Directors meeting

Held at Blackpool CE Primary School, 22nd July 2019, 6 pm

Draft Part I Minutes

Present: A Walmsley (chair,) C Bromfield, C Frankland, A Gosling, I Thomas, and P Wimsett

In attendance: R Caunter, A Jenkins, J Huntington, C Chapman and I Candy

Quorum: the meeting is quorate.

Circulation: Directors and members (through GovernorHub), Diocese (Governance support, EDEN, and
SDBE by email), schools & public (through Federation website)

Decision Action due

1. Welcome and apologies

Apologies were received from A Denner and P Walker (family commitments).
2. Prayer
Led by P Wimsett.
3. Declaration of Conflict of Interests
Declarations of conflict of interests were invited by the chair. None was made.
4. Minutes of the last meetings – held on 25th April and 4th July 2019
4.1. To Agree the minutes, including Part II minutes
Part I minutes of the 25th April and 4th July 2019 were circulated ahead of the
meeting and agreed to be an accurate record of the meeting.
Part II minutes of the 4th July meeting were circulated ahead of the meeting
securely via GovernorHub restricted access and agreed to be an accurate record
of the meeting.
Part II minutes of the 25th April meeting were tabled at the meeting and agreed to
be an accurate record of the meeting.
4.2. To discuss matters arising not otherwise on the agenda
Matters arising from Part I
 Insurance for former directors of Genesis: C Chapman is due to meet again C Chapman
with Zurich and will follow this up again.
 Articles of association: both diocese have given verbal approval, I Candy I Candy
will circulate a resolution to adopt the articles to the Members.
 Staff survey: draft questions were circulated for input by directors and
suggested questions added to the survey.
 NLE: S Hunter, headteacher at Montpellier primary in Plymouth,
approached the Trust and is now working as NLE for the Teaching School.
Matters arising from Part II:
 C Chapman has visited Bere Alston to review their financial situation. They
have an in-year deficit this year, but it was not clear what the budget did
and did not include.
 Management partnership: the Trust has just have received a draft that will
require some relatively minor changes.
5. Budgets approval
To approve the budgets for 2019-20, and the three year budget forecast,

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 recommended by SAC
The proposed budgets were circulated ahead of the meeting. Appendix 1
A Walmsley highlighted that:
 Changes had been made since the proposed budgets had been
circulated. The Trust has received information that it was very likely to get
£90K of additional funding as part of the split side funding for Sidmouth,
which would result in £92K surplus, a better position. The additional funding
has been agreed for one year initially while the Trust and LA are in
discussion over the PAN for the school with the Office of the School
Adjudicator.
The Trust is also working with the ESFA around capital funding for the school
as the current allocation does not cover the costs of having three sites.
 The proposed budgets are based on a 2% pay rise for teachers for 2019-20,
although the government has just announced that the pay increase is
likely to be for 2.75%, some of which may be funded.
 The SAC committee considered the proposed budgets at their last
meeting and approved them to be recommended to the board.
C Chapman highlighted that:
 The Trust has been informed by an email dated 17th July from D Stabb that
the LA was prepared to consider a one-off additional allocation of £90K
but need to get approval from the ESFA via the appropriate process (the
formula disapplication process) which is likely to be granted. This would
mean that Sidmouth’s budget balances for the next year, but it would still
not balance for the following two years.
 The SLT has met with all the HoTLs over budgets and plans for next year.
Some HoTLs are unhappy about their curriculum budget being reduced. It
is the first year that the Trust has had to reduce this area. In one school, this
is the result of the cost of staff pay increases (£11K). In the other school, it is
because the number of roll has decreased by 14 pupils.
 The aim of the SRMA visit was to review the budgets on behalf of the DfE
following last year’s submission showing a deficit. The Trust had to justify
that its budget forecasting is correct and that it is making the identified
savings.
The budgets were unanimously approved by the board.
Directors queried why some of the HoTLs were disappointed with the budget
reduction when they should have been aware of the funding pressures on schools.
There has been a consistent message around budget pressures over the past year,
but so far the HoTLs had not seen the impact on their budget, particularly the part
they directly control. The redundancy from the central team came as a shock to
some people. The Trust needs to communicate an understanding of finances for
all staff to understand the current situation. P Walker is also looking at P Walker
communicating with parents so they understand the impact of austerity and cut in
real term of school funding. The aim is to send that information in early September.
Other schools, particularly secondary schools, have already communicated with
parents around the issue.
6. Trust and schools performance
To review:
 Pupil outcomes
 Progress on the Trust strategic plan
 Trust Ethos team update
 School improvement priorities for next year
A performance report summary and updated KPIS were circulated ahead of the Appendices
meeting. 2–3
Pupil outcomes:
The following key messages were highlighted by R Caunter:
 Outcomes for the Trust pupils have improved overall.

