Governing Board Membership Annual Update

Thank you to all clerks / colleagues who have returned their Annual Governing Board Membership document, we have begun to update the records we hold with the information provided.

We are still waiting for a number of forms to be returned and will be in touch with individual clerks to ‘chase them up’ if we haven’t received their annual return by the end of November.

We know that the autumn term brings a high volume of membership changes and many boards will also be electing or re-electing their Chairs and Vice Chairs. Please can all clerks ensure that they inform Governor Services of any changes (this especially includes any governor resignations, new appointments and reappointments) promptly so that our database can be updated with your changes? 

Training and Support

Below is a list of the training offered by Warwickshire Governor Services for the rest of the Autumn Term. Email gailevans@warwickshire.gov.uk if you would like to enquire or make a booking:

Finance (part 1) – Intro to Budget Planning & Monitoring
Thurs 23rd November 2017
Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bedworth
1900 – 2100

Effective Classroom visits
Mon 27th November 2017
Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bedworth
1900 – 2100

Health & Safety – For all Academies, Vol aided & foundation schools
Wed 29th November 2017
Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bedworth
1900 – 2100

Leading Governance in Schools
Thurs 30th November 2017
Pound Lane Learning Centre, Leamington Spa
0930 – 1630

Finance (part 2) – Budget Management – a closer look
Thurs 30th November 2017
Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bedworth
1900 – 2100

Effective governance in the Early Years & Foundation stage
Mon 4th December 2017
Stratford High School
1900 – 2100

Handling Complaints
Wed 6th December 2017
Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bedworth
1900 – 2100

Induction: the effective governance of schools
Thurs 7th December 2017
Stratford College
0930 - 1630

Governor Services can also offer in-house training - get in touch at the email above for details.

Please note that all in-house training requests must be received by 31st December 2017 (maintained schools) and 31st March 2018 (academies).

Keeping informed about local / national developments

There are many ways for you to keep updated about developments that may have an impact on your role as a governor and on your governing board.

Governor Services signed up for updates from the DfE and up until the October half term holiday were continuing to update GovernorHub with alerts received.  However, this is also duplicating the information that GovernorHub provide so from this term we will continue to update GovernorHub with statutory information and suggest that one member of your governing board sign up for weekly updates from the DfE and shares them with other governors.

You can sign up for weekly updates from the DfE using this link and for updates from the National Governors’ Association here

‘Questions for Governors’

In partnership with the International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby and with input from the NGA the Wellcome Trust has launched a “Questions for Governors” online resource.

This free resource gives governors and trustees a set of challenging strategic questions, benchmarks to compare their school with others, and links to resources and ideas for further improvement. You can access the questions by clicking here.

Supporting Mental Health in Schools

Overall, it is estimated that one in ten children and young people have a diagnosable mental disorder – the equivalent of three pupils in every classroom across the country. Therefore schools are a vital part of a wider systems approach to promoting positive mental wellbeing and preventing mental illness in children and young people (CYP).

You can click here to view the research and analysis documents “Supporting mental health in schools and colleges.”

Some questions that governing boards could consider are:

• How does our school understand their role in supporting pupils’ mental health?
• What does our school do to promote positive mental health and wellbeing among their pupils?
• How does our school identify pupils with particular mental health needs?
• What support does our school offer for pupils with identified needs?
• How does our school fund their provision?
• What plans and policies are in place to support mental health provision?
• How does our school work with external services to support pupils’ mental health?
• What challenges does our school face?

 

Ofsted updates for Governors

Ofsted Strategy: 2017 to 2022

Ofsted sets out its corporate strategy, with a summary of their:

• core values
• strategic approaches
• areas of work
• evaluation metrics.

This new five year strategy is based around the principle of being “a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation”.

Please click here to download a copy of the report.

Inspection handbooks updated

On 13 October 2017, Ofsted published an updated version of its School Inspection Handbook, and its myth busting document for schools.

School Inspection Handbook

Ofsted has also updated its handbook for short inspections

Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education, referred to changes to Ofsted’s inspection handbooks in the September 2017 edition of Ofsted’s inspection newsletter. His message assures that “none of the changes means [Ofsted is] inspecting anything additional or new”.

New CIF planned for 2019

Ofsted's July 2017 school inspection update provides information on the future of the Common Inspection Framework (CIF). It says that the current CIF will now be in place until September 2019, rather than August 2017 as originally planned.

Ofsted says it plans to launch a new CIF in September 2019.

Getting Ready for your Ofsted Inspection

To help prepare for an Ofsted Inspection governors can watch a number of videos featuring Belita Scott, Ofsted’s National Lead for Governance.

In the short clips she talks about governors’ experience of the Ofsted inspection.

