Annual Governance Statement

Annual Governance Statement Autumn 2018

Trust GS Tower House, 269 Walmersley Road, Bury BL9 6NX.  Contact: Julie Lawson, Head of Service 0161 348 7188.

Remits for the Committees are available on the school website and upon request. Some committees or named Governors receive specific training to be able to carry out their functions effectively.

Governors attend school events such as: church services, performances, sporting events or to see the children learning in school. Each Governor is assigned to a class and follows the children’s progress throughout the school. This approach allows Governors to get to know the children’s journey from Nursery through to leaving us for secondary school.  

TRAINING UNDERTAKEN BY GOVERNORS Sept 2017 – Sept 2018

During the academic year Governors have attended training sessions run by Trafford Governor Services, training sessions held at school and e-learning modules. When considering the skills and training Governors require, particular attention is given to three core strategic functions of the Board of Governors:

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

The following training has been undertaken:

• Employment law for Governors
• Human Resources
• Safer Recruitment in Education
• The role of the Safe Guarding Governor
• Curriculum issues
• Joint staff and Governor training to Review of the Mission Statement
• Introduction to safeguarding and child protection
• Prevent
• Safeguarding and school governance

This has been a busy year for the Board of Governors as we strive to continue to support the work of the school. We have worked together in our strategic role:

• to ensure pupils enjoy school, feel valued and part of the school community
• to ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• to ensure pupil attainment is monitored and maximised
• to oversee and approve the school’s budget
• to ensure the staff are supported as needed
• to approve policies and procedures
• to oversee admissions of Reception pupils
• to attend school events such as the termly Church services and pupils’ performances.

By carrying out the strategic, monitoring role the Board are enabling the senior leadership team to focus on the day to day running of the school.

Much of our work centres on the governors’ own development plan and that of the school.

In line with this, we have considered our roles and the experience, knowledge and skills we individually bring to the Board, ensuring there are no gaps that could have affected our efficient governance of the school. We continued to identify suitable training and were able to attend training sessions provided by Trafford Governor Services and through an online training portal.  Following changes within Trafford Council we have also bought into an independent training and clerking service and we look forward to working with them.  Most of us attend at least three or four training sessions each year.

In order to ensure all governors can enhance their governance and leadership skills, we continue to look at the membership of committees and have ensured that there are different chairs and vice chairs on each one. This helps us to ensure there is appropriate succession planning in place should vacancies arise. We have also been looking at the number of committees and their functions and are planning to restructure our committees to ensure we are able to efficiently undertake our functions.

We were delighted to see the completion of the refurbishment of the outdoor play apparatus for the junior children, and loved seeing the photographs on our closed Twitter group.

As part of a very successful Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools inspection process, some of us met with the inspector to give an account of how truly outstanding our school is. We were grateful too for the comments parents and pupils made and for the way our staff demonstrated their skills and knowledge. It was a team effort with a fantastic result. It is rewarding to see the way the whole school have adopted and embraced our Christian Values and we like to see the display of how the children respond to these each half term.

Each governor is assigned to a different year group or Angels afterschool and breakfast club and we endeavour to meet our class at least once each year as they progress through school, and to attend their class worship as well as other events in school.

We continue to review policies and procedures to ensure that these are fit for purpose and meet not only our legal responsibilities but also our vision and aims for the school and our pupils. The whole Board spent time working with staff and an advisor on updating our vision.

Due to the difficult financial climate we find ourselves in, we continue to closely monitor the school budget to ensure the school can cope with reduced funding and rising costs. This has a constant challenge and we have had to make some hard decisions but we are pleased to report staffing levels and resources have not suffered as a result. This means that the children's learning and development will continue to be of the highest standard.  We continue to be grateful to the PTA for the fantastic support they give the school in terms of fund raising, resources, time and commitment. It is reassuring too that our breakfast and after school clubs are so popular and provide a vital and comparatively inexpensive service to many parents.

We have said goodbye to a long standing member of staff, Mrs Heaton. She has worked hard to support individuals and groups of pupils over many years. Mrs Heaton is also a Governor and we are very pleased that she will be continuing her links with the school in this role.

The school has achieved most of this year’s School Development Plan (SDP), including:

• Distinctiveness Plan: Introduce new Diocesan RE scheme and assessment
• English writing: Revise EYFS outdoor writing provision, KS1 curriculum & KS2 assessment

Items for the SDP 2017/18 include:

• Curriculum: Enhance cross-curricular links
• English reading: Revise and enhance current school reading strategy
• Distinctiveness Plan: Introduce two year rolling RE scheme

The school has achieved most of this year’s School Development Plan (SDP), including:

• Reorganise KS1 topics, English and mathematics lessons to assist NC coverage
• Introduce NASSEA assessment of EAL pupils and enhance EAL provision
• Further develop children’s leadership opportunities
• Distinctiveness Plan

Items for the SDP 2016/17 include:

• Distinctiveness Plan: Introduce new Diocesan RE scheme and assessment
• English writing: Revise EYFS outdoor writing provision, KS1 curriculum & KS2 assessment

The Full Board of Governors meets termly. The Finance Committee meets at least termly.  The Admissions Committee meet after the closing date for admissions to school and prior to any consultation period where a change to the admissions criteria is considered.   Other committees meet as required.