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  Maths and PP have improved across the piece, this reflects the hard work
and increased focus of staff.
 The outcomes for the sponsored schools represent a significant shift for the
Trust as it shows the progress that they have made.
 SEND data remains a challenge. That fact that outcomes for SEND children
are being compared with the outcomes of non-SEND children is
challenging as this does not reflect the difficulty in learning that some of
these children face.
 For sponsored schools, the EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 data is the most
significant data as this shows the impact of the Trust on pupils who joined
the schools since the Trust started sponsoring them. Increases at these Key
Stages should lead to increases at Key Stage 2.
 It is important that the data is analysed so that improvements can be
made. Where outcome were not as good as expected, for example
Reading at Gatehouse where some children were predicted to be on
track to attain ARE but did not, HoTLs have been asked to unpick the
reasons. They will be looking at the type of questions that the children
could not access to inform staff planning for next year’s Year 6 children.
J Huntington added that:
 Whilst Reading outcomes at Westcliff were lower than expected, this was
due to six children not attaining ARE, some of which found doing the test
difficult on the day.
 The KS2 progress score at Westcliff are very good, even if the attainment
predictions were perhaps too optimistic.
 The percentage of PP children that have attained ARE in Reading, Writing
and Maths has increased by 10% across the Trust (the percentage of non
PP children attaining the same increased by 3% across the Trust). This
should be roughly in line with the national average.
 The percentage of PP children attaining ARE in Reading has increased
from 51% to 61%, and in Maths from 44% to 58%, across the Trust.
 The PP data indicates that the percentage of PP children attaining greater
depth needs to be a major focus for next year.
 The percentage of children attaining ARE in Reading, Writing and Reading
has increased significantly in a number of schools: Sidmouth from 21% to
57%, Brixington from 42% to 57%, Willowbank from 17% to 43%.
The following points were raised and discussed:
 Year 6 attainment at the two Dawlish schools was disappointing.
 The SLT was also disappointed with attainment at AG. In Reading, two
children got 99 scaled score and one child was dis-applied.
 The lower than expected attainment should not have a significant impact
on the expected Ofsted inspection as inspectors will be able to see
significant progress in-year in the books. The external Writing moderation
showed that assessments were accurate. EYFS, phonics and Year 2
outcomes have been consistently strong for the past two years.
 The PP strategy will need more than one year to have a full impact.
 There seems to be some discrepancy between the data summary and the
KPIs. Directors asked P Walker to double check the data that was shared
for accuracy. Next year the Trust will be using a different system so that the P Walker
data is collated automatically from SIMS rather than having to be inputted
manually. Moving to SIMS will also make it easier for staff to input data, this
is one of the actions taken to help reduce staff workload.
Directors asked whether SIMS would help staff with prediction.
R Caunter explained that SIMS should make this easier. At the moment, there are
6 sub levels in Target Tracker, assessments will be less complex in SIMS.
Directors wanted to know whether HoTLs and senior leaders have enough time to
unpick the reasons behind the data being different from what they expected.

