Governor Impact

Academy

Bewbush

Chair of Governors

Ben Cooper

Date

11^th October 2022

Governance at Bewbush Primary Academy within TKAT

Bewbush Primary academy is part of TKAT, a Multi-academy Trust. The Trust is a charity and its board of trustees must ensure that it complies with its charitable objects which relate to the provision of education in its schools. As such it is the Trust board which is accountable for the performance of the Academies in the Trust, and in turn, it is held to account by the Department for Education. The Trust has chosen to appoint committees for each of its academies and these are known as a local governing body (LGBs). The LGB’s responsibilities are set out in a document known as the Scheme of Delegation which is available on TKAT’s and Academy’s website.

Vision

At present the school does not have a current vision statement, instead focussing efforts around Ethos and Value, which are:

To support our children to grow into well-rounded citizens we have based our values around The Bewbush Five:

• We are polite and kind to others
• We bring a positive attitude to school
• We always try our best
• We are proud of our school
• We make the right choices

Above all things we promote being kind to others.

Our aim for all is to:

• Aim high
• Build confidence
• Broaden horizons

With a new headteacher in post, creation of a revised vision for the school will be an important part of our collective work in 2022/23.

Organisation of LGB

The current constitution allows for 9 governors: 1 headteacher (ex-officio), 1 staff, 2 parents and up to 5 LGB appointed governors.

At 1^st October 22, we currently have vacancies for up to 2 appointed governors, 2 parents and 1 staff governor. Recruitment is underway to fill these vacancies.

At the time of writing, the new Headteacher is actively encouraging staff to become governors and we intend to increase the number of staff governors to 2, one teaching and one non-teaching. The head is also writing to parents, in conjunction with the Chair to encourage them to come forward to represent the school community. We also have 3 prospective appointed governors. We are keen to over recruit to build strength and skills and so we can allow TKAT appointed members to step away in due course. We will adjust our constitution accordingly should we be successful if recruiting in all areas noted above.

As the LGB is currently under strength, not all link roles are fulfilled. Only those with a mandatory of direct impact are currently assigned.

*Denotes mandatory

There are six meetings of the full Local Governing Body (LGB) each academic year. One per half term. At present there are no standing committees, however, a pay awards committee will be formed in the Autumn term each year to review annual staff pay awards.

Our Impact in 2021/22

It is fair to say that the work of the local governing body during the academic year was impacted by Covid restrictions and a lack of governors.

During the academic year we said goodbye to Bhavita Vithlani (Parent), Catherine Snell (Appointed Governor) and Flora Shaw (Teaching staff). At the end of the year, our Chair of governors stood down after 8 years as a governor at Bewbush. Having moved house, she was not able to visit the school as much as she had done previously due to the logistics and time for travel alongside other commitments. The impact of losing governors and the reduced engagement from our Chair meant that our governance was not as strong as it needed to be.

Whilst we continued to hold our LGB meetings as planned, they remained a hybrid of in person and remote meetings. Wherever possible we continued to receive reports from members of SLT and subject leads at our meetings. 

Despite having a reduced number of governors, those remaining maintained a regular series of link visits around key areas such as safeguarding, finance and teaching and learning. In total, 7 visits were carried out and reports shared with the LGB, including one full LGB visit with learning walk in November 2021. It should be noted that Trust guidance was for no LGB visits during the first two months of 2022.

Curriculum presentations and visits over the year have allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the curriculum model and pose challenge particularly around the way the school measures the retention of knowledge through both formal and informal assessment practices. As a result, practice has been adjusted and we now need to be assured that this is having impact through pupil discussion.

Although there is still work to do with TKAT ACE implementation, the LGB have been key in ensuring that this trust-wide initiative was taken on. We expect the impact of this to be seen more clearly as this initiative is extended and embedded. Further to this, we have taken a strategic approach to the appointment and allocation of teaching staff and, as a result, allocations for this academic year feel more secure and thought-through than the model originally presented to us in the summer term.

Finance visits have crossed over two business managers, however they have been used to ensure the school is on-track to meet the original budget. These visits have also been used to chase and clarify previous queries about variances in cost centres. As a result, at the end of 21-22, the school was on-track to at least meet the original set budget.

The Chair of Governors maintained regular email and telephone communication with the Headteacher outside of their formal visits and LGB meetings.

The Chair of Governors worked closely with Neil Small, Senior Director, in the appointment of our new headteacher.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion

The board priority selected by the LGB in 2020/21 is:

Equality, diversity and inclusion must become core Trustee and Local Governing Body Business. No one should be a member of any Board if they cannot confidently explain to all stakeholders why tackling race discrimination is important for the Trust and demonstrate what they are doing personally to achieve this.

However, following the adoption of this priority, other than Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training, there has been no further proactive work to ensure the priority is embedded in the school and LGB. This will need to become a focus for 22/23 academic year and the new CoG and HT.  

2022/23 Areas for Focus

In 2022/23, the key areas for focus by the LGB will be:

• Governor recruitment – Ensuring we complete the year with a full complement of governors
• Providing training, support and development for our new and existing Governors
• Establishment of regular link/learning walk visits – Getting our governors into school on a regular basis as part of themed learning walks led by SLT and through completion of link role meetings. Combined these will provide deeper knowledge of the school, curriculum, policies and processes and will also give us chance to speak to the children about their experience of the school.
• To ensure the ACE Tutor programme is fully embedded and monitor the impact this is having with our PP students
• Focus on the development and progress of reading as a core strategy throughout the school
• Monitor student oracy around personal progress on learning journeys
• Reviewing the development of the wider curriculum by speaking to subject leads at LGB meetings and making this a focus of learning walks.
• Staff wellbeing – ensuring our staff feel safe and well looked after in school and have ample opportunities for training and development subject to their own personal career goals
• Work with the SLT to develop a school vision