Hampshire Governors' Representative Group
Notes of Meeting
10th June 1998
Present: Sylvia Vine (Area 1); Hugh Deed (Area 2); Ian Chrystie
(Area 2);
Peter High (Area 7); Richard Kearsey (Area 3)
Vernon Petherick (Area 3); Linda Lawson (Special
schools);
Terry Tillman (Area 1); Mike Loneraghan (Area 4)
Martina Powell (Area 6); Cynthia Hicks (Area 5);
Paddy Ryan (Area 7); Jim Watt (Area 6)
In attendance: Janet Sheriton (Clerk)
Nigel Hill (County Information Officer) for Item 2
1. Apologies: received from John Brailsford (Area 4); David
Eagles (Special Schools); Derek Richards (Area 5).
The Chairman welcomed Linda Lawson (co-opted special schools)
to her first meeting.
2. Target Setting Data: Nigel Hill gave a brief overview of the
statistical performance information now available to schools and
governors to assist in target setting. He reminded HGRG that the
County Council had been set targets for literacy by national
government (KS2 English 88% at level 4+) and the national
numeracy target was set at 75%. Whilst there were as yet no
national 2002 targets at KS4 schools were required to publish
their targets from September 1998. Both County Council and
all individual school's targets had to be published in the
newly required Education Development Plan (EDP) which had to
be approved by the Secretary of State for Education. A draft
EDP would be the subject of formal consultation in the Autumn;
would go to Education Committee in November and had to be
submitted to the Secretary of State by 31st December.
There had been an increase in the amount of performance data
available to schools in recent years and Nigel outlined the
relative benefits of each.
* Value Added Data: The necessary data sets are still being
built. Where it exists it is probably the most powerful and
useful data available.
* Hampshire School Performance Measures: This data provided
performance information for Hampshire schools by placing each
school in the centre of a group of schools sharing similar
intakes and comparing performance.
* QCA Benchmarking and Pandas: These were sent to all schools
in the country earlier this year. Each school's performance
is compared with the national average and with the average of
a broad band of schools with similar percentages of children
on free school meals. It is not as sensitive as the Hampshire
data for a lot of schools particularly those at the top or
bottom of each "free school meals band".
* Ofsted Reports: These may also provide useful information
for target setting purposes. The older the report is the less
useful it will generally be.
In questions and discussion the following points were made:
* Pupil turbulence after the targets have been set for each
year group will effect the ability to meet targets. There
will need to be much greater public and parental awareness of
the process if people are to understand why targets may not be
met. Governors would need to consider carefully the whole
area of public presentation of targets, particularly to
parents, and raise levels of understanding. The County
Council was currently looking at producing an information
leaflet for parents.
* The concentration on targets for percentages of pupils
achieving level 4+ could lessen the attention given to all
pupils and governors would need to guard against this.
* The need to publish targets and then account for missing
them might push governors to publish targets which can be
comfortably met and having another set of internal and
unpublished targets which are more challenging.
* Whilst from September governors must publish targets for KS2
and GCSE there is no legal requirement to do so for KS1 and
KS3. However, it is likely to come in the future and most
schools will want to set these and other targets anyway.
* The requirement to set targets applies to Special Schools.
Work is going on currently to provide Special Schools with
information and guidance. It is recognised as a very
difficult area.
Nigel was thanked for his very useful input.
3. Notes of 23rd February 1998 were accepted as a correct record.
4. Matters Arising:
23/2/98 4a Hantsnet HGRG Governor Index - JS was to check with
IT Services that updating and maintenance of Forum minutes
which was now done by Governor Services covered the full range
of tasks previously undertaken by IT Services.
23/2/98 5d The DfEE reply indicated that: next years National
Governors' Conference would be in the summer term; would be
larger; and that places would be allocated in the Spring term.
They hoped this would make planning attendance for governors
and heads easier. As we still would not know whether we had
been allocated a place(s) for Chair of Governors; governor or
headteacher nor of what phase, HGRG thought it sounded as if
notice would be just as short but a term later.
