Governor Blog January 15.1.24

On 15th January, the governing body met for their first meeting of the calendar year.

After agreeing to the previous meeting's minutes, Mr Cowling's headteacher report was discussed.

Pupil numbers were discussed before attention turned to the quality of education.  This included an overview of the most recent assessment data and follow-up actions from each year group.  Mrs Cotton also gave an update regarding the latest developments in the reading provision across school.  This included the changes to provision, impact on outcomes as well as monitoring in school and by governors.

Other school priorities were discussed too and this included an update from Mr Coupland regarding subject leadership development, curriculum development and ongoing staff training regarding cognition and retrieval opportunities.

We also heard about some of the many exciting opportunities being provided to our children which included:

Mini Monsters: On Thursday 25th January we have a Mini Monsters Roadshow visiting school. The children will have the opportunity to look at and handle all of the animals with the exception of the tarantulas. This experience is based on the children's 'Animals and Habitats' topic and will bring their learning to life.  

VR Experience: On Friday 9th February, our ICT provider, ARK ICT, are going to be bringing in their set of virtual reality (VR) headsets and the children in our year 5 and 6 classes will be having a VR experience. It will be based on their Geography topic 'Why should the rainforest be important for us all?' which will help bring their learning to life. We have heard amazing reviews of these events and we cannot wait to try them out at Fosse Way.

Sports:  30 Year 4 pupils competed in a multisports festival at NK.  All of the children represented the school brilliantly and thoroughly enjoyed representing the school.  Football fixtures for the mixed team and girls'  team are beginning again this week.  Years 1 to 6 are also starting to participate in virtual sports competitions now too.  This will involve every child taking part in a sport to earn points for our school which will then feed into a league table featuring other primary schools.

Next, we discussed behaviour and welfare.  It was pleasing to hear that attendance levels remain above the national average and persistent absence levels (below 90%) remain notably lower than the latest national and local figures.  During the behaviour update, we reviewed the latest analysis along with an overview of the support and education which has been put in place, where appropriate.

Mr O'Halloran provided his usual update regarding finances.  Aspects of the budget currently on track to be above or below the budgeted amount were discussed.  Reasons for these changes were shared and this included additional staffing requirements to support children's needs and upfront costs for annual services.

Discussions then turned to personal development opportunities.  These include the usual wide range of extra-curricular sports and:

NSPCC Online Assemblies for Y1 to Y6 pupils:

We are participating in the NSPCC’s ‘Speak out - Stay safe’ programme this term. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a safe adult or Childline.

This child friendly programme is aligned with our curriculum and consists of age appropriate virtual assemblies and supporting classroom based activities which we have reviewed, alongside NSPCC volunteer led face to face workshops for children aged 6-7 (Year 2) and 9-11 (Year 5 and 6). The content is delivered in an engaging and interactive way with the help of the NSPCC mascot Buddy.

Speak out Stay safe programme | NSPCC Learning

Bags of Character programme:

We have allocated places to pupils for our ‘Bags of Character’ programme.  It will be delivered by Premier Education - our sports/PE specialist providers. The children are from Years 4, 5 and 6.

What is a Bag of Character?

A ‘Bag of Character’ is a sturdy waterproof holdall full of ideas and equipment required for warm-ups, team challenge, reviews and session planning. Everything has a focus on meeting a wide range of team and personal development outcomes at every level.  The bag includes a comprehensive operations manual and associated CPD Institute for Outdoor Learning accredited training.

The training focuses on facilitation skills, how to pitch the learning and achieve desired outcomes. Think of Challenge Kit and associated activity as a playground for everyone, but with measurable and meaningful outcomes!

Aim a Little Higher programme:

This programme, delivered by Aim a Little Higher, focuses on the development of Bravery, Resilience, Communication Skills, Focus and Kindness and helps children to unlock their own super powers. Initially, Year 3 and Year 4s will undertake the work.

Festival of Friends

We are taking part in the Armed Forces ‘Festival of Friends’ initiative this year. It is for the personal development of our forces pupils.

Next on the agenda was a safeguarding and health and safety update.  This included a safeguarding support summary from Mr Cowling, the successfully completed Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Safeguarding Compliance Checklist and changes to the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ statutory guidance document.

We will provide another update following our next meeting.