ST. JOHN’S C.E.

PRIMARY SCHOOL
MINUTES OF FULL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING 11th July 2018
Present: Mark Bowring, (Chair) Roy Bullock, Lucinda Curtis, Colin Kemp, Sally
King, Michaela Luckett, Alison McLaren, Vanessa Russell, Rob Stanton, Jenny
Stiff (DHT), Dan Turvey (Head Teacher), Giles Walter
Clerk: Jan Davies

1. GW opened the meeting with a prayer

2. Apologies for absence- Matthew Ewens, Paul Tanner and Jo Miller had sent
their apologies due to work commitments. All apologies were accepted.
3. Declaration of business interests – none declared.
4. Membership – The Chair welcomed AMcL as the newly appointed Staff
Governor replacing Matt Adkins.
A secret ballot took place to appoint the Chair and Vice-Chair for a further
period of one year. There was one nomination for each post. Governors
unanimously re-appointed MB as Chair and JM as Vice-Chair
GW was pursuing nominations for a Foundation Governor to replace LC who
was stepping down after 9 years’ service.
SK the School Business Manager and Associate Member was retiring, and the
Chair presented her with a long service certificate.
5. Head Teacher end of year presentation – The presentation slides had been
made available to governors prior to the meeting. The milestones within the
SIP for terms 5 and 6 had mostly either been met or were on-going. Those
requiring action were marked in red.
The presentation updated governors with regard to predictions compared
with actuals across all year groups and vulnerable groups as well as the
school’s vision for self-evaluation and school improvement in 20018/19.
Other information included:-
- The percentage of sessions missed by pupils stood at 3.45% below
national at 4%. 6.36% of pupils missed 10% of sessions or more which was
below national at 6.7%
- 97% of teaching was at least good or better with 3% requiring
improvement.
- Subject leaders had met 3 times during the year with colleagues from
other schools in the LCT
- JS had jointly organised a new Deputy Headteacher’s group
- Staff had also participated in the LCT finance group, Headteacher and
CPD group

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 - Staff had hosted visits from other schools
- The Headteacher is a director of the trust as well as chairing the
‘Personal Development & Wellbeing group
- The breakfast club had broken even with a small surplus being ploughed
back into the Club to purchase resources.
- End of year appraisals were currently taking place for teachers.
Recommendations for pay awards would be made to the pay committee
in September.
- Interim arrangements for support staff were in place with short term
appraisal objectives being reviewed. New objectives would be set in
September
- 72% of Reception children achieved GLD which was just above national.
Boo Smith would be the temporary Early Years leader in September
following the departure of Natalie Pearson.
- 89% of year 1 children had a percentage score of 32+ in phonics which
was well above national of 81%
- KS1 Teacher Assessment results at expected showed:-
- Reading 84% compared with 85% last year
- Writing 74% compared with 69% last year
- Maths 82% compared with 87% last year
- Results at greater depth (GD) showed:-
- Reading 24% compared with 28% last year
- Writing 18% compared with 10% last year
- Maths 24% compared with 20% last year

End of KS 2 combined results

Combined 70% so above national results 64%
Combined GD 10% which is a slight variation on 2017
Reading 86% - National 75%
GPS 83% - National 78%
Maths 74% - National 76%
Writing 86% - National 78%

Greater Depth:
Reading 37%
GPS 43%
Maths 25%
Writing 21%
What was the reason for GD in maths being lower (25%) than last year (30%)?
7 new year 6 children had joined the school over the course of the academic
year which would have had an impact on results. The SLT have not had a
chance yet to unpick the results but will do so. Comparisons cannot be the
same as every cohort of children is different.

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 - Year 6 Teacher Assessment
Combined: TA 73%
Age Related Expectations: Writing 86% Reading 79% Maths 79%
Exceeding: Writing 21.8 Reading 23% Maths 30%
Governors wanted to thank all staff involved for such positive outcomes at
the end of this school year.
How many staff are leaving, what is the reason for their leaving and why
had exit interviews with governors not been thought necessary
The HT presentation outlined those teachers and support staff leaving and
their replacements. In addition a further TA would be leaving at the end of
term for personal family reasons. Reasons for leaving include promotion, a
career change, retirement or for one member of staff a sideways move. As
such exit interviews had not been considered necessary in respect of these
staff. However, it was agreed that the Staff Governor would feedback to
those staff leaving at the end of term 6 that they could request an exit
interview with the Chair if they wished to have one.
At the last FGB meeting the GB received a presentation on the project to
develop the Reception outdoor learning area. Given that the lead on the
project was now leaving would this 3-year strategy still proceed?
The 3-year strategy for the development of the Reception outdoor area
would go ahead as planned with the support of the SLT.
6. Monitoring reports – All monitoring reports had been made available to
governors prior to the meeting and were linked with actions for terms 5 and
6 in the SIP.
MB had met with the DHT to review progress made in respect of quality
of teaching learning and assessment, in particular progress made in
embedding a range of new approaches in respect of writing, maths
and developing the role of middle leaders. Good progress had been
made but some new approaches would take time to embed, in particular
maths. There was evidence of good collaboration in terms of links with
other schools. A list of staff CPD training had been provided to governors. A
post evaluation sheet had been produced to enable staff to evaluate the
impact of training.
JM had met with the DHT to review progress in reshaping the
curriculum, the homework policy and the provisions being made to
cater for the needs of more able pupils within the school. JM had
also met with the Inclusion Leader to review progress throughout the
academic year with forest school provision for vulnerable pupils and
to discuss the success to date of the Keep up not catch up approach
this year. The impact of the support given to Pupil Premium pupils

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 this year was also discussed. The key issue arising from this report was
around TA support which continued to be stretched across the school.

