Goodbye Rev Mills

We have been back to the usual business of Local Governing Body (LGB) work since the start of the new academic year. This will be the first full year of the academy and we are working closely with the trust to continue to align the committee structures, LGB processes and policies so we can best work together as a trust academy. A tremendous amount of  work has gone into this years budget and, despite the challenges it has presented, the significant efforts of the leadership team and all the teaching and support staff have reaped benefits for the school and ultimately its pupils. We will of course continue to monitor the national funding formula and its development and keep you posted. The committees have met in line with requirements with two meetings each of curriculum, Policy & Resources and Full Governing Body having taken place.

It is with sadness, but much appreciation that we are saying goodbye to Rev Mills after 17 years service as a Governor at Kingston Park, much of it as Vice Chair as he retires both from St John’s and the Governing body. As a Governing body we would like to thank Rev Mills for his commitment, devotion, service and significant contribution to the continuing development of Kingston Park Primary School since the year 2000. His presence and guidance will be missed by all and we pray for a long and happy retirement for Rev Mills.

Easter Edition

Its been another busy term at KPPS for Governors. Some detail of our role can be found here. As well as the usual activities such as Policy and Resourcing, Curriculum and Full Governing Body meetings each half term there have been a number of additional activities we have all been involved in. We have attended a number of assemblies to support our allocated year groups and Rev Mills has regularly participated. Governors are linked individually to a class within the school, visits and communication with teachers and the class assist us to remain in contact with the school and its population. We have attended parents evenings, both as parents and Governors to be available for discussion. A group of governors has been involved in monitoring, we are required to look at different subject areas and this term we have looked at Science. A series of workshops were designed and delivered across most year groups. We obtained feedback from parents who attended, pupils and staff to gain insight into how the science curriculum is delivered and viewed by stakeholders. Governors have also attended training to keep up to date with the ever changing and improving safeguarding strategies from both central government and the local authority. This has also included details of the PREVENT strategy that is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. One of our Governors is particularly talented at statistical analysis of achievement monitoring and spends quite some time working with Senior Leadership Team (SLT) drilling down into anonymous individual pupil performance data and to demonstrate sustained progress to ensure each pupil is achieving their maximum potential and in readiness for OFSTED. The SLT, teaching & support staff and Governors remain at a continued state of readiness for inspection by OFSTED, who can call to inspect at very short notice.

KPPS has been rewarded in a number of ways recently. We have been placed in the top 2% nationally in the Top Schools Guide 2017 and number 3 locally which is a tremendous achievement.

The school has also been awarded as a North of England representative in the The Parliamentary Review  for Primary Education which demonstrates how sector leaders have responded to challenges in the political and economic environment as a school considered to demonstrate best practice.

We have also received the NACE Challenge award as only the 3rd school North of Tyne and one of 391 nationally to achieve the award. The NACE Challenge Award is a nationally recognised quality mark given to schools that have developed good provision for more able and talented learners. It has a reputation for being one of the most purposeful, rigorous yet supportive awards that schools can achieve.

There is much to be proud of and we would like to thank the staff and pupils for their continuing efforts to make  Kingston Park the outstanding school it is and the parents for their support and contribution. Have a happy Easter.

The Governing Body

Christmas Edition

In this half term much has happened at KPPS. We have formally become part of the SMART academy, which has changed the role of our governing body with the academy trust. We now operate, after reconstituting,  as a Local Governing Body (LGB) under the Academy Board of Trustees who are responsible for, and oversee the general control, management and administration of the Academy Trust and the schools run by the Academy Trust. The Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) members are, as well as Kingston Park Primary; Cheviot Primary, Farne Primary, Kenton Bar Primary, Mountfield Primary, North Fawdon Primary, Stocksfield Avenue Primary and Wyndham Primary. We look forward to working with the MAT and continuing to work the Trust Board to provide the best of opportunities and experiences to become successful citizens and lifelong learners able to lead happy, fulfilling and healthy lives. In terms of structure of the LGB, it is broadly similar to the previous governing body with some changes to the decision making powers locally and constitution of the LGB. These changes however, will not impact negatively on the schools within the MAT but will reinforce the excellence of teaching and education you have come to expect at Kingston Park and provide a new collective of collaboration to be used for the benefit of the MAT as a whole.

