Young People who are Long – Term NEET - Analysis of the characteristics of young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) for a year, 3 years after completing key stage 4.
Concrete cladding - monitoring building condition - Departmental guidance to support monitoring of building condition by schools and responsible bodies.
Ready reckoners and transition matrices for key stage 2: 2017: Ready reckoners to calculate progress scores for pupils and schools and key stage 2 transition matrices by key stage 1 prior attainment.
Schools causing concern: Statutory guidance on local authorities' and regional schools commissioners' responsibilities relating to schools and PRUs causing concern.
PE and sport premium: funding allocations for 2017 to 2018: PE and sport premium allocations and conditions of grant for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.
Multiplication tables check trials to begin in schools: Government follows up phonics success with new multiplication tables trial.
Education provision: children under 5 years of age, January 2017: Early years provision for children under 5 years in the local-authority-maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors in England.
GCSE new grading scale: factsheets: Information about the new GCSE grades for parents, employers and further and higher education providers.
Multi-academy trust performance measures: 2016 to 2017 : Statistics on the performance of state-funded schools in multi-academy trusts in England.