Statement from the Chair of Governors - September 2020
Governors play a vital role in the Springfield Community. Formally, we have three key roles: strategic input to support Mrs Chard in her leadership role for Springfield; a focus on the attainment and progress of all children, ensuring that education and learning meet the needs of all; and finally oversight over the efficient and effective use of financial and other resources. Most importantly, we agree the annual budget for the School and thus have a direct influence over what the resources are spent on.
Springfield Governors have a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills that we use to support school. We have a formal constitution and the board is made up of representatives from parents (3), the head teacher (1), staff (1) and the local authority (1), who are working together with our co-opted governors (7), all acting in the interest of Springfield. None of the Governors can act on their own, not does any Governor represent a particular point of view or group within Springfield. There is a total of 13 Governors on our Board.
We meet four times a year and have three committees to support our work. The committees mirror our roles, covering Finance and Asset Management; School Effectiveness (pupil progress) and Staffing, Teaching and Learning. The Committees meet more often and allow individual governors to develop areas of expertise and/or use their skills and experience. To support the delivery of the School Development Plan, we pair up to develop expertise on curriculum development; SEND and pupil premium; Early Years Foundation Stage; Safeguarding and Data. Throughout the year, we will tell you about we do through the Governors’ Corner in the Monthly Mention.
So please check regularly for updated information. You can contact me and the Governors via Mrs Chard and/or the School Office.
Cllr Mike Freeman
Chair of Governors
September 2020
ANNUAL STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS 2020
SPRINGFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL
THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS
The composition of the Board of Governors is set out below.
Following the reconstitution of the Board in July 2019, we have 13 Governors. This allows us to bring together a strong and focused Board, with the necessary skills, experience and passion for Springfield to support the school in its expansion to the 3-form entry across all year groups.
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SPRINGFIELD GOVERNORS 2019/20 |
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GOVERNOR |
OFFICE |
TYPE |
TERM OF OFFICE – ENDS |
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Alison Chard |
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Head teacher |
N/A |
|
Mike Freeman |
Chair of Governors |
LA |
19.03.23 |
|
Susannah Sutton |
|
Co-opted |
Ended 04.10.19 |
|
Lesley Dowdall |
Chair FAM |
Co-opted |
22.09.23 |
|
Barbara Sharp |
Chair SE |
Co-opted |
22.03.24 |
|
Tracey Sutton |
Chair of STL |
Co-opted |
25.09.21 |
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Marzita Abdul Rahman |
|
Co-opted |
25.09.24 |
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Jenny Sykes |
|
Co-opted |
19.03.23 |
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Alexandria Flowers |
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Co-opted |
24.09.23 |
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Lee Egerton |
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Parent |
Ended 04.01.20 |
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Jennie Brown |
|
Staff |
09.11.20 |
|
Andrew Rainford |
|
Parent |
06.12.20 |
|
Clare Bruce |
|
Parent |
24.02.24 |
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Thomas DeBost Amy Pritchard |
|
Parent Co-opted |
31.10.21 23.03.24 |
Our Board meets four times a year, once as an Annual General Meeting in October and three times as normal business meetings. The AGM deals with procedural matters: review of the committee remits and their membership, agreement to financial delegations and review of our code of conduct. The business meetings focus on progressing strategic matters, including discussion of a termly report from the Head teacher. We also consider reports from Trafford such as admissions, SLAs and government guidance. Much of our day-to-day business is delegated to the individual Committees, which allows governors to discuss and analyse trends, policies, issues and developments in more detail. These are reported formally to the full Board via their minutes.
To support our work, we have an annual meeting of the Chair, Vice Chair, the Committee Chairs and Mrs Chard to discuss progress, areas for improvement and succession planning. This discussion feed into the annual Governor Action Plan, approved at the AGM. The Chair and head teacher also meet formally once a month to retain a high-level overview of developments across School and Governor Committees.
As Governors, we are actively involved in the school outside the Committees and the Board. We have a long-standing tradition of link governors, governor involvement in working parties and participation in many, if not all, school events. We also report back to the wider school community via the Monthly Mention, the School Newsletter.
All Governors’ personal profiles are on the School website as part of the dedicated governor section.
BOARD PRIORITIES
For 2019-20, we are set to agree our annual Action Plan and will use this as our tool to measure progress on governance priorities through the year.
We also set priorities for each committee at their first meetings, reporting back on these via committee minutes to the whole Board. This has focused the work of the committees and also led us to a discussion on how we better use the Link Governor role to embed and secure continuity of knowledge within the Board. From September 2019 we have revised the structure of our Link Governors to ensure knowledge is better embedded within the Board. This new approach also reflects our emphasis on good governance.
For 2019/20, we have now agreed the following specific priorities
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Whole Board |
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Staffing, Teaching and Learning |
Finance and Asset Management |
School Effectiveness |
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COMMITTEES
We have three formal sub committees of the Board. The list below sets out membership and who chairs the committees for 2019/20 decided at the AGM. These meet throughout the year and report formally, via their minutes, to the Board of Governors. Committees are where the more detailed scrutiny takes place, with Governors being able to look at the detail of policies, information provided by Mrs Chard and discuss new initiatives. The School provides clerking support to all our committees. Remits for the Committees are available on request from the School and are included in our Governors’ Manual.
