IN SPOTLIGHT – Page 17 – Bucks Association of School Governors

NGA – Ensuring continuity and making plans for recovery

1st September 2020/in Coronavirus Update, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

As schools welcome back all staff and pupils at the beginning of the autumn term, they will be getting used to new ways of operating in order to keep everyone safe. Governing boards and school leaders will need time to assess the needs of pupils as they return to school so that they can make the right plans to support every pupil.

NGA-COVID-19_Recovery-and-continuity-guidance_August-2020

This guidance is relevant to all types of state school and academy trust in England. It covers:

key considerations for monitoring the safe opening of schools
a collaborative approach to evaluating the impact of COVID-19 and subsequent recovery planning
virtual governance: tips to conduct successful virtual meetings and virtual monitoring
resuming elections and other board business

NGA – COVID-19- Information sheet – Monitoring full school opening August 2020

1st September 2020/in Coronavirus Update, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Implementing operational plans is the responsibility of school leaders. However, the governing board should have a level of oversight and confidence that plans have been implemented successfully. This is important given the board’s duty to promote the wellbeing of pupils, its responsibilities as the employers of staff and wider duties under health and safety legislation

NGA-COVID-19_Information-sheet_Monitoring-full-school-opening_August-2020

This information sheet provides advice for governing boards on monitoring the return of an increased number of pupils to schools. It includes considerations for monitoring:

the implementation of essential control measures
welcoming staff back into school
attendance
contingency plans for outbreaks
maintaining a full, broad and balanced curriculum

BASG Executive Minutes 17/8/2020

30th August 2020/in BASG Minutes, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Meeting:

BASG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Date & Time:

17 August 2020 at 18.00 hours

Location:

Virtual meeting through Zoom

Present:

Apologies:

Paul Randall (Chair), Anne Sheddick (Vice Chair), Maggi Bull, Jo Pearce,

Joanne Marchant, Peter Lerner, Bernadette Allison (Secretary)

Gwyneth Langley, Tomas Pukalski

Agenda Subject

Action

1.

Apologies for absence

Gwyneth Langley

Tomas Pukalski

2.

Notification of any other business

· Autumn Term agendas

· Clerking

· AGM

3.

Declaration of interest

Maggi Bull – Chair of NGA

4.

Approval of minutes from the meeting held on 7.07.2020

Minutes approved – follow up is on-going

(Newsletter, website, AGM)

5.

Consultative Board

MB is due to meet with SJ with an agenda focused on governance.

MB chairs the Consultative Board and liaises with BC. Attendance of officers is important so as to ensure representation and involvement in agenda items and coverage of LA responsibilities.

Terms of reference need to be updated.

In the present circumstances, it was considered to be important for a presence at the meeting from ‘Public Health’.

MB will follow up.

MB

6.

Communication with

Buckinghamshire County Council (BC)

PR is looking at agendas for governance and the coming term/year and its circulation. He will follow up with a couple of members of the group.

PR is at present in discussion with BC regarding the training agenda for the coming school year.

Discussion took place about an annual planner for school governance showing what is required within governance over a school year. Although these are available through governor organisations it is important to have dates/deadlines included from a local perspective.

Discussion also took place about whether there will be virtual LA briefings, as face to face meetings have not taken place since the beginning of 2020.

School Improvement does need to be considered and how the Side by Side initiative is being taken through into 2020/21. It was felt that School Improvement should be linked with Governance consistently.

PR

7.

Networking Groups

It was felt that it would be helpful for Networking groups to receive key information of events from the Consultative Board and the LA so as to ensure clear knowledge and communication of relevant information across governance in Buckinghamshire.

8.

School opening for more pupils

There is a wealth of information available from:

· Buckinghamshire Council

· DfE

· NGA

· The Key

Discussion about the resumption of Ofsted visits as of the end of September. It was felt that more information regarding this would be helpful. Concerns were raised about additional pressures for schools in the present situation of settling all pupils and staff back to school.

9.

AGM 2020

PR and MB are following up on organizing ‘speakers’ for the event which will take place in Spring 2021.

PR/MB

10.

AOB

Clerking – Agenda for Autumn Term 2020

PR and JP will link on this

PGL – There has been follow up by schools on reimbursement of funds to parents.

AS recommended that schools/governors continue to follow up on this consistently so as to ensure PGL do respond. It is important that this does not have an impact on disadvantaged pupils/families

PR/JP

Date and venue of next meeting

It was recommended that all meetings continue in the Autumn Term in a virtual format.

Monday 14.09.2020 at 18.00

Meeting finished at 19.25

BASG Executive Minutes 27/7/2020

18th August 2020/in BASG Minutes, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Meeting:

BASG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Date & Time:

27 July 2020 at 18.00 hours

Location:

Virtual meeting through Zoom

Present:

Apologies:

Paul Randall (Chair), Anne Sheddick (Vice Chair), Maggi Bull, Joanne Marchant, Gwyneth Langley, Tomas Pukalski

Bernadette Allison (Secretary)

Jo Pearce

Peter Lerner

Agenda Subject

Action

1.

