Governors
Governing Board Membership Annual Update
We have sent a copy of our current GB membership records to all clerks and have now begun the process of updating the replies you have returned.
Please can we ask all clerks to review the information we have sent and then complete and return the GB Membership form to us so that we can complete the task?
Thank you to Clerks who have already returned their documents!
A Polite Request to Clerks and Chairs
We actively recruit governors for schools throughout Warwickshire and when we receive an application form we will forward it to the Clerk and Chair of a school that the candidate has expressed an interest in supporting.
Please can we ask that either the Clerk to Governors or the Chair of the Governing Board acknowledges receipt of the email and application form and responds to it within two weeks of receipt? If we haven’t received a reply within the two weeks we will assume there are no vacancies and forward the applicant’s details to another school / governing board.
We have recently had examples of schools taking 2 months to reply to either Governor Services or the applicant and we feel this is unfair to the applicant and reflects an unprofessional image of Governance in Warwickshire.
Patch (Area) Meetings 2017-2018
All venues for the 2017 / 2018 Patch (Area) Meetings have now been confirmed:
Autumn Term 2017
Tuesday 7th November - The Stoneleigh Room, Aylesford School and Sixth Form College
Thursday 9th November - 6th Form Centre, Nicholas Chamberlaine School (Bedworth)
Tuesday 14th November - The Ark, Brooke School (Rugby)
Thursday 16th November - The 6th Form Common Room, Stratford School (Stratford Upon Avon)
Spring Term 2018
Tuesday 24th April - The 6th Form Common Room, Stratford School (Stratford Upon Avon)
Thursday 26th April - The Ark, Brooke School (Rugby)
Tuesday 1st May - 6th Form Centre, Nicholas Chamberlaine School (Bedworth)
Thursday 3rd May - The Stoneleigh Room, Aylesford School and Sixth Form College
All meetings start at 7.00pm and finish at 8.30pm.
Governors and Clerks are invited to attend any of the meetings but if you are planning to attend, please contact governors@warwickshire.gov.uk or telephone 01926 745120 to reserve a place.
GIAS (Get Information About Schools) Formerly Edubase
GIAS replaced EduBase on Monday 18th September.
All existing account details (managed through Secure Access) continue to be valid in the new service and provide the same access levels. Guidance is available within the ‘Get information about school system’. Further support is available by completing a Service Request Form.
Analyse School Performance Service – (formerly RAISEonline)
The DfE launched an updated and improved version of ASP in July 2017 as a replacement for the RAISEonline service. The new “Analyse School Performance” service will be a “sister service” to the DfE performance tables.
At the end of September, Key Stage 2 data will be available in ASP – this is provisional data for 2016 / 2017. Breakdowns of data such as disadvantaged pupils will be added at the end of October along with Key Stage 1 and Phonics data for 2017. Provisional Key Stage 4 data will be available towards the end of November.
The service now includes 2017 Question Level Analysis (QLA) and named pupil data for those with appropriate access levels.
QLA data enables primary schools to assess how well their students performed in different areas of the curriculum. It also supports secondary schools in identifying strengths and weaknesses for their year 7 cohorts.
Additional reports have now been added to the service as well as enhancements made to the usability following user feedback and includes improved printing and navigation functions.
Each school, local authority, multi academy trust and diocese ‘should have’ someone already designated as the Secure Access Approver.
A Guide to Getting Started Video has also been released to support the updates.
Safeguarding Update
Free Home Office Training: Prevent & FGM Information
A reminder for all governors, trustees and school staff that free e-learning training on Prevent is available from the Home Office via this link.
A further free online training resource on recognising and preventing female genital mutilation (FGM) is available via the Home Office website via this link.
Section 5B of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (as inserted by section 74 of the Serious Crime Act 2015) places a statutory duty upon teachers along with regulated health and social care professionals in England and Wales, to report to the police where they discover (either through disclosure by the victim or visual evidence) that FGM appears to have been carried out on a girl under 18.
Emergency Adrenaline Auto-Injectors (AAIs) – often known by the brand name ‘EpiPen’
From October 1st 2017, schools are allowed to buy spare adrenaline auto-injectors for use on children with serious allergies in emergencies, following a change in the law. Until now, AAIs could only be obtained on prescription and this could mean that there was no spare in school if the child forgot theirs.