Much of the second half of the term has been taken up with integrating the LGB into the reformed governance arrangements of the MAT. However much Governor activity has continued during this time. Sub-committee meetings have continued with P&R, Curriculum, staffing  and Head Teacher performance having met and conducted business as normal in each half term. The committee structure and terms of reference will be reviewed in the new term in line with the requirements of Central Government and MAT Board. Governors have undertaken Monitoring with a focus this term on parent’s evenings and the information available to parents at these essential events. Governors have also been involved in shortlisting and interview for classroom assistants posts. There has continued to be a detailed review and challenge of school priorities and how performance data is tracked and managed. Much of this work is essential in preparation for OFSTED inspection and focuses on supporting and challenging the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The LGB work closely with the  (SLT) and remain in a continued state of readiness for inspection at short notice as well as supporting the SLT, teaching and support staff in their delivery of  day to day school activities as required. High on the government agenda at present is the prevent strategy. This is the strategy of awareness and reporting for issues relating to child safeguarding and specifically radicalisation which is already woven into school policy. Staff and Governors were in attendance at a recent training event to increase awareness and integration of prevent as a safeguarding theme. There have been some more enjoyable practical tasks to attend to this half term with Governors being represented at each of the key stage Christmas Performances, which were as always performed to a standard where parents and teachers should continue to feel proud of their children and fellow pupils.

Can we take this opportunity to wish all staff, parents and pupils a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. We look forward to working with Kingston Park in 2017.

 

New Governor Blog!

Welcome to the Governor blog for Kingston Park Primary School. This is a new resource for parents and visitors to the website intended to give an insight into the work of the Governors at the school. The intention is that the blog will be published on a termly basis, most commonly in the second half of the term to detail meetings that have taken place, visits by Governors, monitoring, courses attended and anything else that may be of use to help understand our role. This edition is to introduce how we work, our position and responsibilities within the School and Trust structure.

The Governors role is  to work to support the overall development of the pupils. We achieve this in a number of ways by being involved in:

• Planning the future direction of the school
• Monitoring and evaluating the progress of the school against these plans
• Supporting and challenging the school team
• Being accountable to parents and others about the school’s performance
  and
• Ensuring all statutory duties are carried out, including as a trust being the employer of staff and being the admitting authority. (The Trust holds the land and assets in trust)

In order to carry out this work we

• Work closely with the school team
• Have six full Governing Body meetings a year; one in each half term.
• Work on committees to which the Governing Body has delegated key areas of responsibility, meeting on a regular basis.
• Visit the school
• Attend training
• Recognise that the Headteacher is responsible for the implementation of management of the school and the implementation of the curriculum
• Self-evaluate our own practices regularly

The composition of the Governing Body is currently a total of 16 Governors consisting at present of 6 Parent Governors, 4 co-opted Governors, 2 trust governors, 2 staff Governors (including Headteacher), 1 Local Education Authority (LEA) Governors and 2 Associates, however this may change as we move towards a multi-academy trust.

The governing body is responsible for;

• Setting the overall budget for the school
• Deciding on the staffing structure
• Deciding on the level of pay for teachers
• Helping decide the priorities for the school when the school improvement plan is being developed
• Ensuring the National Curriculum is taught to all pupils
• Monitoring targets for pupil achievement
• Publishing national test and exam results
• Comparing the performance of schools to similar schools
• Receiving information about the quality of teaching in the school
• Having a published strategy for dealing with parental complaints and concerns
• Ensuring health and safety/ risk management/ safeguarding issues are addressed
• Setting the times of school sessions
• Setting term time and holiday dates
• Work with the Head Teacher when making decisions
• Asking challenging questions
• Helping develop school policies and priorities
• Considering the repair and maintenance of the school buildings
• Considering the use of school premises outside school hours
• Appointing committees of Governors to look at specific issues such as finance, staffing, curriculum

Governing Bodies Do not

• Inspect the school
• Report on the quality of teaching
• Share concerns about staff capability
• Decide on how pupils are taught different subjects
• Have the right to exclude pupils
• Write school policies on their own
• Authorise all expenditure
• Rubber stamp recommendations from the Head Teacher
• Need to be aware of the performance objectives which have been set for individual teachers

Committee Meetings: 

There are 6 committees:

Policy and Resources; Curriculum and Pupil Performance; Staffing; Pupil Discipline, Appeals and Complaints; Head Teacher’s Performance Management.

• Each meets at least once a term (Except appeals and complaints which meets as the need arises)
• The Chair of the committee is responsible for setting the agenda in discussion with the Headteacher and Clerk to the committee.
• All members may ask for items to be included on the agenda (as above)
• Each committee has an annual programme of work and produces written action minutes which are sent promptly to the Clerk to the Governing Body for circulation with the papers for full Governing Body meetings.
• Each committee has an agreed remit.

If you have any questions for Governors, please contact us via the school administrators, we look forward to keeping you more informed about the work we do.

Come back soon for updates from the School Governing Body