Our Governing Body Chair, Mrs Becky Lawrence, writes:
Work the Governing Body has undertaken this year includes:
The Chair of our Resources Committee, Andy Miller, has been leading the discussions with Leeds City Council in planning how the school will make use of the land that has been acquired as part of the new housing development behind the school site.
Rachel Greenhalgh has been reviewing how the school makes use of Pupil Premium funding (money that is received from central Government to support learning for disadvantaged pupils) and monitoring the impact of how this money is spent.
Jackie Sykes is our Link Governor with the School Council. Jackie has been attending School Council meetings to ensure that the Governing Body hears issues that are concerning children in school, and to help school councillors understand the Governing Body’s role in leadership and management of the school.
The Governing Body as a whole has reviewed our working practices and identified some areas where we could be more effective. We have drawn up plans to improve our approach to succession planning; to create more consistent induction processes for new governors; to better define the responsibilities of each distinct governor role; and to undertake a skills audit to inform our training needs.
Vivienne Gaskin has picked up the role of link governor for the Early Years and has observed lessons and met with our school improvement adviser. Vivienne has enjoyed seeing the fantastic learning taking place in Reception.
This year governors have also been involved in:
- recruiting new teachers;
- seeing that end of key stage tests are administered in line with the Department for Education’s rules;
- setting a budget for the next three years and monitoring the in-year budget position;
- monitoring attendance levels and agreeing strategies for improving attendance;
- ensuring the school fulfils its health and safety and child safeguarding requirements;
- monitoring the educational attainment and progress of pupils across the school; and
- setting and measuring performance objectives for Mr Roundtree.
Much of our work over the next year will be around developing our newer governors and enabling existing governors to share their skills so that we are building up a knowledgeable and effective team.
