Governors

For the Governing Board of Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist Primary School Academic Year 2024-25

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 2024 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 core functions of the Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist Primary School Governing Board are to ensure:

• that the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined
• that the headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of the school
• the sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources

The Governing Body consists of

• 7 foundation governors
• 1 head teacher governor
• 2 elected staff governors
• 2 parent governors
• 1 Local authority governor

This constitution is laid down in the Instrument of Government for Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist 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

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.

During 2023/24 the following meetings were held: -

Full Governing Body 7 (this includes two emergency full governing board meetings)

Finance, Pay & Premises Committee 2

Standards and Performance Committee 1

Personnel Committee 4

The majority of the meetings were held in person, and some were hybrid allowing for those with work commitments to join online. Committee meetings were held online.

The work we have done on our committees and on the Governing Board in 2023-24

The substantive head teacher left the post in September 2023 and a new headteacher was appointed during a period of significant transition, which coincided with staffing challenges. As such, the vast majority of the work covered by the Governing Board of Seventh-day Adventist 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. A new committee for Personnel was formed for this year to oversee staffing, structure, recruitment and pay reviews.

The Finance Committee met twice to continue to oversee the financial management of the school and received detailed updates from the school leadership. The Governing Board also secured the services of DRB, an accounting agency, to provide a bursary service and implement the transition from the old accounting system CMIS to SIMS.

 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 impacted by falling pupil numbers.

The Standards & Performance committee meeting’s main focus has been 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 reading across school. Although there is more work to be done in this area in order to improve outcomes in Reading at the end of Key Stage 1 and 2, the governors did have an opportunity to see the good progress that children had made.

The full Governing Board have met seven times and have received termly Leadership reports that provided an overview of how the school was managing the impact of the head teacher’s long-term absence, recruitment difficulties, and staff retention issues as well as progress towards school improvement targets. During full GB meetings, governors have been provided with regular safeguarding updates.

The Personnel committee meeting’s main focus has been to oversee the recruitment process and identifying training needs for staff and governors and working with the SLT to ensure an effective staff structure and leadership is in place.

The end-of-year outcomes for Year 6 were not reflective of the school’s high expectations for all pupils, highlighting the need for strengthened leadership, improved consistency in teaching, and better adherence to school-wide standards. The Governing Body engaged the services of a consultant to rebuild stability and to provide leadership support and strategic direction.

 

The work we are going to do during 2024-25

During 2024-25 we are intending to ensure all governors are deployed as link governors for key areas which include Safeguarding, SEND, Finance, Pupil Premium, Health and Well-Being, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science and Religious Education to support and monitor better outcomes for the children and the school. We intend to continue meeting regularly in committees and as a full Governing Board to fulfil our core functions as a Governing Board. Specifically, we will endeavour to support the school with the following:

• Further develop the teaching of reading across school in order to ensure that more children achieve both age-related expectations and greater depth in reading, 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 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.

​Ofsted July 2019

• Governance is effective. Governors hold senior leaders to account well.
• They have monitored the use of the school’s finances, notably in how this has improved teaching and academic standards.
• Governors ensure that their statutory duties are met. They check that staff understand and implement safeguarding arrangements appropriately.
• Governors ensure that the pupil premium funding is used to address the barriers affecting disadvantaged pupils’ learning.