The videos cover:

• What questions governors might be asked by inspectors (4 mins)
• What governors can expect at inspection (1.36 mins)
• Governors in the final feedback session (1.38 mins)

To view the videos, click here

 

Updated Exclusion Guidance for Schools

Just a reminder that the statutory guidance ‘Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England’ was updated in July 2017.

Please ensure you are familiar with the Governing Boards role (pages 16—26). Click here to download a copy.

Vacancies on Schools Forum

There are currently two vacancies on the Schools Forum for:

• a secondary maintained representative - open to a head teacher or governor 
• an academy representative - open to a head teacher or governor 

If you would like to be considered for either of the vacant positions please complete the nomination form and email this to helencolvin@warwickshire.gov.uk by 12 noon on Friday 17 November 2017.

Academy Nomination Form

Secondary Maintained Nomination Form

If more than one person is nominated for each position then the nominee with the highest number of votes will be elected.

The next meeting of Schools Forum will be held at 1pm on Friday 01 December 2017 in Northgate House Conference Room, Northgate House, Warwick.

Papers will be uploaded to the Schools Forum webpage one week before the meeting.

 

Further information about Schools Forum

Members will be appointed to the Schools Forum for a 1 year period; elections are held in May each year. 

The Schools Forum will meet at least four times in an academic year.  

Any member of the Forum may ask for items to be placed on the agenda by writing to the Finance Manager (Resources and Schools).

Agendas and papers to be considered by the Forum will be sent out five working days in advance of the meeting.  Late items may be considered at the discretion of the Chair.  Draft minutes will be circulated within 10 working days of the meeting.

Substitute representatives (for any voting member) may attend meetings if the appointed representative is unable to attend. Substitutes will be able to vote on behalf of the member they are representing. However, attendance of appointed representatives is strongly encouraged.

Substitutes for ‘schools’ representatives can be another Headteacher or senior member of staff, that is a Deputy Headteacher, Assistant Headteacher, Bursar or person responsible for the financial management of a school.

Meetings of the Schools Forum will be open to members of the public who may observe but not take part.  The Forum may move into private session for confidential items, which, for example identify individuals or individual schools, at the discretion of the Chair. 

Preventing and Tackling Bullying

The Department for Education has issued updated guidance for schools on preventing and responding to bullying. The updated guidance, ‘Preventing and Tackling Bullying’ includes additional information on how schools can support children and young people who are bullied. It can be downloaded at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying

The guidance applies to all schools.

The Education and Inspections Act 2006 provides that maintained schools must have measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. These measures should be part of the school’s behaviour policy which must be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents.

The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 provides that academy trusts ensure that bullying at the school is prevented in so far as reasonably practicable, by drawing up and implementing an effective anti-bullying strategy.

Regardless of how a school chooses to define bullying for the purposes of its own behaviour policy, it must be clearly communicated and understood by pupils, parents, and staff.

Prevent Training – Channel General Awareness

The National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies (NCALT) are offering free e-learning which includes information on how ‘Channel’ links to the government’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) through the Prevent strategy.

‘Channel’ is a programme whereby people who are assessed as being vulnerable to supporting violent extremism are provided with multi-agency support.

It provides guidance on how to identify people who may be vulnerable to radicalisation and how to refer them into the Channel programme. There are also case studies to help you understand the process of identifying and referring vulnerable individuals.

The training takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and a certificate can be printed off at the end to show that governors have completed the training.

You can access the e-learning by clicking on the following link: http://course.ncalt.com/channel_General_Awareness/01/index.html

 

NGA Learning Link Information

The NGA Learning Link replaces the GEL system that we have offered as part of an additional service to schools.

All previous GEL users should now have been migrated onto the Learning Link system if this hasn’t happened, please contact the NGA so that they can investigate and arrange for you to be added to the system.

All governors at schools who subscribe to Learning Link can sign up via the Learning Link self-registration page if they aren’t already registered.

 

Schools Financial Benchmarking

In September, Guidance for Governors regarding “Schools financial efficiency: the role of the school governor” was updated.  A copy of the guidance can be viewed here. 

In addition to this the DfE’s Schools financial benchmarking site has been updated and improved. The site will enable maintained schools and academies to compare their performance data and spending levels with schools that share similar characteristics such as:

• pupil numbers
• school phase/type
• proportion of pupils with special educational needs
• proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals
• proportion of pupils with English as an additional language

The site is part of the DfE’s wider Schools Financial Health and Efficiency pages and supports school governors and academy trustees in ensuring schools manage their finances efficiently.

 

New GCSE Webpage

The DfE has launched a new GCSE webpage which provides information for students, parents, employers and those who work in education.

For more information visit: https://newgcses.campaign.gov.uk