RS had met with the Network Manager. His report would be sent to the Clerk
asap to circulate to governors. The main action for consideration by a
working group was to look at upgrading the school’s current system as
Windows 7 will be out of date and unsupported by the end of 2019.

CK provided governors with list of visits undertaken by the various year

groups. Governors approved 2 residential visits to take place in the new
academic year. Both venues are well known to the school and are well risk
assessed.
7. HTPM – The Chair confirmed that the HTPM Panel had met with the HT to
carry out the mid-year review.
8. Strategy Team – the draft minutes of the strategy team meeting on the 27th
June had been shared with governors prior to the meeting. There were two
main issues for governors to consider, these being the new SIAMS
requirements and inspection process alongside the development of the next
phase of the Long Term Strategic School Plan. As one would feed into the
other it was thought that both should be considered as part of the same
conversation. Representatives would include parents ( both religious, non-
religious and EAL) staff and governors. MB, CK and RS would represent
governors. It was suggested that one meeting take place during the school
day and one outside of the school day.
As regards the additional revenue stream, work would need to be
commissioned by governors in order to consider spending priorities as set
out in the asset development plan drawn up by the SBM. Governors agreed
that RB, VR, RS and PT should form a working party to look at this.
9. Finance – The Chair signed off the audited voluntary fund accounts for the
period 1st April 2017 to the 31st March 2018.The balance carried forward as
at the 31st March 2018 was £4,985.47.
Finance Policy – This model KCC Policy had been updated in the light of
GDPR requirements. In addition Governors could opt to insert a sentence
“as a matter of good practice orders over £1,000 have three quotations
sought”. It was agreed that the policy be approved with regard to the GDPR
update, but further consideration would be needed by the Finance
monitoring group in respect of an amount over which 3 quotations would be
needed.
10. Policies – Governors approved the Attendance and Medical Needs Policy.
The following policies did not require final FGB approval but had been
recently updated: Drug Incident Management and PSHE. The Freedom of
Information policy and Inclusion policy were no longer required, and the
Teaching & Learning policy has been delayed until the next FGB meeting
due to changes in the curriculum along with Governor Visits and Managing
Absence and ill health policies.

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11. Approve Minutes of last meeting – Approved and signed by the Chair as a
true record.
12. Matters arising – All actions arising from the last meeting had been
completed apart from the updating of the Managing Absence and Ill Health
policy which will be tabled at the October FGB meeting.
13. Annual Safeguarding Review parts 1 and 2 – The Safeguarding self-
evaluation for schools document had been updated by the Safeguarding
governor and DHT and circulated to governors prior to the meeting. Actions
were outlined where required. This was proof that Governors were
compliant in respect of their safeguarding responsibilities. The Annual
Report to Governors on Safeguarding Children had also been provided
which enabled the GB to monitor compliance with the safeguarding
requirements as outlined in the document Keeping Children Safe in
Education. The completed document would be attached to the approved
FGB minutes.
The SEND Governor had met with the inclusion manager and her annual SEN
report had been circulated to governors.
14. Annual Training & Development report – The T&D Governor provided
governors with a breakdown of training attended by governors over the last
academic year including any on-line training or training provided by the
Diocese. New governors had attended the governor induction day run by
Governor Services and most governors had provided feedback on the impact
of training on their governor role. The T&D governor stressed the
importance of ensuring governors kept their training up to date to enable
them to keep up to date with themes relevant to their monitoring roles. The
School has an SLA with Edukent for governor training.
15. AOB – Any governors who have undertaken safer recruitment training to
provide the HT with their certificates. VR wishes to undertake SR training –
Clerk to provide details of 1-day course run by SPS.
16. Confidential items – none
17. Dates of FGB meetings for 2018/19 - as follows, all to begin at 6.15pm
on a Wednesday:-
10th October, 12th December, 30th January 2019. 13th March,15th May, 10th
July.

Meeting closed at 18.30pm

Governor actions
Agenda No Action Lead Gov
4 Find a new Foundation governor to GW
replace LC
5 Staff Governor to feed back to staff AMcL
leaving at the end of term 6 about an
exit interview with Chair of Governors if
so required.

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 6 IT monitoring report to be circulated to RS
Clerk
8 Governors to work alongside a party of MB. CK. RS
parents and staff to develop the school’s
Long-Term Strategic Plan and the new
SIAMS inspection process.

Set up a governor working party to look RB, VR, RB,

at spending priorities with regard to the PT
asset development plan.
9 Governors to re-visit suggested wording RB/VR/ME
in updated Finance Policy regarding
setting an amount at which 3 quoted are
required.
10 The following policies to be presented to
the next FGB meeting:-
Teaching & Learning JS/DT
Governor Visits MB
Managing absence and ill health DT
13 Annual safeguarding report to be Clerk
attached to these minutes once
approved
15 Provide details of 1-day safer Clerk
recruitment training to VR

Signed: Mark Bowring Date: 10.10.18

Chair of Governors

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