Governor Impact Statement

Governor Impact Statement

Governors’ Whole School Aim

Enable and empower all members of our school community to follow the school vision and strive to grow confident and independent pupils with a love of learning, a strong sense of self-respect and empathy towards diverse cultures and faiths.

Park View Primary School believes in our school motto, ‘Learning Together, Achieving Forever’.

At Park View, we want our children to be:

confident and independent learners, who are resilient and hardworking, with a love of learning;
physically and mentally healthy, with a strong sense of self-respect;
respectful and tolerant citizens, who show understanding and empathy towards the diverse cultures and faiths within our wider community;
able to recognise the difference between right and wrong so that they can make positive contributions in our democratic society.
be effective communicators so they can have successful futures

At Park View Primary School our enquiry question led curriculum is underpinned by our core values of:

Respect, Reflectiveness, Open-mindedness, Tolerance, Cooperation, Resilience

Governors’ Role

The role of the Governing Body is an intrinsic part of the leadership of the school. This impact statement is one way in which the Governing Body articulates their role in school leadership and the impact we have had on school improvement. The Governing Body is made up of a group of dedicated volunteers, who invest a huge amount of good will, hard work and time for the sole purpose of improving the education of every child in our school. The Government expects us as your Governing Body to be a dynamic group of highly skilled individuals who focus on supporting the Headteacher and all the staff to shape the strategic direction of school. As Governors, we are accountable for the performance of our school and we are measured by three core strategic functions:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction

• Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils

• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure the money is spent well

Governors work co-operatively with the Headteacher and senior management in the writing and monitoring the School Improvement Plan. The School Improvement Plan (SIP) sets aims for the forthcoming year. The current SIP is based on priorities identified from data, school self-evaluation and Ofsted priorities. The SIP is set out with clear aims, the key tasks that will be completed in order to achieve these aims and the success criteria in order to measure outcomes. The SIP is monitored and review termly, with an evaluation overview being completed and presented to governors as part of the Headteacher report.

Training

All members of Governing Body have and continue to have significant training. The impact of this is that the Governing Body are kept abreast of their responsibilities regarding the latest requirements and expectations. Recent whole governing body training has included ‘Analysing School Performance - Using Your School's Data to Improve Pupil Outcomes’, ‘Governors and Ofsted’ and ‘Setting the Strategic Direction’. Alongside the whole governor body training, governors attend individual courses and training.

Impact of Full Governing Body Meetings

Governors attend two full governing body (FGB) meetings each term. In addition, some governors meet three times a year as a Finance and Resources Committee. Governors are linked to areas of the School Improvement Plan and have regular visits and meetings with staff to monitor progress against the SIP objectives. Governor visit reports, which are supported by an agreed report form to help Governors maintain and appropriate focus, are written and presented at full governing body meetings. The visits and reports impact greatly on the governing body’s ability to effectively ask important questions, support but also hold senior leaders to account.

Governors provide strong support for the Headteacher. This was particularly important after the amalgamation of the infant and junior school in order to build and grow the new primary school. We now have a strong senior leadership team leading high quality teaching and learning throughout the school. More recently, governors have provided strong support to the Headteacher and senior leadership team during Covid and the school closures. The wellbeing of staff has been a priority and this has remained positive throughout the pandemic. This has resulted in children feeling happy and settled at school and able to focus on their learning at school or with home learning.

Impact of Governor Body Development Plan

The Governor Development Plan plans how the governors are going to monitor the quality of the school’s self-evaluation (SEF) and implementation of the SIP. The Governor Development Plan ensures there is a much sharper focus on the SIP and SEF allowing for more effective challenge and support. It also ensures that the focus is on the right priorities for the school at each stage of its development.

Impact of Finance and Resources Committee Meetings

The school budget is scrutinised and reviewed in detail at these meetings. On this committee, we have governors with strong finance skills who review end of year budgets, attend pre-budget meetings and question deficit/surplus balances. Using benchmarking information, the committee scrutinise the effect of pupil numbers on the budget and how this impacts on staffing and resources.

Through working closely with the School Business Manager and Headteacher, the Finance and Resources Committee has supported the school and held it accountable to ensure effective budgeting through a period of amalgamation. In January 2018, Park View Infant and Junior School amalgamated to become Park View Primary School. A transition period where two budgets became one and a period of staff restructuring due to the amalgamation, required careful financial planning and monitoring.

Careful monitoring and planning of the budget by the Finance and Resources Committee has impacted positively on subsequent years where budgets have enable the school to have a strong and effective staffing structure to drive school improvements. In March 2017, Ofsted rated the Park View Infant school inadequate. By driving school improvement, Park View Primary School now has consistently strong teaching and learning through all year groups.

The Finance and Resources Committee ensure ‘best value’ when purchasing items or services. The governors ensure that the school provide three quotes for items or services over £1000. Ensuring best value has seen the successful installation of a new IT network and IT equipment for the primary school. Best value practices have also been used for photocopying contracts and cleaning contracts, again ensuring the school is getting a good service and good value for money.

Pupil Premium Funding

In comparison to other schools, Park View Primary School receives a high percentage of Pupil Premium (PP) Funding.