5. Correspondence - Noted.
6. HGRG Officers for Academic Year 1998/99: Officers (Chairman,
Vice Chairman, Treasurer) would need to be elected at the Autumn
term meeting. Representatives would also need to be
nominated/re-nominated to National Governors Council and
Education Committee. John Brailsford had indicated that he is
prepared to continue as Treasurer. Members were asked to give
consideration to the Chairmanship.
ACTION: All
Hugh Deed informed HGRG that this would be his last meeting.
He was standing down as Chairman of his patch forum and of
HGRG and CGF as his job was likely to keep him abroad for 50-60%
of the time. Hugh had also been the main NGC contact and this
would need to change. It was agreed that he would write to NGC
naming Ian Chrystie as one contact and the Chair of HGRG c/o the
County Office as the other. The Clerk could then log and copy
all NGC mail and forward it appropriately.
7. Treasurer's Items: The 97/8 HGRG budget outturn had been
£6072. The budget for 98/9 of £7500 had been accepted by the
county. John Brailsford suggested that HGRG might consider
whether the budget might allow for 'E' mail support for HGRG
members.
8a Local Forum Items
Area 4 - Fareham & Gosport - Governors would welcome advice
from HCC on sun tan lotion in schools
ACTION: JS
- Information was sought on when the promised booklet 'The
Able Child' would be available
ACTION: JS
Area 1 - Basingstoke - Governors would like clarification on
the use of schools as polling stations and who controls which
rooms are used etc. Other members indicated that they had
been able in some instances to negotiate mutually satisfactory
arrangements with the local returning officer.
Area 3 - Havant & Horndean - there was disappointment at the
County's response to this forum's concerns about SEN funding
not following pupils. This had amounted to a re-statement of
the current situation which was understood. Governors wanted
to know if the arrangements could be changed. It was decided
that this matter would be raised again at CGF.
ACTION: VP; CGF
- governors had concerns about the impact of literacy and
numeracy hours on the delivery of a broad and balanced
curriculum and would welcome a county statement of its view of
an appropriate primary curriculum. Concerns were also
expressed about the impact of the literacy hour on SEN
children.
ACTION: CGF
Area 7 - Andover - Governors were concerned that 2 different
Ofsted inspection teams had inspected schools sharing the same
site in the same week. Jim Watt would write to Ofsted asking
what their policy is.
ACTION: JW
Area 2 - Aldershot & Farnborough - Governors had discussed
school/police liaison and concerns about the slow response
from police to some school incidents. The police were being
invited to the next forum meeting for discussions.
Area 1 - Odiham & Yateley - Governors had questioned whether
police checks were or should be carried out on governors and
would welcome a statement on the current position. Currently
police do not routinely run police checks on governors.
Governors do not have substantial unsupervised one to one
access to children as part of their governance responsibility.
Where governors act as volunteer helpers in school or on trips
and would have one-to-one access the headteacher may request a
police check on the same basis as for other volunteers in
school.
Governors had discussed the Ofsted grading criteria for
governing bodies.
8b Forum Attendances 97/8 - Forum attendance figures were
discussed and the slight improvement on the 96/7 figures
noted. Improving attendances at Local Forums would be an Agenda
item for the next meeting. Governor Services were asked to remind
GBs to nominate a Forum Representative along with other officers.
ACTION: Clerk, Autumn Agenda
8c Local Forums expectations of HGRG - This had yet to be
discussed in most local forums which had not yet met. The 2
forums who had discussed it saw HGRG as ideally placed to field
documents and initiatives from the government and the LEA where a
governor view was important but timescales were short.
ACTION: Other local forum Agenda
9 Bureaucracy, workloads and industrial action - HGRG had been
grateful to be given the opportunity to comment on John Wakeling's
statement and felt they had influenced the shape of the final
document published in Headlines.
10. CEO Appointment - HGRG expressed their regret that neither
they nor Headteacher conferences would be involved in the
appointment process for the new CEO. The partnership with schools
which had developed during the 90's was not reflected in the
Council's standing orders for such appointments. An
informal opportunity to meet the long-listed candidates had
been arranged and HGRG invited. Vernon Petherick and Jim Watt or
John Brailsford would represent HGRG and copies of "Representing
Hampshire Governors" should be given to candidates. Jim Watt to
write to Peter Robertson (Chief Executive) asking who would be
providing professional educational advice to the selection panel
and expressing HGRG's regret that the County Council did not
recognise the educational partnership between LEA, Heads and
Governors.