Apologies for absence

Jo Pearce

Peter Lerner

2.

Notification of any other business

3.

Declaration of interest

Maggi Bull – Chair of NGA

Gwyneth Langley – BEP

4.

Approval of minutes from the meeting held on 7.07.2020

Minutes approved.

5.

Consultative Board

Anita Kramer, Simon James and Gareth Drawmer attended the last meeting on 16.07.2020.

Discussion took place regarding work linked to the disadvantaged.

Heads and chairs should discuss the use of ‘catch up money’ and ‘tutor money’ within their schools.

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has carried out considerable work in this area.

Richard Nash (Service Director for Children’s Social Care) is involved in the follow up.

It was considered that it would be helpful if this could be shared with a wider audience than just the Consultative Board.

Discussion took place with regard to increasing the awareness of all governors as to the different groups/communication routes within Buckinghamshire and how their work links together so as to improve the outcomes for schools and pupils across the authority.

6.

Communication with

Buckinghamshire County Council (BC)

Positive communications continue between BASG and BC which helps to move forward the important role and information for governors .

PR, as chair of BASG, provides regular updates on new information relevant to governors which is circulated to chairs by BC across the authority.

7.

Networking Groups

Aylesbury Networking group met virtually on 13.07.2020

Discussion was based around:\

· How the present COVID situation has tested the resilience and resolve of HT

· How the importance of local networking groups becomes increasingly important especially with new HT’s/Chairs taking up appointments

· How some schools have surveyed pupils to access overall level of anxiety with some responding very differently, even within the same family

· How concerns have been raised by local HT’s about SEND support and how the responsibilities of officers have had to be spread thinly

· Pressure within Buckinghamshire on how to close an increasing gap between the performance of most pupils and those disadvantaged and vulnerable

· Some schools evidenced that relationships with parents had improved during the present situation and how this positive development can continue

· Support for governors from BC appears to have reduced in the present structure and how important BASG and local networking supports remain

· It is anticipated the group will ‘meet’ next in October 2020

AS suggested that the Resources page on the BASG website page could probably have some of the information archived.

AS will link with TP on this

TP was able to update the group on the increasing awareness of the BASG website/social media involvement:

· 176 signed up to the website (60%) actively engaged

· From May 2020 – 27.7.2020 there were 370 users which showed access to at least 2 pages and spent on average 1min 33 secs viewing

· Unusual spike of 64 people on 8.6.2020

· Facebook shows 56 followers

· Twitter has 115 followers

AS/TP

8.

School opening for more pupils

Considerable official guidance/information is available to schools from:

· Buckinghamshire Council

· DfE

· NGA

· The Key

A very helpful ‘Public Health for Governors’ training was provided by BC and held virtually on Wednesday 24^th June

9.

AGM 2020

It was decided that the BASG AGM should be held in Spring 2021

Possibilities for ‘visiting’ presenter:

· Sam Henson (Director of Policy and Information NGA) He was due to lead the BASG March 2020 event on ‘Disadvantaged’ but it had to be cancelled because of COVID 19

· Richard Nash (Director for Children’s Social Care BC)

· Emma Knight – (Chief Executive NGA)

PR will link with MB regarding securing presenter/s

AS also said she may have some links to possibly presenters

PR/MB

10.

AOB

Discussion took place about BASG website:

· Mission statement

· Strapline

· More strategic

· Regular newsletter – this could include overview of the groups in existence within BC., their roles and how it all dovetails

· Strategic overview

· BASG being a regular agenda item on governor board meetings

· Increasing governor board diversity – how to increase governing board diversity to reflect the diversity of the school community. NGA (linked with Inspiring Governance) have highlighted why it is important to have a diverse governing board.

JM/PR

TP/PR

Date and venue of next meeting

Monday 17.08.2020 at 18.00

Meeting finished at 19.30

School transport information for parents and carers

28th July 2020/in BASG News, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Buckinghamshire Council promised to keep you updated with their info regarding home to school transport arrangements for the new academic year and are therefore sharing the new webpage just published which gives information for parents on school transport arrangements for September.

We will continue to update this as necessary over the summer period.

BASG Executive Minutes 17th July 2020

17th July 2020/in BASG Minutes, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Meeting:

BASG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Date & Time:

7 July 2020 at 18.00 hours

Location:

Virtual meeting through Zoom

Present:

Apologies:

Paul Randall (Chair), Anne Sheddick (Vice Chair), Maggi Bull, Peter Lerner, Joanne Marchant, Jo Pearce, Gwyneth Langley

Bernadette Allison (Secretary)

Tomas Pukalski – received and accepted

Agenda Subject

Action

1.

Apologies for absence

Tomas Pukalski

2.

Notification of any other business

PGL Travel

3.

Declaration of interest

Maggi Bull – Chair of NGA

Gwyneth Langley – BEP

4.

Approval of minutes from the meeting held on 16.06.2020

Minutes approved with the amendments, as below.

Agenda Item 5

There remains a vacancy for a parent governor on the Select Committee. It does involve a big commitment but it would be helpful for the vacancy to be filled.

5.

