Welcome to the June ‘19 Monthly Bulletin, produced with the aim of keeping Governors, Clerks and School Leaders informed of the latest educational developments. The most effective way of using this briefing is to ensure that it is a standing agenda item for both your Full Governing Board and Committee meetings. PLEASE NOTE - this Bulletin is now published on GovernorHub and The Education People website; it will no longer be available on Kelsi.

I am delighted to announce that Lin Dykes, Clerk for Dover Girls Grammar School, won the National Governance Association award for Outstanding Clerk to a Governing Board 2019. The award was presented by Lord Agnew at the House of Commons and I had the pleasure of attending and being able to congratulate Lin. Joining her at the event was Susan King, Chair of Governors, Vice Chair, Duncan Ellerington and Tina Gimber, Area Governance Officer for South Kent. It was an amazing experience and huge congratulations to Lin for her outstanding dedication to the role. You are an inspiration!
Suzanne Mayes, Governor Services Manager

Could your Board consider recognising the work of your Clerk by submitting a nomination in the future? This could be linked to your Clerk’s appraisal process.

Initially announced in 2014, taking effect from 2016 with a view to setting higher expectations, making the system fairer, more ambitious and transparent, school and college accountability systems continue to be reformed.  This guidance explains how the headline measures are calculated. It also shows how the progress in English and Maths measure/s will be updated for 2020 tables.

£320 million PE and Sport Premium funding is to continue for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.  This guidance provides advice on how PE and sport premium should (and should not) be spent.

Does your Board systematically monitor and evaluate the use of this funding? 

Is your Board aware that Ofsted assesses how primary schools use the primary PE and sport premium?  Ofsted also measure the impact on pupil outcomes, and how effectively Governors hold school leaders to account for this.

The Character Advisory Group is seeking views on the development of character and resilience, the nature of different character-building activities provided to children and young people and what works best to improve outcomes.  The closing date for responses is 05 July 2019.

• Ofsted has published the outcome of the consultation on the new education inspection framework, to take effect from September ‘19.
• Guidance is available on the School inspection handbook which provides details on the inspection of maintained schools and academies in England under the education inspection framework, from September ’19.
• Guidance is also available on Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills

When is your school’s next inspection expected?

What does the new inspection framework mean for your school, and the work of your Board?

The IDSR is a document showing historical data for Ofsted inspectors to use when preparing for inspections and forming key lines of enquiry before an inspection.  Guidance updated in May, is available from early years foundation stage to key stage 4.

Minutes, presentations and documents, dates, times and venues of County Assembly meetings, together with the association’s aims and objectives, and details of how you can get involved to support your local district can be found on KELSI.

NGA updated resources             Membership packages and sign up

£500 FREE TRAINING - NGA Leading Governance development for Chairs and Aspiring Chairs

Can you afford to overlook £500 of free training? Delivered by members of our Governor Services team working in partnership with the NGA, this DfE funded Leading Governance development programme is for Chairs, Vice Chairs or future, aspiring Chairs.

Two references will be required; Governor Services are permitted to assist as a part of the reference process where appropriate.

Is your Board looking at succession planning?  Can you afford to refuse this offer?

Has your Chair or Vice Chair signed up?  Do not miss this opportunity for FREE funded training.

Registration deadline 9th September 2019

This accreditation forms part of the NGA leading Governance programme and is designed for those already in a clerking role to ensure both new and experienced clerks have all the knowledge and skills they need to carry out this role effectively.

Full course cost is £425 - £350 support funding is available from the DfE.

The programme runs over a 9-month period; pre work begins September ‘19 and includes:

• four face-to-face workshops, a dedicated mentor
• 360-degree diagnostic of the participant’s strengths and areas for development
• access to interactive e-learning modules and resources, participation in peer-to-peer and group learning
• support with creating and completing a focussed school-based project
• support in completion of a learning log to record personalised areas for focus and key learning points

Governor services are permitted to assist as a part of the reference process where appropriate.