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 This analysis takes time but it is important to do it in order to make sure that schools
have enough coverage of the different areas within each of the core curriculum
subjects, across the whole of KS2 in particular. HoTLs will looking whether there is a
pattern in the questions that children did not answer correctly.
Directors asked whether there was a possibility that at Westcliff, staff “relaxed”
following the Ofsted inspection of the school.
J Huntington said that she did not believe this was the case as the lower outcomes
were due to only six children in one paper. Other outcomes were only 1 or 2 % off
the predictions. R Caunter added that staff were disappointed with the Year 6
outcomes in both of the Dawlish schools because the children and they had
worked very hard. Progress however is very good.
Directors asked whether good results were also “unpicked” to establish what had
worked well.
R Caunter confirmed that this is also done.
Directors commented that:
 They were reassured that Brixington outcomes showed a good
improvement as it is the school currently the most at risk within the Trust.
 They were also reassured that Sidmouth results had improved, particularly
as the school was inspected by Ofsted during SATs weeks which meant
that plans had to be adjusted so leaders could meet with the inspectors.
 The level of understanding and conversation at board level has improved
thanks to the period of consolidation and the use of KPIs. These will need to
be reviewed to be more focussed and concise, and include progress. This
will fall within A Jenkins’ remit in the new SLT structure.
Directors asked the ExHoTLs to pass their thanks to teachers for the good outcomes
obtained.
Progress on the Trust strategic plan:
A document highlighting the progress made against the Trust strategic plan, and
key next steps for 2019-20, was circulated ahead of the meeting. R Caunter Appendix 4
commented that it is important to acknowledge what the Trust has achieved this
year, and how much has been done against each area. It is reassuring for
directors to have an overview and see the progress made.
Directors asked how the progress made and next steps were shared with staff.
R Caunter explained that this has not been done yet, but that information around
this will be shared at the non pupil day in September.
A Walmsley said that he had asked P Walker to do a short, two page summary for
the Trust members and also a one page summary of key items to be sent with the P Walker
schools’ newsletters to inform parents.
Directors asked whether the next steps would feed into a document for 2019-20.
There is a summary of school improvement priorities for schools but that
information is more general for the Trust as a whole. This will need to be covered at
the Trust strategic governance event in the autumn term. P Walker
R Caunter explained that the SLT had arranged for all HoTLs to meet together
once they had written their SEF, to start working on their SIP together so they can
share ideas and actions around common priorities and the SIPs are ready at the
start of next year.
C Chapman highlighted that section 2D should say that the Trust is planning to
submit CIF bids as it is coming out of SCA, not going back into it. The Trust is out of
the SCA allocations because pupil numbers have dropped. Even with the addition
of pupils from Bere Alston if the school joins the Trust, the Trust will still be under SCA
threshold.
The meeting went into Part II to discuss growth.
The meeting went back into Part I.
Trust ethos team update:
An Ethos update report was circulated ahead of the meeting, together with the
minutes from the latest meeting of the Trust Ethos team. Appendix 5

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 R Caunter and P Wimsett reported that the team had had a very positive year. Its
impact has led to enhanced links with Exeter Diocese and training being
organised for HoTLs and Ethos leads around the new SIAMS framework. The team
will also learn from the recent SIAMS inspection at Hawkchurch, which resulted in
the school being rated as good. Devon, Cornwall and Torbay have launched a
new syllabus for RE. The Trust has agreed a new RE syllabus which the schools are
keen to start implementing, for both church and non church schools. The syllabus
is based on intent, implementation, and impact, thereby matching Ofsted’s new
focus.
P Wimsett thanked R Caunter for her work leading the team. He reported that all
schools have really engaged with the work and are using Ethos as a foundation for
the work each school does in general, and to support each other. Staff enjoy
working as a Trust rather than in isolation. The team is made of some experienced
Ethos leads but also many new ones who feel supported by the team and the
training provided by the Diocese around RE leadership. HoTLs are keen to embed
practice and move the subject forward. The team has had a significant impact
and is a strength of the MAT, having moved from being a chuch MAT to including
non church schools.
Hawkchurch was the Trust only church school that was not rated at least good, so
it was positive to have had a good outcome there, especially as Salisbury Diocese
has a different approach to Exeter. This provides reassurance to the board at the
start of the new SIAMs cycle.
Trish Windmill has been more involved in the South Hub, to help make the link
between schools, communities and the hub board. The Trust will need to find a
good candidate for the East Hub. I Candy commented that the Trust has been
trying to recruit but without success, with Sidmouth focussing on recruiting new
clergy.
A Walmsley thanked P Wimsett for his support around Ethos and Christian
distinctiveness.
A Gosling reported that the SIAMS inspector during his conversation with her had
asked many probing questions around the governance structure and how
directors know what they know.
School Improvement priorities for 2019-20:
R Caunter explained that executive leaders had met with all the HoTLs over the
past two weeks to identify where their priorities and challenges are, and what
support they needed. The outcome of these meeting was due to be reviewed by
the SLT the day after this meeting to plan how to efficiently and strategically
deploy support to meet the identified needs.
A summary of the school improvement classification of the Trust schools for 2019-20 Appendices
and of improvement priorities were circulated ahead of the meeting. 6 -7
R Caunter highlighted that:
 Sidmouth has moved from a C school to an A school because it has
capacity to improve, a move that C Fegan is very happy about.
 Musbury and Salcombe have moved from a C school to a B school. The EY
teacher at Salcombe has the capacity to improve EY across the South
Hams.
 AG has moved from a B school to a C school because the data was not as
expected and it is due an Ofsted, therefore could need more support.
 Willowbank has moved from a D school to a C school because it has the
capacity to improve with some outside support from the Trust.
The meetings have meant that HoTLs have ownership in identifying where they
need support. This has been a more collaborative and organised process this year.
Directors asked which schools were due to be inspected in 2019-20.
Gatehouse, AG, Salcombe and Brixington are due an inspection. Brixington is
critical although it has shown an improvement. Salcombe has improved and has
had a more stable team this year. Gatehouse is on a journey to improvement. AG

