Full Governing Body Meeting Day – Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Full Governing Body Meeting Day – Wednesday, 28 January 2015

 

One day a term Governors spend the whole day in school; Wednesday started with a formal meeting where we were able to hold the leadership team to account and thus ensure our visions for the school are being achieved. Among the items presented were an update on the School Aims and Development Plan; we received a budget update, monitored pupil mobility and attendance and ensured school policies were being reviewed.

The Clerk to the Governors then led a training session on promoting fundamental British values as part of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils.

There have been recent issues with ISS (catering contractors) regarding the quality of the food prepared for our children; there have also been times when they have not provided enough food. The Governing Body had school lunch and was able to feedback comments and criticism to Mrs Dye ahead of a scheduled meeting with ISS. We will keep this under review and ensure only the best quality food and service is given to our children.

We find meetings during the day are a helpful way for Governors to find out more about John Bramston; we had the opportunity to talk with pupils and staff. Governors also have links to particular subjects; we spent the afternoon focusing on our individual links to ensure the school is implementing the policies and improvement plans we have signed off and to see how they are working in practice.

 
Mrs C. Holder
 

I spent the afternoon with Mrs Dye so my afternoon consisted of looking at the outside learning areas. This really is going from strength to strength from floor markings, Pirate ship and stage to active lunch facilities.

There is now an outside maths area which gives children the fresh air and space to look at the world around them whilst learning in a fun way.

The allotment is coming along and has its own orchard! The Eco Rangers upkeep this on a weekly basis and you can see the passion from those involved.

 Nursery was using the ‘green’ screen which the whole school have the use of which is a fantastic confidence boost for the children. EYFS were busy using inside and outside.

I visited Omelette and Snowball who kindly laid two eggs – picture attached.

 

Mr W. Worth

As part of the Critical Friend I met with the SEND Coordinator. With all the changes to educational needs I wanted to ensure that the school and teachers could deliver effective intervention and education to all pupils.

I looked at Child Protection and Equalities as well as SEN and was delighted to find that the school was delivering an effective range of work to help the children and keep them safe.
 

I noticed that the whole process was on going and teacher training was still progressing to build on their knowledge and understanding of the changes.

 Ms S.  Brookes

As link governor for writing, I met with the school leads for English in Key Stage 1 and 2. We looked in detail at current attainment and progress data in writing for all year groups, and discussed the wide range of literacy interventions in place for pupils most in need of support, including children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding and underachieving boys, as well as those capable of achieving above the expected level. We looked at Years 5 and 6 in particular detail, as they approach the end of Key Stage 2, and what is being done to ensure they meet expected levels before moving on to secondary school. This included the challenges posed by the Year 6 SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) test introduced recently and how these are being addressed to ensure all pupils are prepared.  Staff shared their planning documents for ensuring progress in grammar for all pupils, and we discussed training received by lead teachers and how this is being cascaded to all class teachers to ensure that effective teaching of grammar is embedded throughout the school. We also looked at attainment and progress in reading, and talked about the importance of pupils’ enjoyment of reading as a way to support writing development. Staff confirmed that recent investment in new book stock, as well as the Book Bug online reading scheme for Key Stage 1 will help ensure all pupils have access to high quality reading materials to support both their reading and writing development. Use of Book Bug will be monitored to help identify areas where pupils are exceling, as well as those where they may need more help, so will provide further useful feedback to class teachers and phase leaders. There are challenging targets for writing this year, but with the appropriate planning in place we aim to ensure all pupils will get the support they need.

Mr K. Varnes

I met with the Deputy Headteacher and was shown how assessments for the New Curriculum will be carried out using Target Tracker. Teachers will regularly upload data building up a pupil’s profile over time. Teachers will be able to apply filters and make judgements to give individual pupil assessments; this will be shared with parents/carers on reports sent home. Target Tracker can also provide teachers with a Gap Analysis to identify areas to be developed in a child’s learning.

We also looked at the new (draft) way for measuring progress using APS (Average Points Score) and aspirational expectations.