Consultative Board

The next scheduled meeting is planned for 16.07.2020

It would probably be better to have dates set within the yearly schedule of BC dates.

The use of ‘Teams’ as the virtual meeting set up does result in some technical issues with some forms of hardware for participants.

6.

Side by Side Reference Group

There continues to be some co-ordination issues regarding the organization of meetings, minutes and attendance.

There needs to be analysis of what is working regarding this provision with a possible SWOT analysis. The model is good in principal but not in execution.

There are no dates at present for moving forward.

7.

Communications with Buckinghamshire Council (BC)

PR’s communication with BC continues on behalf of BASG and governance across the county.

Information regarding September and the reopening of schools for all pupils has been issued from BC.

BASG profile has increased over the last year which is supportive of governance across Buckinghamshire.

8.

Networking groups

The South Bucks and Aylesbury networking groups continue to meet virtually.

The Aylesbury group is not only attended by Chairs and facilitates a variety of governor attendees. This was thought to be a networking opportunity for all governors and opens up succession planning.

Discussion took place linked to attendance at these meetings by BASG representatives so as to get a further cross section of governors input across the authority.

9.

Governor Training

Online virtual training from BC has continued with a Public Health webinar for Governors which was informative.

Reference was made to the NGA webinar for

Virtual Governance: Planning for the Autumn term and what do boards need to do linked

into their monitoring role. This provided a

good overview of the role of governance in this important area.

10.

NGA & Learning Link membership

Thank you to PR for continuing to follow up regarding the communication to Governing Boards of NGA membership.

An email has now been sent to Chairs confirming that BC will provide membership to NGA including the Learning Link through the next school year.

If boards wish to upgrade this to Gold membership, there will be an additional charge of £158.

Information was also included for Academies.

11.

Schools opening for more pupils

The opening of schools for all pupils in September continues as a major priority at the moment.

A plethora of information exists from NGA, BC, DfE of how schools need to prepare for September and beyond.

Further guidance will continue to be issued.

12.

AGM 2020

Discussion took place regarding planning for the BASG AGM

MB will ask Emma Knights from NGA for her availability to present at such an event.

It is anticipated the AGM would take place in November 2020 which is well within the timeline required for the next AGM.

MB

AOB

AS referred to the fact that discussions are taking place with the LA regarding reimbursement to parents for school trips which have been made through PGL but not taken place. It was felt this money should be repaid to parents, and governors should ensure this happens.

NGA are aware of this and are following up on this matter.

Date and venue of next meeting

Tuesday 27.07.2020 at 18.00

Meeting finished at 19.10

West Wycombe Combined School Need Governors

10th July 2020/in BASG News, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Dear Colleagues,

Are you able to help Maggi with her request below? If so, please respond directly to Maggi maggibul@gmail.com and not to this mailbox.

4 years ago WW went into special measures and received a directive academy order. Although now RI we are to join Great Learners Trust in September. We have vacancies for 3 community governors and would welcome someone with the experience to chair. In addition we have one experienced LA governor, 2 x parent governors and 1 about to join, the HT and a staff governor vacancy. From September, we need a Local Board that will support the school into its new phase.

Thanks

Maggi

maggibull@gmail.com

NGA Annual School Subscription for 2020/21

7th July 2020/in BASG News, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to confirm that Buckinghamshire Council will renew the membership, for Buckinghamshire maintained schools, with the National Governance Association for the academic year 2020-2021. The package for 2020-2021 will cover the Standard membership and Learning Link for all Governors and Clerks in maintained schools.

Maintained schools that wish to upgrade to Gold will be charged the difference of £158.

If you wish to opt out or upgrade please contact Hazel David by Wednesday 22^nd July 2020 at schoolgovernance@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Academies

Buckinghamshire Council can offer you membership at the discounted rate of £87 for the Standard package. The NGA do recommend that academies take the Gold package, which is discounted at £245.

The NGA have designed a MAT membership package to provide support to trust boards and their academies. As a trust, you will benefit from a range of resources and guidance to assist you in ensuring good governance across your MAT. The costs of the packages are as follows:

Standard £87 (was £97)

Gold £245 (was £275)

MATs £price on application

To purchase your annual membership contact Hazel David by Wednesday 22^nd July 2020 at schoolgovernance@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Further information is located on the NGA website: https://www.nga.org.uk/Membership.aspx

Regards,

Hazel David

July 2020 – NGA Webinar – Virtual Governance: Planning for the Autumn Term, what boards need to know

5th July 2020/in Coronavirus Update, IN SPOTLIGHT /by Webmaster

Virtual Governance: Planning for the Autumn term, what do boards need to know

with Steve Edmonds, NGA Director of Advice and Guidance

This webinar explores the important issues governing boards need to consider ahead of the Autumn term. The webinar will give advice based on the latest information available and will focus on the discussion between governing boards, senior executive leaders, clerks and governance professional, which covers:

the school/trust priorities for responding to issues created or exacerbated by COVID-19, and
the governance arrangements needed to support and monitor the priorities, maintain the ongoing effectiveness, productivity and compliance of the board.