There have been two serious cases over the last year where coroners said that delays in administering adrenaline 'may have' contributed to the deaths of children in school.
To reflect this change the Department of Health have issued guidance to schools.
Run, Hide, Tell: Terrorism advice for young people
Warwickshire Police are supporting the @TerrorismPolice campaign helping young people stay safe if caught in a weapons attack.
More information can be found here.
Browne Jacobson GDPR Webinar
Browne Jacobson, in partnership with the NGA, recently delivered a webinar on the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Whether your school is an academy, a maintained school, or part of a multi-academy trust, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply to you from 25th May 2018.
If you were unable to attend the live webinar you can watch a recording of it here.
PE and Sport Premium for Primary Schools
The DfE has released the PE and sport premium funding amounts for 2017 to 2018 in Primary Schools. Most state primary schools receive this money (for years 1 to 6). Due to the levy on soft drinks, the rate of funding for the PE and sport premium has doubled when compared to 2016.
Schools will now receive £1,000 per pupil (if there are 16 or fewer in a school) or £16,000 (with 17 or more pupils) and an additional £10 per pupil. This money can be used for a range of sporting and exercise activities, but cannot be used to “teach the minimum requirements of the national curriculum” or “employ coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements”.
Click here to find out more
Monitoring and Evaluating the Pupil Premium, PE and Sport Premium
Governing boards and trustees are responsible for ensuring that this money is well spent. As part of a regular monitoring and evaluation schedule all governors should ensure that they know “how effectively leaders use additional funding, including the pupil premium, and measure its impact on outcomes for pupils, and how effectively governors hold them to account for this.” (Effectiveness of Leadership and Management - Ofsted School Inspection Handbook, page 38)
- It would be worthwhile for governors to undertake a value for money exercise to check on the effectiveness of their Pupil Premium funding.
- How is your board ensuring the funding is used to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport offered?
Schools Causing Concern - Statutory Guidance
This statutory guidance, applicable to both maintained schools and academies, was updated in August 2017, to clarify the use of writing data at Key Stage 2 in determining whether a warning notice should be issued to a school. Warning notices can be issued to schools that, although not judged as inadequate by Ofsted or have not met the formal coasting criteria, are still giving Local Authorities or Regional School Commissioners (RSC) / cause for concern.
A warning notice can be issued to schools on two grounds, one of which is Performance Standards and Safety. The August 2017 update clarified that: in 2016 and 2017, if a school's performance at KS2 has dropped below the floor standard, or met the coasting definition, based on performance in Writing alone, the Local Authority or RSC should not intervene or issue a warning notice, except where the extent of the change in performance cannot be explained by the impact of the changes to primary assessment arrangements in these transitional years.
Updated guidance can be viewed here.
Ofsted – News and Updates
School Inspection Update
The new edition of Ofsted’s School Inspection Update provides details of how inspectors are being instructed to approach school performance data.
Ofsted Inspectors have been reminded:
- not to compare results from last year to this for the new GCSEs
- results for GCSEs and A levels have been stable overall and small fluctuations at school level should not be over-interpreted
- to consider whether decisions made by school leaders are in the best interests of pupils
- to use assessment data as a starting point for discussion rather than the only piece of evidence
- not to focus on single measures with small cohorts
- to treat data from Key Stage 2 teacher assessments with caution
Inspectors are also reminded to look out for evidence that schools may be trying to ‘game the system’, for example by entering pupils into qualifications with significant subject overlap or moving pupils to other settings.
Ofsted have reformed their inspection dashboard into a new style Inspection Dashboard Summary Report (IDSR) which focuses on trends in school performance over the previous three years.
Ofsted Inspectors: conflicts of interest policy and procedure
Those who work on behalf of Ofsted must not put themselves in a position where previous employment, personal relationships or private interests conflict, or could be perceived to conflict, with these values. Ofsted’s approach to all potential conflicts, whether real or perceived, is to:
- always disclose
- declare a conflict of interest
- agree arrangements to manage the conflict
- prohibit activity where necessary
To view the Conflicts of Interest policy and procedure click here.
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.