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FINANCE & ASSET MANAGEMENT (FAM) |
SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS (SE) |
STAFFING, TEACHING AND LEARNING (STL) |
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Lesley Dowdall (Chair) |
Barbara Sharp (Chair) |
Tracey Sutton (Chair) |
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Andy Rainford |
Jennie Brown |
Alex Flowers |
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Mike Freeman |
Marzita Abdul-Rahman |
Susannah Sutton |
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Jenny Sykes |
Clare Bruce |
Thomas DeBost |
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Alison Chard |
Alison Chard |
Alison Chard |
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Phil Lynch (Facilities Manager – Observer) |
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We also have a Head Teacher Performance Governors’ Panel; a formal Pay Review Sub-committee, which considers the annual pay recommendations, if any, for staff and the Head teacher; a Disciplinary and Grievance Panel; an Appeals (Pay and Disciplinary) Panel; and a Pupil Discipline Panel.
CALENDAR OF MEETINGS 2020/21
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Term |
Board Meeting |
Finance & Asset Management (FAM) |
School Effectiveness (SE) |
Staffing, Teaching and Learning (STL) |
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Autumn |
21 September 16 November |
5 October 7 December |
19 October
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19 October 30 November |
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Spring |
22 March
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1 February 8 April |
15 March |
18 January 15 March |
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Summer |
21 June |
17 May 28 June |
12 July |
10 May 12 July |
ATTENNDANCE AT BOARD MEETINGS 2019/20
The Attendance at the Board is very good, with all our Board members able to commit the time to these important meetings, which happen 4 times a year.
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GOVERNOR |
Attendance |
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Alison Chard |
3/4 |
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Mike Freeman |
4/4 |
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Alex Flowers |
4/4 |
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Lesley Dowdall |
4/4 |
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Barbara Sharp |
4/4 |
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Tracey Sutton |
3/4 |
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Marzita Abdul Rahman |
3/4 |
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Jenny Sykes |
3/4 |
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Clare Bruce |
2/2 |
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Jennie Brown |
4/4 |
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Andrew Rainford |
4/4 |
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Thomas DeBost |
2/4 |
| Amy Pritchard | 1/2 |
CODE OF CONDUCT & EXPECTATIONS
We have a formal Code of Conduct, which is reviewed and agreed annually by the Board of Governors.
This sets our expectations of what a Springfield Governor aspires to: supporting the school in its pursuit of the delivering the best education possible for all our children, supporting the head teacher and overseeing the budgets in a professional and sound manner.
CONTACT AND CLERKING
The Chair of Governors can be contacted via Mrs Chard, the Head teacher on 0161 973 4149.
Clerking is provided by Judicium Education, 72 Cannon Street London EC4N 6AE
T: 020 7336 8403 F: 020 7248 2692
REGISTER OF BUSINESS INTERESTS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS
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Governor Name |
Business Interest |
Other establishments governed |
Relationships with staff / governors |
Date |
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Alison Chard |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Marzita Abdul Rahman |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
| Jenny Sykes | Employed by a Cheshire Secondary School | None | None | 23.9.19 |
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Jennie Brown |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Lesley Dowdall |
Employed by a Manchester Secondary School |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Lee Egerton |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Mike Freeman |
NONE |
Councillor for Sale Moor Ward and Exec Member for Public Safety, Governance and Reform Trafford Council |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Andrew Rainford |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
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Barbara Sharp |
Vicar at St Paul's Church, Sale |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
| Thomas Debost | NONE | NONE | NONE | 23.9.19 |
| Natalie Torrance | NONE | NONE | NONE | 23.9.19 |
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Susannah Sutton |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
| Alex Flowers | Employed by a Trafford secondary School | NONE | NONE | 23.9.19 |
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Tracey Sutton |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
23.9.19 |
Springfield Primary School
Annual Governor Impact Statement 2018/19
Purpose
The Annual Governor Impact Statement is an opportunity for the Board to reflect on the work it has achieved over the past academic year and a way to communicate this to staff, parents and stakeholders. It will also form the basis of next year’s Governor Action Plan.
