Contacts:

Karen Widdowson, Secretary to Hampshire School Organisation Committee, Tel 01962 847334 e-mail: [email protected]

Louise Read, Legal Adviser to Hampshire School Organisation Committee, Tel 01962 847344 e-mail: [email protected]

1. Summary

The Education (School Organisation Committees) (England) Regulations 1999 ("the Regulations") have now been amended to provide that the composition of the Schools Group shall include, where there is at least one maintained nursery school in the area of the Local Education Authority, at least one member of the governing body of a maintained nursery school.

This requirement came into force on 1 February 2005. Accordingly when the membership of the Schools Group is reviewed in February this amendment will be taken into consideration.

2. The Requirements Relating to the Membership of the Schools Group

The Regulations specify that there shall not be more than seven members of the Schools Group, unless it is necessary to exceed this number in order to comply with the requirements set out in the Regulations. The requirements are that:

(1) where there are such schools in the area of the LEA, there must be at least one governor of a primary school, a secondary school, a special school, a middle school and a maintained nursery school. As there are no middle schools in the area of Hampshire LEA, there is no requirement to have a governor of a middle school on the Schools Group; and

(2) the membership of the Schools Group must represent particular categories of school which are determined by the percentage of pupils within that category in the Local Education Authority area (expressed as a proportion of the total number of pupils in relevant categories). Relevant categories are community and community special, foundation and foundation special, voluntary schools of a particular religious character (other than diocesan Church of England and Roman Catholic schools) and voluntary schools without a religious character. A category must be represented if it has 5% of the total of the number of pupils in relevant categories in the area. It is also desirable, subject to the maximum of seven members, that membership of each category of school should be proportional to the number of pupils in that category.

The different categories of school that must be represented on the Schools Group of the Hampshire School Organisation Committee ("the Committee") are community and community special, and foundation.

Therefore, in the case of the Committee, the requirements of the Regulations can be satisfied without needing to exceed the maximum number of seven members of the Schools Group.

3. Change to the Membership of the Schools Group

The current composition of the Schools Group is set out in the Table below.

Table

Foundation School:

Community Schools:

Key

Sector Categorisation:

Primary (P) x 3

Secondary (S) x 3

Special (S*) x 2

There are currently seven members serving on the Schools Group. As the requirements of the Regulations can be satisfied without the need to exceed the maximum number of seven members, one of the current members of the Schools Group will be required to step down to allow a member of the governing body of a maintained nursery school to sit on the Committee.

There are two maintained nursery schools in the area of Hampshire LEA and these are Bushy Leaze Early Years Centre, Alton and Haven Early Years Centre, Gosport. It is proposed that the Secretary to the Committee should, in consultation with the LEA, write to the two schools in order to invite applications for membership from the governors concerned.

Any application received will be considered by Hampshire LEA. By virtue of the Regulations, it is the LEA who has the duty to review, in the February of every year, the membership of the Schools Group. In order to ensure that the composition of the Schools Group complies with the requirements of the Regulations, the LEA has the power to appoint members and to terminate the membership of any member of the Schools Group by giving one month's written notice.

Due to the requirement to have certain categories of schools represented on the Schools Group, as detailed above, it would be desirable for Jim Murray representing Foundation Schools to remain on the Schools Group.

It is proposed that the Secretary to the Committee should ascertain from the six remaining members of the Schools Group whether any member wishes to tender his or her resignation. If so, this information will be given to Hampshire LEA when it conducts its annual review of the Schools Group. However, if no member tenders his or her resignation, it is proposed that the Secretary should inform the LEA of this fact and advise the LEA to approach the Hampshire Governor Representative Group (HGRP) to assist with this difficult task.

Recommendations

That the Committee note the position and authorise the Secretary to the Committee to take the actions referred to in paragraph 3.