Our School Governing Board

Welcome to the Regents Park Community School Governing Board

The Governors are representatives of the local council, the parents, the staff and the local community. They take a keen and active interest in the running of the school and, in conjunction with the staff, aim to foster a good relationship between the school and the wider community.

All parents are eligible for election to the Governing Board as Parent Governors. This occurs either at the end of a term of office or when an existing member leaves.

The Governors meet at least once a term at full Governing Board meetings and are elected for four years from the time of their election. Governors also carry out business within committees which also meet at least once a term - these are the Finance, Pay & Premises committee and the Standards & Performance committee.

Composition of the Governing Board

• 2 parent governors
• 1 head teacher
• 1 staff governor
• 1 local authority governor
• 5 co-opted governors
• 2 associate governors

Committees of the Governing Board

• Finance, Pay and Premises Committee
• Standards and Performance Committee
• Pay Review
• Appeals
• Pupil Discipline
• Complaints

Chair of Governors

Mr P Toomer

Vice Chair of Governors

Mrs R Kauser

Members of the Governing Board:

Key:

LA – Local Authority nominated or appointed Governor

PG – Elected or appointed Parent Governor

STF – Staff Governor

CG – Co-opted Governor, appointed by the governing body

AS – Associate member

HT - Head Teacher

ANNUAL GOVERNANCE STATEMENT

for the Governing Board of Regents Park Community Primary School

Academic Year 2018-19

School governing bodies ‘are the strategic leaders of our schools and have a vital role to play in making sure every child gets the best possible education’. (The 2015 Governors’ Handbook, published by the Department for Education).   For maintained schools this is reflected in the law, which states that the purpose of maintained school governing bodies is to ‘conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement at the school’.

In accordance with the Government's requirement for all governing boards, the three core strategic functions of the Regents Park Community Primary School Governing Board are:

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

Governance Arrangements

The Governing Body  consists of

• 5 co-opted governors
• 1 governor appointed by the Local Authority
• 2 elected parent governors
• 1 head teacher governor
• 1 elected staff governor
• 2 associate governors

This constitution is laid down in the Instrument of Government for Regents Park Community Primary School which came into effect on 22nd September  2014 when the Governing Body was re-constituted under the School Governance (Constitution) (England) regulations 2012.

The full Governing Board meets once each term with additional committee meetings being held once each term to cover:

• Finance, Pay and Premises
• Standards and Performance

In addition, governor panels may also meet to cover the following areas:

• Appeals
• Disciplinary
• Exclusions
• Pay Review
• Head Teacher Performance Management

Each member of the Governing Board also takes on the role of Link Governor for a particular aspect of school life and reports back to the full Governing Board. Link Governor roles include:

• SEN
• Safeguarding
• Governor Training & Development
• PSHE & RSE
• Pupil Premium
• English
• Maths
• EYFS
• Behaviour & Attendance

Committees

The Governing Body delegates some of its work to committees through terms of reference which are reviewed and agreed annually by the Full Governing Body.  The membership of these committees is also agreed annually by the Full Governing Body.  The key committees are:-

• Finance, Pay & Premises Committee (which is principally concerned with function 3)
• Standards and Performance Committee (which is principally concerned with function 2)

Terms of reference and membership of these committees are available via the school office.

Meetings

During 2018/19 the following meetings have been held:-

In addition, formal meetings have been held of the statutory committees (Head teacher’s performance appraisal and Pay) to enable governors to carry out their statutory duties in these areas.

Governor Attendance 2018-19

The work we have done on our committees and on the Governing Board in 2017-18

The Governing Board has had a particularly busy year in supporting the school again in 2017-18 and are proud of all the hard work and achievements made by everybody at the school.

During 2017-18, a parent governor election was held following the resignation of Mr R Ahmed and Mr T Rashid. We would like to thank both parents for their support for the school and governors and would like to welcome our new parent governors, Mrs R Kauser and Mrs N Chowdhury. Also, leaving school at the end of 2017-18 was Mr N Head, our BSS manager and a staff governor. Again we would like to thank Mr Head for all his work and service in supporting the school and the governing board.

The Standards and Performance Committee have been invovled in overseeing the progress school have made towards achieving targets in attainment. They have been kept up to date following termly pupil progress meetings and have discussed interventions and outcomes that have resulted. This committee has also monitored progress towards achieving targets set for 2017-18 in the School Development Plan as well as receiving updates on monitoring of teaching and learning. The committee has received updates from other senior leaders from within school particularly in terms of attendance, SEN and Pupil Premium. The committee has sought to receive updates from staff on the introduction of recent initiatives in school such as Philosophy for Children and the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award. In January 2018, a group of children from the School Council presented to the committee on their work towards supporting the school in achieving the Rights Respecting Award.

The Finance, Pay and Premises Committee have continued to oversee the financial management of the school and have received regular and detailed updates from the school leadership, particularly from Mrs P Kelly, the School Business Manager. This committee have overseen the annual pay review following in-school performance management and have reviewed school spending and allocation of school funding, including pupil premium. This committee have also been updated regularly on issues such as Schools Financial Value Standards, academisation and the impact of partnership with other schools.

The full Governing Board have met each term and receive feedback from committees and link governors. Leadership have reported back to full governors each term and these Leadership reports provide an overview of contextual data for the school as well as progress towards SDP targets and outcomes under each of the headings from the Ofsted framework. During full GB meetings, governors have been provided with regular safeguarding updates including progress towards completing the annual Section 175 safeguarding audit. Discussions have been held during full Governing Board meetings to keep governors updated on the consultation and implementation of the No Outsiders initiative across school as well as the impact of the introduction of GDPR in school.

Governors have also attended briefings on the development of a collaboration with a group of schools across Birmingham. This group has now been established as a group of 8 schools including ourselves, Story Wood, Heath Mount, Sundridge, Hawthorn, Kingsthorne, Beeches Infants and Beeches Junior. The aim of forming the collaboration is to work in partnership to support and develop shared pupil outcomes whilst also aiming to find ways that schools can benefit financially from joint purchasing power. The partnership will be further developed during 2018-19

Governors have regularly attended events in school and met with pupils, parents and staff. All the governors attended the school "Governor Buddy Afternoon" in March 2018 where they were invited to work in class with children and find out more about what they do. Governors have also attended workshops, No Outsiders consultations and assemblies in school.

The work we are going to do during 2018-19

During 2018-19 we will continue to meet regularly in committees and as a full Governing Board to fulfill our core functions as a Governing Board. Specifically we will endeavour to support the school further with the following:

• The establishment of the new school collaboration group, now known as the Acorn Partnership. We will work closely with colleagues from our partner schools to ensure that it is a successful partnership and will assess the impact on school in terms of curriculum and finance.
• Ensuring that the school continues to improve and develop the curriculum it provides in order to make sure it is relevant and develops the knowledge, skills and content that pupils from Regents Park require such as Rights Respecting and Equalities education
• Ensuring that school leaders ensure the social and emotional wellbeing and safety of all pupils and staff.