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Activity - Intent (What did we do?) |
Purpose - Implement (Why did we do it?) |
Impact (What was the benefit of the activity?) |
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Updated the Vision and Values for the School and Board of Governors |
To enrich an already positive school ethos |
Fully integrated with staff and pupils to ensure consistent use of language and rewards |
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Appointed a new Chair of Governors and Chairs of Committees |
Annual election of the Chair of the Board and Chairs of Committees is a statutory requirement. |
Supporting the succession of governors into Chair roles ensures that there is overall leadership capacity amongst the Governing Body and there will continue to be rotation of roles in coming years. |
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Appointed a Headteacher’s PA & Clerk to the Board of Governors |
To provide a professional clerking service to enhance board effectiveness |
Relieve increasing admin pressure from the existing admin team and provide a centralised support system for Governors. Governors robust questioning (as evidenced in the Full Governing Body / Committee minutes) and analyzing of data trends, ensures action plans are focused on the key result areas. |
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Appointment of new Governors |
To ensure a full complement in accordance with the Instrument of Government |
New Governors have brought different skills to the diversity of the board – including School Finance expertise and curriculum |
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Review the management structure |
Year Group Team Leaders appointed to support continued effectiveness of a 3 form entry school |
Impact will be seen from Sept 2019 |
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Appointment of STAR Club Manager |
A more customer service focussed and management role was required to provide excellent service to the growing service |
A more professional efficient service is provided with increasing numbers of pupils attending and generating significant income for the school. |
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Agreed a balanced budget or 2019/20 |
Careful monitoring by the School and Board to ensure long term financial success |
A healthy surplus budget was carried forward and a 3-year budget plan is in pace. |
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SFVS |
Statutory requirement for maintained schools to complete annually |
Previous year’s recommendations actioned. |
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Revise the Link Governors roles for key areas |
To align the Link Governors to support the Board and committees, utilising governor skills & experience |
Reorganisation of roles in preparation for the new Ofsted Framework |
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School Website |
To ensure information is kept upto date with relevant information |
The website is becoming a centralised location for all important resources for parents such as After School club activities and booking forms and school Policies |
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Subject Leader Reports presented to the board |
To ensure Governors have an overview of the curriculum areas and aware of resources required |
Governors are informed about how the curriculum is taught across school and this is reinforced by Governor Link visits |
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Headteacher’s Performance Review |
To ensure that the Headteacher is effectively managing the school and completing targets set |
Headteacher’s targets are set on an annual basis and are reviewed regularly. Quality assurance arrangements are in place to ensure performance management targets are linked with those for school improvement, school self-evaluation and the school development plan. |
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Equalities Objectives |
We have reviewed our Equality Scheme and now have four new objectives, aligned them with our school development plan and purchased additional resources to support children’s understanding of this important area to develop a zero tolerance approach to inequality |
All staff are required to demonstrate, through their teaching, they are clear about how our Equality Objectives feed into the curriculum. Equality Objectives in practice to be focus for governor monitoring 2019/20 |
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Pupil Premium Report |
To demonstrate how Pupil Premium Funding is spent |
A comprehensive report of spend was reviewed by Governors and uploaded onto the website |
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Sports Premium Report |
To demonstrate how Sport Premium funding is spent |
A comprehensive report of spend was reviewed by Governors and uploaded onto the website |
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Performance Data |
New assessment tracking tools implemented |
Governors are clear on the strength areas of the school and able to monitor areas of weakness |
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Attendance Data |
Governors are provided with termly attendance figures |
Governors are aware of the attendance figures and the mechanisms in place for monitoring and increasing attendance. |
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Governors Corner |
Governors Corner established on the newsletter to raise the visibility of the Board |
Parents are kept upto date on the work of the Governors and their visits to School. |
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Source a Data Protection Officer |
Statutory Responsibility. Judicium Education SLA arranged – all policies devised and training provided to Governors and Staff |
A new chair and vice chair of the Governing Board, and new chairs of the Teaching & Learning and Pay Committee. |
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Parent Consultation Meetings |
To ensure parents are regularly consulted and their opinions and ideas are taken into account |
STL Committee to consider developing a Parent Council and increase parental engagement with Governors |
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Reorganisation of Board |
To allow the Board to retain Governors and fill the LA vacancy. A member of staff was appointed as an Associate Member to ensure staff representation on the Board to cover the Staff Governor’s Maternity leave |
Staff representation has been achieved where it would otherwise have been absent. |
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Meet the Governors session held for school staff |
To make the Board more transparent to school staff |
A networking session for staff and governors to find out more about each others roles and how we can work together to benefit the school |
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Update the Governor Induction Process and Pack |
To promote effective governance through providing new Governors with explicit expectations of the role and knowledge of governance arrangements |
Ensures Governors are aware of their statutory responsibilities. Enables new Governors to quickly get to know the school and be able to hit the ground running |
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Review the Instrument of Government |
Decision to reduce the number of co-opted governors due to permanent vacancies and the board running effectively without more members |
Governors feel a more cohesive board of committed Governors is achieved. |
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Agreeing policies and procedures |
A policy schedule is in place to ensure Governors review policies in accordance with statutory requirements. |
Governors have undertaken a comprehensive review of policies and procedures. Specific attention has been paid to ensure that the school complies with the Department of Education mandatory policy list and the Local Authority recommended list. |
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Parents, Pupils, and staff feedback |
A meet the governors session was held with staff and parent questionnaires and parent consultation meeting were shared with governors |
Governors review all pupil, staff and parental feedback submitted via pupil voice, questionnaires and direct engagement for example at key events such as Parents’ Evenings. |