Governors' Forum and Long Service Awards Presentation
Nigel Minns presented Long Service Awards to Governors who have supported schools in Warwickshire for 20 years. Following the presentation attendees moved to the Council Chamber for the Summer Forum meeting.
Nigel opened the Forum with his thoughts on “The Educational Landscape” and “Where are we now?” although he made us aware that our meeting was the day before the Queen’s Speech and we would all need to wait and see what the government’s legislative programme for the next two years would be. We listened to his presentation and thoughts on The Manifesto, School Improvement Funding, Strategic School Improvement Fund and the Local Authority Involvement in MATs. Governors were given the opportunity to question Nigel and discussions took place.
Nigel handed over to Hayley McDonagh (Manager for Safeguarding and Intervention) and Hayley began by congratulating schools and governors on their performance. According to Ofsted official statistics Warwickshire now has 90% good or better schools - up from 89% last quarter and up from 82% in March 2015!
She explained the role of the Learning Improvement Officers and how they would be supporting schools in the future before giving a detailed presentation on the Framework for School Led School Improvement. Hayley discussed each stage and section of the framework triangle to enable governors to understand the process and who was involved. Governors were given the opportunity to question Hayley and to comment on the process.
Hayley handed over to Vince Quayle (Manager of Governor Services) on Evolving Governance and Vince gave governors an update on the national governance picture and comments from recent Ofsted reports. Vince reminded governors on the importance of strategic governance and asked governors to question whether their governing body was holding the school to account. Vince updated governors on Warwickshire Governance Highlights which included training and recruitment activity and he ended the presentation by giving governors an opportunity to ask questions.
Feedback following the Forum has been very positive and we would like to thank everyone for giving up their time to attend the event.