Chairs and Vice Chairs of Governors Network Meeting Saturday 8th February 2020

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A reminder that our Spring Term network meeting will be held at Jordans Quaker meeting house on Saturday week – 8th February .

A list of potential discussion topics is below- but as ever please add to , amend and prioritise as you see fit.

Any Chairs, Vice Chairs ( especially new ones) who wish to join this discussion/networking group are more than welcome

Here is the list of possible topics- please add to and highlight as you see fit
• OFSTED- new framework- inspection feedback
• School improvement support – options? side by side?- how is it going
• SEND- especially ARP funding
• Funding
• LA Liaison and partnership
• Governor training
• Clerking
• Governor and teacher recruitment
• Anything else?

Please let me know if you wish to join us for the first time so I can add you to the database anne.sheddick@gmail.com

BASG are sharing this information on behalf of the facilitator, If you are holding an event that supports Governance in Buckinghamshire and would like us to advertise them for you please contact us with the relevant information.

Spring Networking and Conference Spotlight on Disadvantaged

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Spotlight On Disadvantage and Networking
Sam Henson- Director of Policy and Information- National Governance Association, NGA

FREE to all Governors and senior Staff
Wednesday 25th March Booker Park Community School Aylesbury 6 – 9.30 pm

BOOK NOW to reserve your place

GO TO Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spotlight-on-disadvantage-sam-henson-director-of-policy-information-nga-tickets-91813507673

Following on from our successful Autumn Term event, BASG are delighted to invite BASG members – all Buckinghamshire Governors – and one member of their staff from Buckinghamshire schools to join us for FREE at our Spring Term event.
– ensuring that we continue with our theme of focusing on local and national issues – our focus will be a Spotlight on Disadvantaged.

We are fortunate that Sam Henson who is the NGA’s Director of Policy and Information will be talking to us about the NGA’s work on the Spotlight on Disadvantaged.
Since the introduction of the pupil premium in April 2011, little has been done to recognise the role of the governing board in spending the funding and more needs to be done to understand the impact of governance on supporting disadvantaged pupils. The NGA’s Spotlight on Disadvantaged campaign is informed by a new research report undertaken to explore the Governing Boards role in spending, monitoring and evaluating the pupil premium
Key findings of the work of the NGA are;

• Characteristics of the most effective pupil premium strategies (i.e. those that most strongly correlate with good outcomes for pupils) include: accounting for how every pound of the pupil premium budget is spent; having clear monitoring and success criterion for each initiative; and clarifying which group of pupils will receive funding.

• Analysis uncovered a ‘disconnect’ between the pastoral barriers to educational achievement facing pupils eligible for the pupil premium and the teaching and learning initiatives which schools are funding through the pupil premium.

• Governing boards view internal data and the opinions of senior members of staff more favourably than external data, academic research and the EEF toolkit when considering how to spend the pupil premium.

Timings – 18.00 – 21.30
6pm for arrival and networking
Refreshments will be provided
6.45pm to 7pm BASG update
7pm – Sam Henson NGA Director of Policy and Information – Spotlight on Disadvantaged

Venue
Booker Park Community School, Stoke Leys, Close, Aylesbury HP21 9ET
Parking available
SAT Nav postcode HP21 9EF

 

 

 

Safer Recruitment Webinar with Better Governor

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Thu, Jan 30, 2020 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM GMT

The webinar will be facilitated by Better Governor governance experts, Steve Barker and Linda Waghorn and will be a mix of input from them, together with the use of online polls and the opportunity to ask your own questions.

Safer recruitment (with Better Governor)

Thursday 30 January 2020, 8:00 am to 9:00 am

A key element of safeguarding is the vetting of applicants and prospective volunteers working with children to ensure they are not unsuitable.

We’ll look at what governors need to know about safer recruitment procedures, criminal record and other vetting checks, and the training governors and staff involved in recruitment should undertake.

The webinar will be led by usual hosts Steve Barker and Linda Waghorn. It will be fully interactive and include an opportunity to ask your own questions.

Click this link to sign up for this webinar

or copy and paste the link below

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7575656409303810315

Health & Safety Training for Buckinghamshire School Governors, 30th January 2020

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The next training event for Governors is Health and Safety, held on Thursday 30th January 2020 at County Hall, Aylesbury.

This is free and open to all Buckinghamshire school Governors and will start at 6.30pm to finish at 8pm.

Caron Owens, the Head of Health and Safety at Buckinghamshire County Council will lead the course.

Follow the link below to book your place:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/health-and-safety-training-for-governors-tickets-89248242897?utm_term=eventname_text

Chairs and Vice Chairs of Governors Network Meeting

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For all of you who usually attend the Chairs and Vice Chairs Governor Network Meeting at Jordans Quaker Meeting House (or anyone new who would like to join), please note that the next date is 8 February 2020 at 9:30 am.

More details will be circulated at the end of January.

