St John's and St Clement's Primary School
St John's and St Clement's Primary School
The meeting began at 7.10pm.
The Clerk took the Chair for the first part of the meeting. Mr Joe Booth was welcomed to the meeting as an observer.
At the Chair's invitation, Revd Richardson led the meeting in an opening prayer.
1.1 Apologies for absence
Governors consented to apologies for absence received from Miss Jefferies and Ms Harding.
1.2 Declarations of interests
No declarations of interest were made.
1.3 Election of Chair (by self - nomination at the meeting)
Governors RESOLVED to elect Elizabeth Toland as Chair and she took over the meeting at this point.
1.4 Election of Vice Chair (by self - nomination at the meeting)
Governors RESOLVED to elect Joe Booth as Vice-Chair on the proviso that he was elected as a parent governor.
1.5 Approval of minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2007
The Minutes of the above meeting were received as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
1.6 Matters arising, not covered elsewhere on the agenda
No matters were arising
2.1 Attendance, membership and vacancies
The Clerk advised that there were no current attendance issues to draw to Governors' attention. The Headteacher advised that a parent governor election was in progress.
2.2 Register of Business Interests
Governors were reminded of the need to file their Register of Business Interests with the school.
2.3 Governor Reports (including Link Governor & Responsible Person Reports)
No governor reports were forthcoming at this stage in the term.
2.4 Reports of exercise of delegated authority, eg Chairs Urgent Action
No delegated authority has been exercised since the last meeting.
2.5 Governors Training and Development
The Clerk reported that the Governors Training and Development programme will be available shortly. Governors noted the SDBE training programme, as well as the forthcoming Southwark programme and RESOLVED to seek appropriate training on safer recruitment, as well as community cohesion. The Clerk agreed to convey this resolution to the Governor Training Co-ordinator.
2.6 Governor Development Service Bulletin
The Clerk reported that the Governors Development Service Bulletin will be available shortly.
2.7 Scheduled reviews/ policy adoption
Governors RESOLVED to:
3.1 Headteacher's written report
The Headteacher's report having been distributed in advance, Mrs Gatliffe drew Governors' attention to key points, providing additional information as appropriate.
The school has been awarded the status of Eco School. Ms Tucker worked with an action group from the School Council on anti-litter and energy saving initiatives and liaised with the gardening club to improve the outside environment. We received Bronze accreditation during the term and are now looking to Silver.
As a result of flooding on the last day of term, the end of term service was held in the (dry) upper hall for Year 5 and 6 pupils and their parents, but pupils in other years missed this occasion.
All staff attended a training day on SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). A 4th member of staff completed a one week course in teaching French at Carcassonne in SW France. All teachers have had some training and resources have been purchased.
Teachers are now beginning to include simple French vocabulary into classes.
Detailed plans were drawn up for the work to the top floor, but the project manager was unable to appoint suitable builders to do this during the summer holiday.
Poor behaviour from a small group of pupils continues to challenge the school and exclusion rates were much higher than usual last term. The use of proactive behaviour management strategies, targeted support and SEAL initiatives should improve this during the Autumn Term. Governors expressed concern over some of the behaviour outlined and RESOLVED to seek training on developing inclusion in a mainstream school, as well as look for appropriate support for classroom teachers in dealing with such incidents.
3.2 Analysis of SATs results
Foundation Stage pupils were assessed using the Foundation Stage Profile. KS1 and KS2 pupils were assessed against National Curriculum levels.
Key Stage 1
| Number of pupils | % | |
| Reading L2+ | 42 | 83 |
| Reading L2B+ | 31 | 60 |
| Writing L2+ | 34 | 64 |
| Writing L2B+ | 24 | 46 |
| Maths L2+ | 44 | 85 |
| Maths L2B+ | 31 | 60 |
Key Stage 2
| L4 | L5 | L4+ | Target | |
| English | 27% | 42% | 69% | 70% |
| Maths | 27% | 27% | 54% | 73% |
| Science | 38% | 35% |
As predicted, the results for Y6 pupils were around 70% for English and Science, meeting the targets we had set for the cohort. However, Maths results were 20% lower than our target. This is an extremely poor result. The Headteacher circulated an analysis of the key factors involved and governors discussed the issue at length.