ACTION: JW
11. LEA Relations with GM Schools - HGRG had been asked by the
County to attend a meeting in July (2nd or 20th) with GM schools.
Depending on the date Sylvia Vine; John Brailsford; Ian Chrystie
or Richard Kearsey would attend. Clerk to confirm date with Roger
Mead as soon as possible.
ACTION: AD/JS
12. Draft Code of Practice LEA-School Relations - HGRG considered
that much current Hampshire practice was reflected in the Code
and the partnership with schools would be able to continue.
13. New School Government Regulations - The consultation document
from the NGC had been responded to. Much of what is proposed is
supported. However, HGRG expressed most strongly their
opposition to the proposed regulations which would disqualify
parents of pupils in the school from all categories of
governorship other than "elected parent governor". This was
seen as making recruitment of governors even more difficult.
14. HGRG Reps Feedback from Meetings
a) NGC Conference 9/5/98 - Ian Chrystie & Sylvia Vine had
attended. It had been a worthwhile occasion and notes of
the meeting had been circulated to members.
b) Literacy Task Force - Paddy Ryan and Cynthia Hicks attend for
HGRG. Paddy's notes of the meetings had been circulated.
Governors welcomed the Fact Sheets produced by John Wilkinson.
Cynthia expressed concerns about the fairness of representation
of views other than positive ones. Having been asked to
contribute an article for Hampshire Governor the concerns she
expressed on behalf of governors were not used. Other members
had not experienced unfair editorial treatment although cuts in
length were common but Jim Watt would discuss matters with Bob
Poulton.
ACTION: JW
c) Education Committee - Martina Powell reported that these
meetings were very worthwhile and debate was sometimes lively.
An item to consult on the closure of a school in the south of
the county had its recommendations changed by committee and
there would now be a broader based investigation of schools'
capacity in the area to be reported to the Nov 98 committee meeting.
Other items of report/discussion were: Henry Cort school's
successful lottery bid; Bohunt GM school's VI form had been
refused; Shepherds Spring Junior; Woodside PRU and Waite End had
all been put in "special measures" by Ofsted; the County Admission
Policy had been agreed.
15. County Governor Forum - Draft Agenda for 25/6/98 - HGRG did
not wish to add further items and suggested that items which were
non-controversial should be for information/clarification only.
These included - Induction & Development of Headteachers (Item
4); IT Update (Item 9). There were no big issues as far as
HGRG was concerned in the EDP and LEA Code of Practice (Item
7).
HGRG welcomed any reduction in mandatory items for including
in School Prospectuses' and Governors' Annual Reports (Item
13). Elected parent representation on Education Committee
(Item 12) took little recognition of the realities. Using
elected parent governors as the course of nominees and the
voting constituency was seen by HGRG as divisive. HGRG would
seek indications from the Chairman of Education Committee on
how HCC would implement the proposals. Behaviour Support Plan
(Item 12) contained a lot of detail which made it difficult to
see what the overall strategy is. HGRG believe the major
discussion at CGF should focus on LMS delegation/Fair Funding
(Item 8) which has fundamental implications for governors.
There are particular concerns about: the effects on services
(libraries, study centres, insurance); governors
willingness/ability to oversee further delegation; the impact
on small schools.
HGRG would also like to protest strongly to government that
consultation timetables are becoming a nonsense - too many
documents and too short a period for proper reflection and
response. Even if schools and governors can contribute, its
always too late, even if DfEE/Government were to listen.
16. Dates for Meetings Academic Year 98/9 were agreed as:
HGRG County Governor Forum
Autumn Thursday 8th October 1998 Thursday 22nd October1998
Budget Meeting Wednesday 9th December 1998
Spring Wednesday 10th February 1999 Thursday 25th February 1999
Summer Wednesday 26th May 1999 Thursday 17th June 1999
17. Any Other Business - None
The meeting closed at 10.00 p.m.
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