Aylesbury Governor Network Meeting

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The Aylesbury Governor Spring Network Meeting has been arranged for 5th February 2020, 18.30-20.00hrs at Broughton Junior School. The meeting will provide you with an opportunity to talk with and listen to other governors about issues of the moment. The BCC Executive Director’s Briefings take place 7th and 9th January and these raise issues that are worthy of discussion.

An agenda for this event will be available at the end of January

Next week are the Executive Briefings for Headteachers, Chairs of Governors and Clerks – have you booked your place?

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FAO: Headteachers, Chairs of Governors and Clerks

Executive Director’s Briefings – 7th and 9th January 2020

Buckinghamshire County Council invite you to attend an Executive Director’s (Children’s Services) Briefing. This meeting will provide an opportunity for Buckinghamshire Headteachers, Chairs of Governors and Governor Clerks to hear key strategic updates from the Executive Director and Heads of Children’s Services, regarding:

• Updates on national and local issues
• Important information regarding the Unitary council and the impact on schools
• Children’s Services Ofsted improvement
• The continued development of Side by Side, as a school-led model of school improvement
• Buckinghamshire County Council service updates
• Statutory updates for Headteachers and Governors

Two briefings have been scheduled for January 2020, one in the morning and one in the evening. Please book your place at one of the following:

EVENING
7pm Tuesday 7th January, Mezz Rooms, County Hall, Aylesbury

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bcc-executive-director-briefing-tickets-84592956811?aff=ebdssbeac

 

MORNING
9.30am, Thursday 9th January, Millbrook School, High Wycombe

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bcc-executive-director-briefing-tickets-84595006943?aff=ebdssbeac

Refreshments will be available 30 minutes prior to the meetings.

BASG AGM and Mick Waters – 27th November

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On Wednesday 27th November 2019 the Buckinghamshire Association of School Governors (BASG) held their AGM; the main focus of the evening was for Mick Waters to talk about the Governors Role in Curriculum Effectiveness Balance in all Respects.

BASG had planned this event during the Summer Term, once they had heard about Ofsted’s approach to the changes to their Inspection Framework from September 2019, with a focus on the quality of education and the curriculum and its intent, implementation and impact.

There was a great turnout for the AGM, most notably to listen to Mick’s knowledge and experience on the curriculum.  Mick has a vast amount of experience as an Education Consultant and his previous role as the Director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Teachers, Headteachers, Governors, Chairs of Governors and even the Head of Achievement & Learning from Buckinghamshire County Council were in the audience.

Mick Waters spent two hours discussing the curriculum and taking questions at the end. The audience sat in silence as he discussed the importance of how you could use moments of news for the potential of learning and that pupils learn all of the time, whether we want them to or not! Mick spoke about what the curriculum is about, not just lessons, but routines, events, learning outside the classroom, what happens out of school and environments that children are involved in.

It was clear to the large number of Governors present that Governors, when visiting their Schools and talking to teaching staff, should check for themselves how much the children are gaining from every minute of their school-time experiences – it’s about more than the formal teaching of the curriculum inside the classroom.

Mick spent time focussing on what are we trying to achieve – intent. How do we organise – implementation. How do you know it is successful – impact and the leadership around these areas, Intent being integrity, implementation being to improve and impact to have insight.

The presentation had its moments of humour and was also thought provoking and inspirational.

Initial feedback on this event has been extremely positive, BASG will now aim to hold an event during the Spring Term with another high-quality speaker.

BASG AGM with Mick Waters

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We are delighted to invite all school governors to join us at the AGM

 

Wed, 27 November 2019

The venue for our AGM is St Michael’s Catholic School, Daws Hill Lane, High Wycombe HP11 1PW.

Timings are: 18.30 arrival and opportunity to network
19.00 – 19.30 – AGM
19.30 – 21.00 – Guest Speaker – Mike Waters
21.00 – 21.30 – Questions for Mike Waters and a further networking opportunity

 

The early notice is being sent to you, to allow you to book the date in your diaries NOW.

Tickets are available to book via Eventbrite

We have limited tickets for this event and are offering them on a first come first served basis. Three tickets per Governing Boards (Two for Governors and One for a staff member if you wish to bring somebody from your school).

 

Our Special guest and speaker Mick Waters talk about curriculum issues.

 

Mick Waters, Professor of Education, University of Wolverhampton

Mick has been a teacher, Headteacher, Director of Education and was Director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) at the time that the National Curriculum was introduced into schools.

Professor Mick Waters is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Teachers and he supports several educational causes. He is a patron of the Children’s University which offers a range of learning opportunities beyond the school environment and of SAPERE, which promotes Philosophy for Children as a route to learning. Mick is also a patron of the Curriculum Foundation which seeks to promote a voice for the power and potential of the whole curriculum; he currently works with schools in the West Midlands in raising standards.

Mick believes that every child should have a moment; he is passionate about improving life chances for pupils and enjoys asking adults to look at learning through the eyes of a pupil.
Mick understands and supports the role of governors and can help us to understand the questions we should be asking of our schools, in the best interests of our children across Buckinghamshire.