Dallam Community Primary School

Annual Governance Statement September 2017

The Governing body of Dallam Community Primary School comprises the following governors.

• ·   Head teacher – Mrs Louise Atkin
• ·   Chair of Governors – Mr Ray Fleming
• ·   Vice Chair – Mrs Adele Barrow
• ·   2 parent governors – Mrs Stephanie Lee and Mr Nick Williams
• ·   1 staff governor – Mr Geoff Boulter
• ·   1 Local Authority governor  - Mrs Donna Kendal
• ·   Co-opted governors – Mrs Amanda Downey, Mr John Littler, Mrs Dawn Lane, Mrs Mary Cummings and 1 vacancy.

During the summer term a full skills matrix has been completed and the result in September will be the recruitment of 2 new governors with the necessary skills to enhance the school governance structure.

For a full list of Governors please follow the link at the bottom of the page – this will be updated as our new governor is appointed.

Core Functions

The Governing Body has 3 core functions:

• ·   Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos, values and strategic direction;
• ·   Holding the Head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
• ·   Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Our Headteacher was appointed in July 2013 and in the last 4 years has revised and strengthened our Senior Leadership Team to support and empower staff to create a cohesive community of excellence in our school. We know through the evidence that is provided that developing Leadership and Management of the school will drive high quality Teaching and Learning and that this is core to the process of becoming an outstanding school.

The school’s last OFSTED inspection in 2013 judged the school to be ‘Good’ in all areas. A review of teaching and learning in November 2016 showed that the school remains ‘Good in most areas but is ‘Outstanding’ in others. It gives the Governors great pleasure to see how the leadership team led by Mrs Atkin has delivered these improvements. It also gives the Governors confidence that over the coming years we will continue to improve the progress and attainment for our children as we continue to develop in our work and practice.

Governors commissioned a review of teaching and learning for in November 2016 and this was to monitor the impact of the school development plan to date and to identify any further areas for improvement. The conclusion was a quote as follows:

“The quality of teaching was evident through observations and the work scrutiny reflects high quality teaching from hardworking professional staff, which would lead to a judgement of Good or Outstanding overall and this is very much supported by outstanding personal development of and attitudes from pupils. “

Governors are an integral part of school Leadership and together with the Senior Leadership Team; we have helped develop the school strategy and development priorities.  We have strengthened our own systems to support improved monitoring.

This has happened through well attended termly Full Governing Body meetings and regular committee meetings. In addition each Governor now establishes an understanding of school management, curriculum and learning through individual visits to meet staff and observe lessons and other activities. We have recruited a Headteacher from another primary school and this enables us to analysis the data to a level that has never been experienced before.

We hold an annual ‘away day’ during which we review our effectiveness as a Governing Body and revise our structure in line with the core functions and our school development priorities. In 2017/18 the number of our committees will be maintained at 3 and will have the following structure: Resources Committee, Standards Committee 1 (focus on data, pupil attainment and progress) and Standards Committee 2 (focus on curriculum, teaching & learning).

Each committee has Terms of Reference and a cycle of business. Minutes are made available to full governing body termly.

The minutes of the Full Governing Body are available by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

From time to time highly confidential matters are discussed and these take place during Part 2 of the agenda.

All Governors sign a Code of Conduct annually together with a declaration of pecuniary interests.

Effectiveness and Impact

The Governing Body sets out the 5 year vision for the school and consistently challenges itself on how the work it is doing helps to develop the quality of teaching, learning and progress for the children. We question the school on its priorities, targets and action plans contained in the School Development Plan. Governors question what impact these actions have achieved and how will any shortfall be corrected to achieve targets set within our vision.

A good example is the use of Singapore maths to support improvement in understanding mathematical concepts and therefore attainment. When this was put forward by the SLT to achieve a strong mathematical foundation for all children, the Governors agreed to the expenditure. The roll out of Singapore maths has started with development opportunities for staff which have then seen a real impact in KS1. Governors will continue to monitor the impact of the scheme through pupil progress data and monitoring visits to school.

Governors have continued to strengthen their engagement with parents and the school community by supporting events and making themselves available at ‘Parents Evenings’.

Over the last 3 years, the governing body have been actively engaging with the developers and other stakeholders that are delivering the Dallam regeneration project. The governing body have challenged the local authority in seeking a more child friendly approach to the school on Boulting Avenue, but unfortunately we have had limited success and we have only secured a small number of car parking spaces on the new road opposite the school gates. However we continue to act as a key player and whilst we are losing some excess land at the rear of the school we have worked relentlessly so the final outcome for the community of Dallam and the school will be the best that can be achieved.  We are all very excited by the plans to redevelop our outside areas during the next school year.

During the last 2 years the governing body alongside the senior leadership team have been actively investigating the academy agenda and we are making progress in this area of change. We are sure 2017/2018 will bring the agenda closer to home, so we promise to keep all of our stakeholders up to date with any change that may happen.

In 2017/18 governors will continue to support the development of skills available across the governing body in line with our self-assessment. In addition we will welcome and support new governors as they join us through the year, by aligning our training budget with development priorities and skills analysis.

Conclusion

The Governors are pleased to report to all parents, carers, friends and staff that progress through 2016/17 has continued to build on the school’s excellent foundation.

If you are interested in becoming a Governor, please contact our Chair of Governors Ray Fleming on the below contact details.

Email address:  ray.fleming@yourhousinggroup.co.uk

Contact number: 07776 255095

Alternativlty you can email our business manager Donna Kendal for more information on the below email address.

Email address: boldclustermanager@warrington.gov.uk