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 needs additional support to make sure that they are prepared for the new Ofsted
framework.
Gatehouse is also due a monitoring visit, which was expected to have taken
place by now and may come in the Autumn term. The three other schools were
previously inspected in the Spring term.
It is the first year that HoTLs will feel the impact of funding pressures on their
budget. The schools should not need additional resources as they have been well
resourced previously. In addition, many schools have been involved in the English
hub work which comes with grants for resources from about £700 to about £6,000.
Some schools are asking for PTFA support as well.
A Walmsley highlighted that there is an education leadership paper that was
circulated for the 11th July SAC meting which contains more information around
the Trust school improvement offer, the new SLT roles and responsibilities, and
which reports will get to who. I Candy will put a link to the document via the I Candy
GovernorHub noticeboard for ease of reference.
The SW RSC was asked to lead on how successful MATs can improve schools, this
has been rolled out as a national resource to be used to replicate good practice.
They have now added two pages around governance. This reflects what the FFT is
doing around focussing on school improvement, getting information from schools,
having a clear scheme of delegation, an easy overview of MAT performance that
enables good questioning by the board, regular reviews of the governance
model, clear plans for growth, collecting feedback from stakeholders, and being
outward looking to get input from other MATs and organisations.
7. To agree the resolution for the use of the funds raised by Salcombe CE Primary
School to help a local family
I Candy reminded the board that a fundraising page had been set up by
Salcombe to cover the costs of the funeral of a former pupil. The appeal raised
funds above that, which means that the fundraising aims need to be amended so
that additional funds can be used for other purposes, in order to meet charity
commission regulations. The resolution to that effect, which was drafted by Browne
Jacobson, was circulated in advance of the meeting. The resolution was Appendix 8
approved by all trustees present, six present out of eight in post, which met the
necessary two thirds threshold for the resolution to be valid.
8. Policies and compliance
A policy and compliance report was circulated ahead of the meeting. Appendix 9
Safeguarding audit overview
An overview of the safeguarding audit findings was circulated ahead of the Appendix 10
meeting. All the Trust schools have been audited by Babcock. Some of the
recommendations have already been implemented. It was agreed that C C Frankland
Frankland would follow up with T Winn around the implementation of
recommendations, and the most efficient way to do so, particularly where actions
have a significant cost.
Each of the safeguarding and inclusion lead will lead on a specific area of
responsibility from September: T Winn - safeguarding, H Evans - SEND and H Slater –
PP.
The Trust plan to do internal safeguarding reviews in 2019-20 on critical aspects.
Actions following complaints:
A complaint report and list of actions taken as a result of the four Stage 4 Appendix 11
complaints made to the Trust this year were circulated ahead of the meeting.
I Candy highlighted that while this was a higher number than previous year, it was
still a very small number of complaints for the number of pupils within the Trust.
Many issues have been linked to communication. It can be difficult to find an
acceptable resolution in cases where parents have very strong opinions that the
cause of the issues is a specific member of staff or child who needs to be
disciplined harshly. However, it is always important to take appropriate actions
and run the complaint process efficiently, and offer support where needed.

