Governor blog - what have we been doing?
Thank-you video
Thursday 1st October 2020 – Performance and Standards Committee meeting
Today’s virtual meeting was the first attended by our new staff governor – Mrs Julie Owen. Julie Owen was elected following a staff vote at the beginning of the new term. Mrs Kershaw talked us through the LIP (Learning Improvement Plan) which the leaders in school put together and evaluate throughout the academic year to evidence progress against school improvement priorities. Governors asked how the impact of Covid-19 had changed improvement plans and were pleased to see that the priorities remained those identified by OFSTED as well as a focus on a recovery curriculum following the recent school closures. Mrs Kershaw shared a SEND update from our SENDCO, Mrs Wallis, so that governors understand the current priorities, issues and areas of focus for the children with additional needs and the staff who support them in school.
Monday 21st September 2020 – Security Inspection
Hayley, our Chair of Governors joined Kevin Maguire (our caretaker) and David Williams, a Health and Safety Advisor from the local authority, to carry out a security inspection at Weddington. Schools are regularly inspected by health and safety advisors, each time with a different focus. The focus of this inspection was ‘security’. The lengthy inspection looked at the building (internal and external) and the school grounds and gave recommendations to improve our school security further.
Thursday 10th September 2020 – Full Governing Body meeting
Today we met virtually for our first governor meeting of the new academic year. At the meeting, our governor roles and responsibilities were organised as well as discussing any vacancies on our governing body. Mrs Kershaw updated us on the risk assessment and procedures regarding Covid-19 for the Autumn term in school. We heard about the building work which happened over the summer holiday in school to prepare for the new academic year.
Thursday 21st May - Performance and Standards committee meeting
Our meeting was again held virtually and we were joined by Weddington's Mathematics Subject Leader - Mrs Potts. We had invited Mrs Potts to lead a presentation to update us on the progress with the changes to the maths curriculum. Following on from Ofsted's visit in April 2019, maths has been a key focus area for development. Mrs Potts shared the progress against the action plan for mathematics, including the new 'mastery' approach. Governors found out how the new approach to the teaching of maths at Weddington has improved children's understanding and Mrs Potts explained how she has found this out from test results, watching maths lessons and looking through the children's maths books. Thank you for your informative presentation, Mrs Potts!
After Mrs Potts' presentations, the governors discussed the procedures for re-opening the school and talked to Mrs Kershaw about the school risk assessment, to make sure that re-opening was going to be safe for everybody involved. Mrs Kershaw explained the new procedures which would need to be followed in school, including changes to the cleaning and hygiene routines. We asked questions about how the home learning was going and how the children coming back to school were going to continue their learning. We also talked about the year 6 children moving to their secondary schools in September to make sure we have plans in place to help with transition.
At the meeting we also approved the new Bereavement Policy, which has been formulated to support any children or staff in the event of a bereavement.
Wednesday 29th April 2020 - Full Governing Body meeting
Today the governing body met and had our third virtual meeting! The governors discussed the partial closure of school and asked Mrs Kershaw to talk about how this was all going. We asked her about how many children were still coming into school and how the children at home were still being educated. As an outcome of the meeting, we set up the 'Weddington Parent and Carer Question Form' so that parents can ask any questions related to the school closure. These might be questions about transition, trips or even about purchasing uniform in preparation for September. Governors thought this would be a good idea because some of us are parents of children at school too, and we know how worrying this time is for everyone.
We also welcomed our new governor, Mrs Lucy James (parent governor). We think that Lucy will be a fabulous addition to our governing body as she brings with her a wealth of experience from working in Education.
During the meeting, governors discussed how can still meet with subject leaders in school during the partial closure. We are going to be holding some virtual meetings to find out about any new developments in certain subject areas and to see what has been happening since we last met with the subject leaders.