Great Gaddesden School Governors’ Termly Report – Autumn 2014

The Governors at Great Gaddesden School are very active in the life of the school, and are passionate about helping the school deliver its vision.

There is a Governor's visit book in the school entrance where all visits and meetings are recorded. This allows us to look at how the Governors are contributing to the school, and what we could do differently. At the end of each academic year we spent time looking at how we can be more effective as a Governing Body in the future.

The Full Governing Body has three main responsibilities: setting the strategic direction, acting as a ‘critical friend’ and being accountable to the parents and the community.

The report below shows how individual Governors supported the school in the AUTUMN TERM 2014 in these three areas:

Strategic Role :

Developing a vision for the school, and planning so that all pupils can achieve the very best that they can

·         Driving and leading the playground improvement project

·         Carrying out Headteacher Performance Review

·         Attending Local Authority Herts Improvement Partner review

·         Participate in recruitment for Teaching Assistant

·         Meeting with Project Managers on potential building works in 2016

·         Attending Headteacher Performance Management training

·         Improving reading area through window coverings

·         Premises Walk Round (5 Year Maintenance)

‘Critical Friend’ :

Visiting the school to monitor progress and evaluate the school’s work; knowing the school well

·         Accompanying School Council to the Houses of Parliament 

·         Accompanying children to Able Maths Days                          

·         Accompanying children to Able Writing Day                           

·         Attending visit of Mike Penning MP

·         Organising weekly Knitting Club

·         Learning walk focusing on inclusion

·         SEN Meeting with INCCO

·         Leading weekly Collective Worship in Church

·         Commissioning and installing a new archway to the School Garden

·         Attend whole school Science Day (4 Governors)

·         FOGGS Disco

·         Attend FOGGS Fayre

·         Attend Christmas Carol concerts

·         Attend Christingle service

The Accountability of the Governing Body:

Reporting on progress; accountability to the parents and the wider community

·         Two meetings of the Full Governing Body

·         Meetings of the Sub Committees: Finance, Personnel & Premises; Curriculum & Standards

·         Attending Parents Evening as observers and to gain parent views

·         Writing monthly articles for the Great Gaddesden Parish News

·         Health & Safety walk & checklist

·         Carry out induction interviews for two new Governors

·         Review Asbestos Survey

·         Planning Enforcement Visit

·         Meeting with Parish Council re parking and other site issues

·         Working Party to agree pay policy for consultation

If you have any questions about the work of the Governing Body, I can be contacted on awilkinson@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors

 

Full Governing Body Meeting January 26th 2015

On Monday 26^th January we held a meeting of the Full Governing Body (FGB).

Mrs Comer gave her termly Headteacher’s report, and presented data from across the school showing pupil progress in reading, writing and maths.  Nationally we have a new, more challenging curriculum and there will also be changes to how children are assessed. Mrs Comer's reports are always very clear and thorough, and the Governors asked lots of questions about the new assessment methods. I am delighted that the children across the school are working so hard and making good progress.

Mrs Comer also reported that our pupil attendance in January was 97.1% and we have 80 pupils at the school.

The Governors approved updates to eight policies, and heard reports of learning walks, visits and meetings that individual governors have made since the last FGB. We discussed potential improvements to the playground, and looked at the school website and prospectus. 

All Governors are actively involved in the life of the school.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 9^th March. This will be our annual joint meeting of Governors and Staff where we take time out together to discuss issues of strategic importance to the school.

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors

Joint Annual Review Visit (JARV)

We are passionate about making the school better every day; achieving our vision of ‘inspiring one another to be the best that we can be.’

An important person in this process is our Hertfordshire Improvement Partner, or HIP.  HIPs are employed by the Local Authority and are typically former Headteachers or education professionals:

‘HIPs act as a critical professional friend to the school, helping to evaluate performance, identify priorities for improvement, and plan effective change.’

Last Thursday our HIP, Mrs Bremner, was in school to carry out a regular review (or JARV). She observed lessons, looked at the academic performance data for reading, writing and maths, reviewed the children’s books and analysed the school’s action plan with Mrs Comer.

It was an interesting and productive day. Mrs Bremner was very pleased with what she saw in school and she offered really excellent professional advice to make the school even better in the future. We look forward to her next visit.

 

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Govenors

 

Parish News - December 2014

Great Gaddesden CoE VA School

Super Science

One of our school priorities this year is to raise the profile of Science across the school and to give all the children more opportunities to engage in hands-on practical science activities.

 Miss Groves is subject leader for Science and she is working towards the School achieving the Primary Quality Science Mark: this is a national scheme set up to drive improvements in the provision of Science in primary schools.

