Governance

Clerk to the Governors (from September 2019) - Rebecca Blakeway-Long

Clerk to the Governors (September 2018 - July 2019) - Sarah Vonk

Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings for 2019/20

All meetings take place at The Fen Rivers Academy and start at 4:00 p.m.

Autumn Term 2019

10th October

28th November

Spring Term 2020

30th January

12th March

Summer Term 2020

21st May

9th July

Summer Term 2019 - Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings:

27th June 2019 - minutes to be agreed at next meeting

86% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Jade Collinge-Long (Staff Governor)

Sarah Dennis (Community Governor)

Mark Littlewood (Community Governor)

Fiona Saul (Staff Governor) 

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

In attendance: Graham Payne (Catch22 MAT)

Apologies: James Moore (Catch22 MAT) / Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

16th May 2019 - minutes agreed

One declaration of interest declared by governors: SWR works for Educator Solutions.

100% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Jade Collinge-Long (Staff Governor)

Fiona Saul (Staff Governor) 

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

In attendance: Graham Payne (Catch22 MAT)

Apologies: James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

Spring Term 2019 - Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings:

14th March 2019 - minutes agreed

One declaration of interest declared by governors: SWR works for Educator Solutions.

80% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Jade Collinge-Long (Staff Governor)

Fiona Saul (Staff Governor) - apologies

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

In attendance: James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

17th January 2019 - minutes agreed

One declaration of interest declared by governors: SWR works for Educator Solutions.

60% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Jade Collinge-Long (Staff Governor) - apologies

Fiona Saul (Staff Governor) - apologies

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

In attendance: James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

Autumn Term 2018 - Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings:

7th November - minutes agreed

One declaration of interest declared by governors: SWR works for Educator Solutions.

100% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Jade Collinge-Long (Staff Governor)

Fiona Saul (Staff Governor)

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

Faye Morse (Parent Governor)

In attendance: James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

20th September - minutes agreed

One declaration of interest declared by governors: SWR works for Educator Solutions.

100% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Maryanne Budner (Staff Governor)

Toni Rainbow (Staff Governor)

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

Faye Morse (Parent Governor)

In attendance: James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

Summer Term 2018 - Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings:

14th June - minutes agreed

No declarations of interest declared by governors.

100% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Maryanne Budner (Staff Governor)

Toni Rainbow (Staff Governor)

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

Alison Townsend (Community Governor) - resigned from post 31/8/18

14th May - minutes agreed

No declarations of interest declared by governors.

100% governor attendance

Sue Conlon (Headteacher)

Suzanne Walker (Chair of Governors)

Maryanne Budner (Staff Governor)

Toni Rainbow (Staff Governor)

Jo Shinn (Community Governor)

Alison Townsend (Community Governor)

Graham Payne (Catch22 MAT)

James Moore (Catch22 MAT)

Local Governing Body (LGB) meetings for 2018/19

Autumn Term 2018

20th September

7th November

Spring Term 2019

17th January

14th March

Summer Term 2019

16th May

27th June

Catch22 maintains a sponsor relationship with the Catch22 Multi Academies Trust (the MAT), exercising control through being a member of the MAT and appointing Trustees.

The MAT, which is an independent charity, has its own Board made up of Trustees, senior executives and advisors, and oversees the Catch22 academy schools.

The Trustees are appointed to oversee the operations and strategic direction of the charity. As such, the objective is that they have significant experience of senior operational, strategic and educational leadership, combined with knowledge of young people in difficult situations more broadly.

Local Governing Bodies (LGB)

The Fen Rivers Academy is connected to its community through a local governing body. The local body should have a clear area of focus and a formal delegation scheme setting out its responsibilities.

Structure

• Three members from the local community, likely to include local schools and colleges. One of these members will chair the LGB
• Two parent or parent representative governors
• Two staff representatives, elected by staff
• The Headteacher
• A further senior Catch22 representative who is not normally a member of the MAT Board.

Skills

• Organisational leadership
• Performance management
• Educational delivery in alternative provisions and mainstream settings including reintegration of pupils into mainstream
• Safeguarding
• Human resource management including staff development
• Knowledge of the local labour market.

Responsibilities

Strategic and financial oversight sits with the MAT Board, curriculum development and staff performance management sits with the relevant Headteacher, and community/parent engagement and school performance sits with the LGB. This enables the LGB and the school to benefit from shared expertise including the provision of financial and other KPI reports that will support their decision making in the day to day running of the school.