Canterbury Christ Church University Medway Campus, Friday 12 July 2019

A conference is being held for anyone with responsibilities for leading governance or anyone who has aspirations to lead in the future. Attendees are (not exclusively) expected to be either Chairs, Vice Chairs, Chairs of Committees, Trusts or Local Governing bodies, and of course, those who aspire to take on such a role in the future. The conference includes workshops that are designed to inspire, equip and provide support.  Booking reference GV 19 / 122

The new 2019-20 training programme for Governors, Clerks and Senior Leaders has been published on CPD Online.  The event catalogue allows you to search for events by subject or role.

When booking, please use your existing The Education People log in details.

Now is the time to begin to evaluate your Board’s effectiveness and to plan what and how things will work differently, more effectively and efficiently in the future; as a board have you considered holding 1 to 1 interviews? Reviewing your governance structure & constitution? Commissioning a review of minutes? Using the 20/21 questions Boards should ask themselves? Undertaking a Chairs 360 review?  Planned and developed for succession – Chair, Vice-Chair, Governors with lead roles such a finance. SEND, Safeguarding, long serving Governors? When did the GB last set or review its Vision and Values for the school?

Would your Board benefit from commissioning its own in-house development session (see p5)?

To discuss the GB’s needs, please contact your Area Governance Officer (see contact details below)

In readiness for the autumn term review/target setting processes, has your board undertaken the mid-year review of the Headteacher’s objectives? How is your Board planning to evidence that it has evaluated the School Improvement Plan at the end of this academic year? Has your Board ensured training for Headteacher Appraisal panel members? Have arrangements and training taken place for Staff Pay review panel members?

With the introduction of GovernorHub, GB Membership changes are to be made by you the clerk, as they happen; there is no longer a need to advise Governor Services separately of GB membership changes; there is no need to email Governor Services with updates;  the governor appointment form on KELSI has been removed.  Clerks will need to ensure that the information recorded on GovernorHub, the school’s own website and GIAS (Get Information About Schools) is always up-to-date and in line with agreed Instrument of Government (Maintained Schools) or Articles of Association (Academy schools).

GovernorHub has been rolled out and we hope that it is helping you run your governing boards more efficiently, especially those boards that have signed up to the extended package.  It is being used by thousands of schools across the country and it helps governors, trustees and clerks to communicate and store documents, membership details, meeting schedules and other information in one secure, assessible and GDPR-compliant place.  GovernorHub is a web-based service so there is no need to install software on your computer and it can be assessed from school, work, home or wherever you have internet access.  The basic membership package is free to schools and academies currently signed up to the SLA and all Maintained schools.  We post Governor Services news, updates and information via GovernorHub now so if you do not have at least the membership package we will no longer be able to reach you.  The extended package costs £150+VAT for the year.  Please email [email protected] if you would like to sign up.

Further to the networking topic at this season’s District Governor Briefings, the Education Endowment Foundation has produced a guidance report - Working with Parents to Support Children's Learning; it is applicable to both primary and secondary schools, is aimed at senior leaders and is therefore also relevant governors/trustees.

For those of you who were fortunate enough to be able to attend a District Governor Briefing on this topic, you will have been made aware of the Governors’ Role in relation to careers and that students need to have a good picture of work and where they need to put their study-efforts to be able to realise their ambitions; schools need to be encouraging a first-hand understanding of the world of work from the earliest years. The Education Secretary has announced £2.5m to Careers Hubs in 20 areas; you will also find further information on The Careers & Enterprise Company who work alongside The Education People, Skills and Employability team.

Is your Governing Body aware of its responsibilities? Is Career-related learning embedded in the curriculum, even at the primary phase?  What links are being made between primary school and secondary school Careers leaders?

Organisations supporting and representing teachers and school leaders are backing a campaign to help more teachers, middle and senior leaders become aware of the opportunity and benefits of governing in a different school/trust to where they are employed.

Governing Boards that want to connect with education professionals who are interested in volunteering to register or login to Inspiring Governance

We look forward to meeting with as many Clerks as possible this term; please note that the briefings will be paperless; information will be made available via CPD Online to attendees following each briefing.

• South Kent - Wednesday 12 June 2019, 4pm – 5pm, Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, Ashford, TN24 0LH
• East Kent - Thursday 13 June 2019, 4pm – 5pm, