Hampshire Governors' Representative Group
Notes of meeting
Date Thursday 24 October 2002
Time 6.00 pm
Venue The Professional Centre,
Winchester
Present Janet Sheriton Clerk
Robin Gray Fleet
Martina Humber New Forest
Dianna Hopkins Fareham & Gosport
Jim Duckham Fleet
John Seymour New Forest
David Chiswell Havant
Andrew Turk Havant
Lynn Elliott HCC
Roger Mead HCC
John Brailsford Havant
Jane Pratt Fleet
Apologies John Mason Winchester
Terry Tillman Fleet
Action
1 Welcomes and Resignations - Sylvia Vine
(Havant) and Mike French (Fleet) had stood
down. Graham Ellicott had resigned
The Chairman welcomed Andrew Turk (Havant)
to his first meeting and noted that Terry
Tillman (Fleet) was to be rejoining HGRG.
The newly elected Parent Governor
Representative on Education Policy Review
had been invited to attend HGRG.
2 Schools Forum - Lynn Elliott (County
Treasurer's) was welcomed to the meeting
along with Roger Mead who outlined the
requirements for the Schools' Forum drawing
attention in particular to those things which
had changed since the consultation document
discussed in the summer term. In Hampshire
the Forum would consist of 35 members and
HGRG would nominate the 14 governor members-
2 special school governors; 7 primary; 5
secondary.
The first 3 meetings were arranged for
November 22 - 2-5 pm Winchester Tennis Club
December 17 - 2-5 pm Winchester - tba
January 10 - 2-5 pm Winchester - tba
HGRG agreed to notify Roger Mead of the
governor nominations.
Schools Balances - With the permission of the
Chairman Roger introduced this extra item for
HGRGs information. Schools' balances had
risen by £6 million and now stood at £31
million net. There are 34 schools in deficit
totalling £1 million. A survey of schools
with significant balances had been undertaken
and this showed that in primary schools
around 20% of balances were uncommitted; in
special schools 13% and in secondary schools
4%. Education Financial Services will
challenge schools as to the purpose of
"uncommitted funds" and the issue will be
referred to Schools Forum for discussion.
Roger also informed members that the County
Council was considering the possibilities of
a "loan arrangement" drawing on schools
balances to fund the capital programme. This
was also likely to be a matter for discussion
at Schools Forum.
The Chairman thanked Roger and Lynn Elliott
who left the meeting.
Selection of governor member for the Schools'
Forum
Special School Governors - 14 volunteers had
been received and their details circulated.
HGRG discussed mechanisms for selection and
concluded that there were no obvious ways to
distinguish between the relative merits of
those who had volunteered. They agreed that
drawing names from "the hat" would be the
fairest means of selection.
Primary School Governors - These would be
selected from HGRG members and one volunteer
who had expressed interest during the
consultation on Schools Forum in the summer.
Secondary School Governors - These would be
selected from HGRG members.
The following were agreed as governor members
of the Schools' Forum:
Special -
Patrick Horrigan (Saxon Wood)
AD
Lyn Baines (Henry Tyndale)
Secondary - AD
Robin Gray (Oak Farm Community)
Jim Duckham (Bohunt Foundation)
Andrew Turk (Purbrook Park Secondary)
Jane Pratt (Robert Mays)
John Mason (The Mountbatten School)
Primary -
David Chiswell (Front Lawn Junior)
John Seymour (Milford-on-sea Primary)
Dianna Hopkins (Peel Common Junior)
Martina Humber (Pennington CE Junior)
John Brailsford (Sarisbury Infants)
Mike Salt (Burley Primary)
Terry Tillman (Rucstall Primary)
The clerk would inform Roger Mead and write
to volunteers with the outcome thanking them
for their interest. As there is a vacancy on
HGRG for a special school governor currently
they would be asked if they are willing to be
co-opted.
3 Election of Officers and Representatives
The following were nominated, seconded and
elected.
Chairman - Robin Gray
Vice Chairman - David Chiswell & John
Brailsford
Treasurer - John Brailsford
National Governors Council (NGC) Rep-
David Chiswell
Education Policy Review Committee Rep-
Martina Humber
As Robin had to leave to attend another
meeting it was agreed that John Brailsford
would continue to chair the meeting.
4 Notes of May 30 2002 were agreed
All action points had been completed and
there were no further matters arising.
5 Draft County Governors Forum
The clerk took members through the draft
Agenda and tabled papers in support of items
8 and 11.
Jane Pratt referred to newspaper reports in
the Aldershot press naming 3 schools which
would be the subject of review. She had
received telephone calls from governors who
were alarmed that a) they had no prior notice JP
of the matters the press were reporting and JS
b) the stories were already impacting on the /SK
schools' ability to recruit staff. Jane
would raise concerns at CGF.
HGRG to suggest that items 10 and 11 should
be "for information" items
6 Correspondence log - noted
7 Chairman's items - John Brailsford reported
his attendance with Cllr Allen and Andrew
Seber at the Governance Matters Conference in
London. He drew members attention to the
Hampshire examples of good practice in the
publication of the same name. A summary of
the publication was being distributed to
Chairs of Governors in all schools.
Conference speakers from NGC and NAGM had
been disappointing.
Membership of HGRG - Places were vacant for a JS/AD
representative governor from schools with 6th
forms and special schools. The clerk would
write to schools with 6th forms seeking
nominations. Special school governors who
had volunteered for Schools' Forum would be
asked by the clerk if they were interested in
being co-opted to HGRG.