Decisions and functions reserved for the MAT Board include:

• setting MAT vision and strategy
• agreeing the annual strategic plan for the MAT
• approving individual school plans
• setting annual budgets
• financial oversight and accountability
• appointing Executive Principals and Headteachers
• new policy development
• safeguarding review (including Prevent)
• health and safety review
• risk management.

Matters delegated to the Headteacher include (but not exclusively):

• developing and implementing an appropriate curriculum
• setting appropriate performance targets for staff
• completing annual reviews
• recruitment of deputy head and teaching/school staff
• achieving progress and outcomes as defined in the school plan
• safety in school, working to safeguarding policies and practices
• working to health and safety policies and practices.

The Local Governing Body, whilst engaged and consulted on a range of issues, is directly responsible for:

• curriculum development
• prospectus content
• parent engagement and support
• local profile and marketing of the school
• community relations and community cohesion
• relationships with schools and colleges and creating progression pathways
• monitoring student progress
• monitoring safeguarding of young people
• monitoring health and safety
• school performance, comparing outcomes for young people with the national standard.

In summary, the LGB is responsible for the curriculum, standards and school improvement; the day to day running of the school including compliance with standard operating procedures/policies and community and parental engagement, including feedback from young people and parents.

Performance assessment of the LGB will be based on:

• execution of its duties in a timely way
• feedback from staff and parents and young people
• progress of the school against its plan.

Operation of the LGB

Meetings and papers

The Local Governing Body (LGB) will meet at least termly. Papers will be prepared in advance by the Headteacher to an agreed agenda with the chair of the LGB. These will include a review of the implementation of the Education Plan, the latest financial and KPI reports, supported by a commentary by the Headteacher on these and the use of resources at the school. The review of the Education Plan will identify any areas of the curriculum where attention is required to improve delivery. This suite of reports, produced and distributed independently of the Headteacher will enable the LGB to track performance see clearly if the school is improving. These reports will inform the LGB decision making and enable them to challenge the Headteacher on performance if necessary.

Standard operating procedures

The LGB also has a responsibility for the adherence of the school to defined procedures and policies. A suite of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the day to day running of the school are defined in the Catch22 Blueprint for Education. The Blueprint is supported by a suite of policies that define standards and expectations for the running of the Academy across a range of topics such as safeguarding, diversity, health and safety. The ownership of these will be split across the LGB members who will become Link Governors for their own specialities. For instance, the Link Governor for Safeguarding, Prevent and SEND would be responsible for giving challenge and support to the school in these areas. The Governor would complete a termly visit and giving direct feedback to the school and also sharing the outcomes at the next LGB meeting for inclusion in the minutes.

Governors can challenge policies and the views of the school staff and LGB will be actively be sought in this ongoing development. The school will also be able to supplement the policies with specific local policies where this is required to meet the needs of their cohort or community.

Assessing performance

LGB members will also be able to assess school performance through feedback from parents, pupils and teachers. The presence of Parent Governors will ensure there is first hand experience of the day-to-day academy operation within the LGB and they will be encouraged to share their feedback at LGB meetings. All members of the LGB will be expected to visit classes to observe lesson delivery and gain face to face feedback from teaching staff on a termly basis. LGB members will also conduct formal visits to review performance in their own specialist areas on an annual basis. For example, the member of the LGB with responsibility for Human Resourecs will be seeking evidence of compliance to the relevant policies such as Safeguarding and Equality and Diversity. LGB members will also be given a summary report of parent evenings and other surveys.

The Chair of the LGB will note any areas of performance where they have concerns in the LGB meeting minutes and the Executive Principal will be tasked by the MAT Board to set out an action plan for the Headteacher to execute detailing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) targets for improvement. The Executive Principal will share this plan with both the Headteacher for action at the school and the Chair of the LGB. The Executive Principal will be responsible for monitoring progress against this action plan and will provide updates to the Chair of the LGB for review at subsequent meetings.

Decisions

All decisions made within the LGB meetings will be documented in the minutes. The Executive Principal will ensure that the Headteacher follows up on these and that the outcomes of these decisions are tracked and reviewed in future LGB meetings and noted in subsequent minutes.