Last week, the whole school was turned into a huge laboratory of mad scientists! Staff and pupils arrived in fancy dress and had a day of hands-on experiments: the teachers had planned lots of activities and we were also helped by an outside company, Sam’s Simple Science. Activities included making lava lamps, silly putty, ice cream and jelly worms! At the end of the day there was a whole school ‘catwalk’ to admire the fancy dress costumes. Congratulations to Hadyn in Year 3 who won the prize for the best outfit!

 

Science teaching isn’t just happening on special days, it is embedded in the curriculum. The class blogs have many examples of practical science activities being used to enrich the curriculum. For instance, Nursery&Reception were learning about the North Pole, and found some bears trapped inside ice balloons (carefully pre-prepared by class teacher Miss Ayres!). The children had to try to rescue the bears by melting the ice as quickly as possible. An imaginative way to introduce the concepts of freezing and melting to 3 and 4 year olds. There is also a weekly after-school Science Club to provide more opportunities for practical activities, with a different class being invited to the club each term.

Christmas

The lead up to Christmas is a very exciting and busy time in the school. I would like to invite you to the following events:

Friday 12^th December – 3.15-4.45pm – FOGGS Christmas Fayre

Tuesday 16^th December – 2pm and 7pm – School Carol Service

Friday 19^th December – Christingle and End of Term

Please keep in touch with events via our website: www.greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

Or our blogs:  greatgaddesdenschoolhead.blogspot.co.uk

 

Alison Wilkinson
Chair of Governors

Learning Walk Focusing on Inclusion

Last week I did a learning walk with Mrs Comer and Mrs Jessop. We visited each classroom for a short time, giving us a snapshot of the learning throughout the school. Our focus was ‘Inclusion’ in its broadest sense; making sure that all pupils are participating fully in the learning.

For example, we looked at whether the work was suitably challenging for all pupils, whether there were props to promote learning through doing, and even whether the physical layout of the classroom meant that all children could take part in the lesson.

I was very impressed with what I saw: there was a really positive attitude to learning throughout the school. The children were all working hard, but having fun and working really well together. The children were also incredibly polite and articulate, confidently telling me about their lessons.

Thank you to the teachers and pupils for making me so welcome, and sharing their lessons with me.

 

Alison Wilkinson

 

Pupil Survey - what do the pupils really think????

The school governors are always interested in finding out what the pupils think. We want to try and make our school even better and more enjoyable. Last week Mrs Comer, Mrs Wall and Ms Edwards met with 3 pupils from each year to find out what they like or dislike about their school. They were very helpful and informative. They not only told us whether they enjoyed school and learning but also told us why! We discovered that School trips are helpful to learning as well as enjoyable. Some pupils like a practical task to help fix things in their minds. Making a model of the digestive system can help you remember the word Oesophagus! Older students like to work to targets and goals. Small group learning is popular but sometimes, the year sixes said, you just have to work alone and focus. We got a lot of information from the thoughtful responses of our pupils which gave us ideas for future lessons and activities. Thank you to you all. My best response was the pupil who said he enjoyed school and learning because we are the best school in the world with the best teachers in the world!

Full Governing Body Meeting - 10th November 2014

On Monday 10th November we held our second Full Governing Body Meeting of the term.

I am delighted to welcome two new Foundation Governors to our team:

Mike Tonge is a local Water End resident whose teenage daughter used to attend the school
Carli Wall is a current parent with two young children at the school

I am really looking forward to working with Mike and Carli.

The Agenda for the meeting was very full and varied.

We received the termly update report from the Headteacher focusing on the School's progress in the Ofsted areas of Pupil Achievement, Teaching & Learning, Behaviour & Safeguarding and Leadership & Management. This is a very detailed report (called a School Self Evaluation) which looks at where the school is currently, and what are the next steps for making further improvements. The Governing Body asks many questions about the report, and Mrs Comer always answers with great honesty and clarity.

Other agenda items included:
-reports from the Sub Committees (Curriculum & Standards and Finance, Personnel & Premises);
-approval of policies (including Admissions and Behaviour)
-discussion about potential future projects to improve the school buildings and playground

The Governing Body meetings are an important part of our work, but Governors also support the school on a more regular basis. The purple Governors' Book records all of our visits to the school, and it is very satisfying that in the Autumn Term so far there have been many contributions from all Governors including accompanying children on school trips, running after-school clubs, attending Local Authority training sessions, carrying out small maintenance projects on the building and doing 'learning walks' in the school.

Alison Wilkinson
Chair of Governors