The Finance and Resources Committee approve the planned spend of PP funding each year and challenge the Headteacher and senior leaders on the impact of the spending. Governors scrutinise evidence of impact on the outcomes for PP Children. Data and evidence show how the gap between PP children and non-PP children closes as pupils move through the school. Details of the impact of Pupil Premium spending can be found on the website under ‘Information’ tab.

Sports Premium Funding

Alongside the PP funding, the Finance and Resources Committee monitors how the schools spends the Sports Premium Funding. The Primary PE and Sport Premium is ring-fenced and must only be spent on physical education and sport provision in schools. The funding aims to achieve improvement in all areas of PE, from the standard of physical education to introducing health focused physical activities and after school sports. At Park View governors agreed it would be beneficial to use the sports premium to employ a full time sports coach to not only work with pupils but to also up skill teaching staff so that all teachers are able to deliver quality PE lessons. Our sports coach, Mr Atkin, leads before school and after school clubs for all year groups and has worked with the school to achieve Silver Sports Mark. Covid has delayed us getting gold, but everything is in place to receive Gold Award in 2021/2022. Details of the impact of Sports Premium spending can be found on the website under ‘Information’ tab.

Capital Projects

The school’s site manager is a staff governor on the governing body. Much of the wonderful school grounds and school building, both inside and out are due to her passion for providing the best learning environment for the children. More recently, security at the school has improved, with new high level fencing around the whole school site. The KS2 playground has been resurfaced and a quiet, calm and natural courtyard has been created. Children and staff are proud of their school and feel safe. The playground is now safe to use for sports tournaments allowing the school work towards the gold sports mark award. Future plans include extending the school library with outdoor seating and a ‘reading throne’ in memory of our librarian Lynn Hunt who sadly passed away in December 2020. We are also developing the small internal courtyard on the infant side to further foster a love of reading at Park View.

General Data Protection Regulation

Governors are responsible for ensuring the data protection policy is in place and being followed. Governors ensure the school has a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and that they attending regular refresher training.

Safeguarding

The monitoring of safeguarding practices is a key priority for governors and is ongoing throughout the year. Along with the Headteacher governors conduct an annual safeguarding audit and monitor the actions identified from the audit. Safeguarding reports presented at FGB meetings provide an opportunity to challenge the safeguarding culture of the school and ensure robust procedures and practises are in place. Safeguarding questions are asked during governor visits through pupil conferencing. The impact of this challenge and monitoring is a confidence in the strong safeguarding ethos at Park View Primary School.

Recruitment

Members of the governing body have completed “safer recruitment” training and have contributed to the successful recruitment of a strong senior leadership team. The governing body have successfully recruited the current Headteacher in 2017 and supported the Headteacher with the appointment of the Deputy Headteacher and Assistant Headteacher. With a strong leadership team, Park View Primary has the skills to be self-improving and continue to raise standards and outcomes for pupils.

School Improvement Plan and Governor Visits

Link governors have responsibility for specific areas of the SIP. Each governor has conducted monitoring visits to review their area and have produced governor visit reports identifying strengths and next steps. Reports are shared in full governor body meetings and result in greater accountability of staff. Action plans are updated regularly and success criteria is met. This is shared with governors during their visits.

Progress and Attainment

Governors have provided support and challenge for the implementation of the new assessment model being used at Park View Primary School. Governors are confident that the new assessment model will hold teachers to account for the progress children in their class make. The new model is a more useful assessment tool for teachers, enabling them to identify progress made by pupils and learning objectives that need greater focus. An impact of the new assessment model is that it enables a more forensic look at pupil progress to inform provision and intervention and close gaps in learning. This is particularly important to address lost learning from the pandemic.

Data is made available to governors through termly meetings with verbal and written presentations followed by question and answer sessions with the headteacher and members of the senior management team. When data is presented from the new assessment model, it will be scrutinised by the governors. Governors will ask questions to ensure the schools standards and expectations are high. Governors challenge the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team on the data, holding them to account, especially for pupils or groups of learners who may have lower attainment. Particular scrutiny is placed on pupil progress across all ability groups including vulnerable groups and on the effective use of the Pupil Premium Funding.

School Policies

Governors review and approve policies annually. This takes place throughout the year in FGB meetings and Finance and Resources Committee meetings. The Headteacher is asked to give examples of when the policies have been used to ensure the policies are being followed and practiced and to ensure policy review is not just a paper exercise. Policies are updated on the school website.

More recently, the governors have reviewed the Equality Policy and have ensured the policy includes a more detailed action plan. A senior member of staff, who is also a staff governor, is working alongside the Headteacher to ensure actions are implemented and outcomes are achieved.

Performance Management

Governors are responsible for undertaking the Headteacher’s performance management review each year. Governors, supported by the local authority, set annual targets, which are reviewed at points throughout the year.

The Headteacher completes an annual performance management report for the governors evidencing that performance management has been completed for all staff and that staff have meet performance management targets. Governors scrutinise the report and use evidence to approve pay recommendations given by the Headteacher. Pay recommendations follow the Hampshire County Council Pay Policy adopted by governors at Park View.