Annual Governance Statement for
The Kingsbridge Community Primary School Board of Governors
September 2018
In accordance with the Government’s requirement for all governing bodies, the core strategic functions of the Kingsbridge Community Primary School Board of Governors are:
Establishing the strategic direction, by:
- Setting and ensuring clarity of vision, values, and objectives for the Federation
- Agreeing the school improvement strategy with priorities and targets
- Meeting statutory duties
Ensuring accountability, by:
- Appointing Headteacher
- Monitoring the educational performance of the school/s and progress towards agreed targets
- Performance managing the Headteacher (where delegated)
- Engaging with stakeholders
- Contributing to school self-evaluation
Overseeing financial performance, by:
- Setting the budget
- Monitoring spending against the budget
- Ensuring money is well spent and value for money is obtained
- Ensuring risks to the Federation are managed
The Work achieved by the Board of Governors in the Academic Year 2017 - 2018
The Board of Governors had a challenging year:
- A Governor Audit was conducted by a representative from Babcock on behalf of Devon County Council. This resulted in the production and implementation of an action plan to improve Governance
- The Governors worked tirelessly to support the Acting Headteacher to raise standards across the school, focusing specifically on improving areas highlighted in the Ofsted Report (April 2017) i.e. Improving the consistency of Teaching and Learning, continuing to improve outcomes for children – particularly the disadvantaged and developing Leadership and Management with in the school through increased monitoring and challenge.
- The School’s budget was approved and we were pleased to report the school is in a healthy financial position.
- The School continued to be a part of the South Devon Primary Partnership. For a short period, the Acting Headteacher was supported by an experienced Headteacher from the partnership. This has enabled the school to make rapid progress towards securing a “Good” judgement at the next inspection
- The board continued to make attendance a high priority. The monitoring of attendance is monitored on a monthly basis.
- Governors received safeguarding and financial benchmarking training.
- The Head Teacher’s Performance Management was conducted; new targets were set for the year; these were reviewed in March.
- The Board of Governors regularly monitored Teachers’ performance, outcomes for children – specifically targeted groups – Pupil Premium, SEND, Looked after children, ensuring that the school leadership are challenged and supported to ensure all children make at least expected progress.
- The Board has also reviewed the Sports Premium funding and evaluated its impact on all groups of pupils. This continues to be a high priority for the Board.
- The Board of Governors has closely monitored pupil data. They reviewed in detail in the autumn term key stage 2 SATs, early years and key stage 1 phonics screening results, as well as monitoring the progress of all year groups each half-term through the Head Teacher’s report.
- A new teacher responsible for the progress and outcomes of Pupil Premium children was appointed and governors closely monitored this provision. In October 2017 a Pupil Review was conducted on behalf of Devon County Council with subsequent actions closely monitored by Governors.
- Target Tracker has been introduced to track pupil progress based on the Learning Journey /Steps devised by the Federation to track children’s progress through the expectations for each year of the national curriculum.
- One of the roles of Governors is to review and agree policies. During the year Governors have continued to identify and consider a number of key policies. All the statutory policies are on the School website. The School is GDPR compliant
- For the Academic Year 2017-2018 four new teachers joined us, all have made a positive contribution to raising standards and moving the school forward.
- In June 2018, the Governing Board of Kingsbridge Community Primary School and that of the South Hams Federation both voted unanimously to federate from September 1st 2018.
- On August 31st 2018, the Kingsbridge Community Primary School Board of Governors was dissolved and responsibility for the school was taken by the newly formed Board of Governors of the South Hams Federation. A federation with a proven track record of School Improvement.
- Monitoring and observing the quality and consistency of teachers’ CPD and all INSET is based on impacting positively on pupil progress and improving the quality of teaching and learning through identified key priorities for the School Improvement Plan 2018-2019.
- The School Improvement Plan (SIP) has been reviewed throughout the year and the new SIP 2018-2019 will be reviewed and adopted at the September Board meeting 2018.
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Future Plans for the Governors
The Board of Governors looks forward to the challenges the autumn term 2018 will bring. We have a new Board of Governors, as Kingsbridge Community Primary School joined the South Hams Federation with the focus to continue to improve and maintain teaching standards across all five schools, so as to ensure that outcomes for all pupils remain high in all subjects. We will continue to ensure that all children within the South Hams Federation receive a broad, balanced and cohesive curriculum entitlement; one which encourages all of our children to become independent, resilient, resourceful learners for life. The Federation’s priority will be to ensure Kingsbridge Primary School achieves a ‘Good’ Ofsted judgement at it’s next inspection. We acknowledge that as Stokenham is currently rated ‘Outstanding’ (October 2012) the school may well have an inspection this academic year. The Governors will continue to monitor and build on the Federation’s strengths and weaknesses as outlined in the School Improvement Plan (SIP 2018 – 2019). The Ethos Group along with the Board of Governors will work on the areas to improve after the last SIAMS Inspection (November 2016) The Governors will continue to develop their skills and update their knowledge, attend governor training courses (internal and external) and through visits to each of the schools, conducting Monitoring Visits, meeting the children, sampling the school lunches and ensuring best value and maintaining a balanced budget, alongside being strategic not operational, to challenge and support the Executive Head Teacher and the Federation Business manager, the Board will be able to maintain a strong governance. We also look forward to continuing the work with the South Devon Primary Partnership a group of 11 maintained primary schools to develop joint partnership working for the benefit of the children and staff within these schools. Hams Federation on the 1st September 2018. We look forward to continuing the work to
How You Can Contact the Board of Governors
We always welcome feedback, suggestions and ideas from parents: Please contact the Chair of Governors, Mrs. Jane Greaves, via the Stokenham School Office.