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 The board will need to ensure that all actions have been completed. I Candy to I Candy
ensure that information is circulated as actions are implemented.
Complaints have led to better recording of incidents across the Trust, and more
consistent practice, although not all schools use CPOMs. This depends on the size
of the school and the number of issues they have.
Actions taken as a result of Academies Financial Handbook (AFH) 2019
A Walmsley highlighted that there is an increased focus on internal scrutiny and
that the internal scrutiny programme (internal audit programme) now has to be
agreed by trustees, and that the programme should be based on the risk register.
The letter from E Milner, Chief Exec of ESFA, around the changes in the AFH around Appendix 12
this and that additional returns that all trusts will be required to submit was
circulated to the board.
A Walmsley reported that he had met with internal and external auditors. They
have indicated that the Trust needs to have more oversight of operational risks.
Therefore the plan is for the Trust to establish an operational risk register for each
school, which will affect what is reviewed as part of the internal scrutiny
programme. HoTLs will be more involved in the risk assessment process. GDPR may
form part of the internal scrutiny programme. These changes are a formalisation of
the work that is already been done around mitigating risks.
Arrangements for CEO performance management
A Denner and A Walmsley have met with P Walker to conduct a review of the
progress made on his performance management targets. Although this took
place later than envisaged because of the Ofsted inspections, they felt that it was
important to have an update before the end of the academic year.
A formal performance management meeting will take place in September. A Walmsley
The Trust will be using S Savory for the second year as an external adviser to
support the process. S Savory is a MAT CEO from Gloucestershire, a member of
RSC headteachers’ board, has visited some of the Trust sponsored schools and has
the expertise needed to support the process. His expertise allowed the
performance management process of the CEO to be more precise and better
informed last year.
A Walmsley reminded the board that last year the CEO performance
management panel had benchmarked the pay for CEOs around the South West
from data available through contacts in the education sector, in accordance with
ESFA recommendations. The board commented that it would be useful for the
ESFA to provide data to help with benchmarking.
Review of equality objectives:
I Candy reminded the board that equality objectives have to be reviewed
annually to abide by the Equality Act. A review document was circulated ahead Appendix 13
of the meeting. Some of the comments from the Ofsted inspection reports were
useful evidence for the review.
Policies to adopt:
The proposed pupil behaviour and exclusions policies were circulated ahead of
the meeting. The proposed anti-bullying policy was circulated on the day of the
meeting. R Caunter commented that this needs to be updated to meet SIAMS
expectations based on the recent Church of England guidance around this.
C Bromfield was disappointed that she had not been given the opportunity to
provide input into the proposed policies, as it is her area of expertise and within
her remit as inclusion and PP director. She gave some examples of her suggestions
for improvements. The board agreed that further consideration was needed
before the policies could be approved.
The proposed relationships and sex education policy was circulated ahead of the
meeting. This is a Trust template which the schools will have to personalise to their
context, and is based on the RSE guidance from the Church of England. Again the
board agreed that this needed further consideration before the policy could be
approved.

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 It was agreed that R Caunter would send some proposed dates to C Bromfield so
a meeting could be arranged involving all necessary parties so the policies can be
finalised.
The proposed pupils e-safety policy and staff & volunteers acceptable use policy
were circulated head of the meeting. These have been updated based on the
recommendations made following some of the Stage 4 complaints. These policies
were adopted by the board as proposed.
9. Urgent matters brought forward by the chair
A Walmsley shared that a parent had written to the board to express concerns
about the 100% attendance certificates given at AG. This was done with positive
intentions but the parent wanted directors to reflect on the effect of this on
children who cannot attain 100% attendance for good reasons (e.g. because of a
medical condition). The Trust has contacted the Education Welfare Service to seek
advice around good practice to ensure that measures to improve attendance
reflect good, inclusive practice.
R Caunter and A Walmsley highlighted that more emails are being sent to the FFT
office and that the schools need to make sure that parents understand the Trust Executive
complaint procedure and it is followed appropriately. leaders
A Walmsley concluded that it has been a busy and challenging but successful
year for the Trust, starting with the inspection at Westcliff, followed by the ones at
Musbury, Sidmouth and Hawkchurch, and then the SIAMS inspection at
Hawkchurch. The board is grateful to P Walker, the ExHoTLs and the HoTLs for the
successful year. The board of directors is recognised for being a robust board that
provides good challenge to the SLT.
A Walmsley also thanked C Chapman and the finance team in what has been a
challenging year, and I Candy for her support.
This was the last meeting of I Thomas as a director, because his new job means it is
difficult for him to attend meetings and other governance events. A Walmsley
thanked I Thomas for this many years contribution as a director and gave him a
token of appreciation on behalf of the board. I Thomas will continue to be a
member of the SAC committee and the board is grateful to retain his expertise
there.
P Wimsett thanked A Walmsley for this time and contribution as chair of the board
of directors.

Meeting start: 6 pm, meeting close: pm

These minutes are agreed by those present as being a true record.

Signed:………………………………………… Date:………………..
Chair of Directors

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