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.

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.

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.

Chair of Governors

Mr P Hynan

Vice Chair of Governors

Mrs N Chowdhury

Current Members of the Governing Board:

Key:

LA – Local Authority appointed Governor

PG – Elected Parent Governor

STF – Elected Staff Governor

CG – Co-opted Governor, appointed by the Governing Board

AS – Associate member - invited by the Govenring Board to attend meetings. May not vote unless invited to do so within committees

HT - Head Teacher

Previous Members of the Governing Board:

ANNUAL GOVERNANCE STATEMENT

for the Governing Board of Regents Park Community Primary School

Academic Year 2022-23

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 Panel
• Complaints Panel
• Disciplinary Panel
• Exclusions Panel
• Pay Review Panel
• Head Teacher Appraisal Panel

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 2021/22 the following meetings have been held:-

The majority of the meetings have been held in person although most of the Finance meetings have been held on Teams

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 2021-22

The work we have done on our committees and on the Governing Board in 2020-21

2021-22 continued to be a challenge for all those involved in working in education and those supporting schools. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact significantly on the children, families and staff of Regents Park Community Primary School, as it has for everyone living and working in the UK.

As such, the vast majority of the work covered by the Governing Board of Regents Park Community Primary School has been to:

• support the leadership of the school in ensuring that children, parents and staff have remained safe and well
• ensure that children who are vulnerable or whose parents are key workers have been supported
• provide all children with opportunities to catch up on any missed learning or gaps in their education

Most of the work done by the Governing Board was carried out face to face with meetings taking place in school although some meetings were done remotely via Teams. This year, as well as full Governing Board meetings, committee meetings for Finance and Standards were reintroduced.

The Finance, Pay and Premises Committee have met four times in order to continue to oversee the financial management of the school and received 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. One area that this committee have particularly focused on is how school funding has been impcated by falling pupil numbers. School leadership have reported back to the committee on how it has managed staffing numbers as the school moves from being three form entry to being two form entry in 2024.

The Standards & Performance committee have met three times this year and their particular focus has been to monitor the impact of catch up funding and how this has helped groups children to catch up on learning follwoing the pandemic. The committee has met with members of the Senior Leadership Team to discuss progress in terms of the curriculum development, attendance, behaviour, SEND and Early Years. A key area in the School Improvement Plan was to improve writing across school. Although there is more work to be done in this area in order to improve outcomes in writing at the end of Key Stage 1 and 2, the governors did have an opportunity to see the good progress that children had made in books.

The full Governing Board have met four times and have received termly Leadership reports that provided an overview of how the school was managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as progress towards school improvement targets. During full GB meetings, governors have been provided with regular safeguarding updates including progress towards completing the annual Section 175 safeguarding audit. The governors were particularly pleased that the school completed a successful Ofsted inpsection in December 2022 and that the overall effectiveness of the school remains GOOD.

National tests were reintroduced at the end of Y6 this year and, whilst results are not being published, the Governors were pleased with the overall outcomes at the end of KS2 as well as at the end of EYFS and KS1.

The work we are going to do during 2022-23

During 2022-23 we are intending to continue meeting 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 with the following:

• Further develop the teaching of writing across school in order to ensure that more children achieve both age-related expectations and greater depth in writing, with a focus on improving the outcomes of boys

• Create opportunities for staff to improve their teaching and develop their pedagogy in order to ensure there is highly effective learning across the curriculum

• Support the wellbeing and ensure the mental health of pupils and staff

• Significantly improve the attendance and punctuality of pupils across the school

• Further embed all areas of the curriculum and support leaders to evaluate that curriculum plans are having an impact on pupils knowing and remembering more

We will also continue to support the leadership of the school in managing the school budget in a time of rising costs and concerns about school funding whilst also continuing to ensure the school is staffed effectively and fully prepared to be 2-form entry throughout from September 2024.