8 Treasurer's items - Spending to date was
£4614 from a budget of £8000. This included
the secretariat bill and the NGC
subscription.
9 HGRG Feedback from Meetings
1)
Education Policy Review Committee -
Martina Humber reported on the October
EPR which had considered the School
Review paper, Valuing Governors,
Funding arrangements from April 2003.
She further outlined the decisions made
by the Executive member subsequently.
2)
National Governors Council - David
Chiswell reported on a regional meeting
he had attended in September which had
been held in Guildford. There had been
little support for regular regional
meetings of the NGC. An NGC paper on
the constitution was referred back for
further work. Communications were
discussed and suggestions for
improvement made. There were still
concerns about how representative the
views of the Executive were. In future
it was understood that the AGM of NGC
would be separated from the Conference.
There were further debates about
subscriptions and funding issues. It
was understood that Chris Gale would
stand down as Chair in November. In
David's view NGC was in need of a
nationally known and recognised person
as Chair.
3)
Asset Management Plan - In his absence
John Mason had supplied a written note
of the meeting of 8th October which is
attached to the minutes.
10 Local Forum Items
Fleet - 6 term year had occasioned debate and
there were concerns about the 5 inset days
being managed within the holiday period.
HGRG agreed to add the 6 term year to the CGF
agenda and ask Andrew and Don for an update JS/SK
on the consultations.
CRB - Advice was sought about which
volunteers should be vetted. Janet Sheriton
suggested that as DfES felt that all
governors should be vetted even though many
were not regular visitors to schools whilst JS/EPS
they were in session and even fewer had
unsupervised access to pupils it was likely
that all other volunteers should be checked.
She would check the position with EPS and add
their advice to the minutes.
Post Meeting Note: As of 1 November 2002 CRB
checks on school governors have been
suspended indefinitely. An alternative
vetting process is being put in place and
advice will be issued to schools shortly.
Education Personnel Services further advice
on the whole CRB process including the
checking of volunteers was issued to schools
in October and can be found in Hantsnet by
typing ".crb" at the main menu. In general JS/AS
schools should check new volunteers who will
have significant access to children
especially where some of this access could be
unsupervised (e.g. school outings etc.). If
the access is limited and there is
supervision Headteachers should use their
professional judgement as to who does or does
not need to be checked.
SATs - Andrew Seber had undertaken to repeat
the SATs survey originated by governors in
the Fleet area. The clerk to ask when he
will do it.
Communications - There had also been
discussion about communications between the
various forum layers. HGRG agreed that this
should be an agenda item at their next
meeting. The clerk was asked to circulate
"Representing Hampshire Governors", the
original Peter Coles letter setting out the
purpose of Governors Forums and provide
statistical information on forum attendance.
Havant - Discussion on 6 term year. View
that the questions were biased and
dissatisfaction with consultation through the
summer holiday period.
Working Practice section of the HGS website
had been discussed.
Hampshire Teaching & Leadership College had
been presented by John Clarke.
New Forest - 6 term year; Hampshire TLC;
Roger Mead had attended to talk about funding
and governors were concerned that funding
cuts may be possible and were considering how
best to raise awareness of the issues.
Fareham & Gosport - 6 term year; Hampshire
TLC; Discussions with heads had covered
funding and heads urged governors to write in
protest in an effort to protect Hampshire
schools. There were concerns about the lack
of guidance on criteria for progress up the
upper pay spine. Reported as a sign of
health was the 3 way election for Vice Chair
of the Fareham & Gosport forum.
11 NAGM - HGRG decided not to join as it was
seen as representative of individual
governors rather than Associations.
12 National Governors Council (NGC) - Annual
General Meeting 16th November
HGRG agreed David Chiswell and Jim Duckham as
their voting representatives at this meeting.
The Chairman signed the nomination form which JS/AD
the clerk would return to NGC.
13 DfES/Ofsted National Governors Conference
Robin Gray and Jim Duckham had agreed to go
and both had been allocated places by the
DfES.
14 National College for School Leadership (NCSL)
David Chiswell had attended the Conference
for Governors in Nottingham in October along
with Sue Baxter from HGS. He had found it
useful and it had raised some interesting
issues.
HGRG agreed that John Clarke should be asked
how he saw the LPSH and other NCSL
developments fitting in with the Hampshire
Teaching and Leadership College. The clerk
would ask John for an answer.
Post meeting response from John Clarke
Hampshire is part of a consortium with other
LEAs in the south east that will be an
accredited centre for NCSL programmes. These
will sit alongside developments made by the
HTLC in terms of leadership and management
programmes. Many headteachers are
undertaking LPSH programmes with the NCSL
already but they are engaged on our
programmes as well. Many aspiring heads
undertake NPQH but also find our programmes
useful. Our programme takes account of local
context and cultures in a way in which
national programmes can't and they also try
to take more account of the emotional
intelligence needed to lead well not merely
the cognitive intelligence that national
programmes seem to stress.
15 Any Other Business
John Seymour asked for an update on the paper
discussed last term on Valuing Governors.
The clerk reported that following discussion
in the October Education Policy Review
Committee the Executive Member had now taken JS/DA
decisions. The position could be updated at
CGF as a Matter Arising from the last meeting
There being no other business the meeting
closed at 9.15 pm
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