It was known that targets for the cohort would be difficult to achieve and low results had been expected. There is no one answer, but several factors which combined to cause the Maths result:
Despite a range of interventions and tremendous effort from the teachers involved, there is some evidence that the more support and intervention programmes were put in place the less pupils seemed able to access the teaching.
Governors RESOLVED to request the Standards Committee to undertake a review of the SATS results and report back on key lessons, as well as an action plan.
3.3 Headteacher's Performance Appraisal
Governors RESOLVED to delegate the Headteacher's Performance Appraisal to a panel consisting of Charles Richardson, Harriet Bertram and Pam Jeffries. Governors were reminded that the school needs to use its School Improvement Partner as the external adviser to the governors.
3.4 Target Setting
Governors RESOLVED to delegate target setting to the Standards Committee.
3.5 Link Adviser's most recent report
A recent visit by the Link Adviser had highlighted that the school SEF is regularly updated, judgements are robust and have strong evidence to underpin them.
The school has good proven capacity to improve but the expected rise in standards in 2008 needs to be monitored consistently in the autumn term to ensure the recent falling trends in achievement are reversed.
The school has demonstrated good capacity to improve in the past but the fall in standards is unwelcome. Overall the school has systems that demonstrate good capacity for improvement but the fall in standards needs to be arrested. Based on the level of support required category 2 status is appropriate but this will need to be reviewed early in the autumn term based on the school's analysis of pupils' progress.
Previous minutes are outstanding for the Communications, Finance and Resources and Standards Committees. Governors RESOLVED to provide these to the Clerk by the 16th October 2007.
4.4 Establishment, constitution and membership of Committees and Clerk(s) to committees Link Governors and other posts and appointments
Governors RESOLVED to make the following Committee appointments.
| Communications | Finance & Resources | Standards | Salary | |
| Mr Daniel Barley | x | x | ||
| Ms Harriet Bertram | x | x | ||
| Mr Joe Booth | x | x | ||
| Mrs Barbara Bradford | ||||
| Ms Clare Evans | x | x | ||
| Ms Mary Gatliffe | x | x | x | x |
| Mr Chris Groom | x | x | ||
| Ms Nicole Haastrup | x | |||
| Ms Anne Harding | x | |||
| Miss Pam Jeffries | x | x | ||
| Ms Nikki McKnight | x | x | ||
| Revd Charles Richardson | ||||
| Mrs Jane Smith | x | |||
| Mrs Elizabeth Toland | x | x | x | x |
| Mrs Miranda Wightman | x | x |
Governors RESOLVED to make the following Link Governor appointments.
| Assessment | Chris Groom |
| Creative | Miranda Wightman |
| Early Years | Daniel Barley |
| Equal Opportunities | Nicole Haastrup |
| Finance | Joe Booth |
| Governor Training | Jane Smith |
| ICT | Joe Booth |
| Inclusion | Nikki McKnight |
| Literacy | Mrs Elizabeth Toland |
| Modern Foreign Languages | Miranda Wightman |
| Numeracy | Harriet Bertram |
| PHSE | Vanessa Bowles |
| Safeguarding Children | Pam Jeffries |
| SDBE | Chris Groom |
| SEN | Nikki McKnight |
| Worship | Maria Coulter |
Having declared an interest, governors RESOLVED to appoint the Clerk for a further year.
4.5 Committee Terms of Reference, including review Pay Committee responsibilities
Governors RESOLVED to review Pay Committee responsibilities during the current academic year.
The Clerk reported the following:
No other business was recorded.
Communications
7th November 2007, 4pm
Finance and Resources
15th October 2007, 5.45pm
Standards
8th October 2007, 6.30pm
In-house training for all Governors
12th November or 26th November (TBC), 7-9pm. Inclusion in a mainstream school.
Governing Body
21st January 2008, 12th May 2008
15 Any Confidential items
There were no confidential items.
There being no further matters for consideration, the Chair closed the meeting at 8:45pm
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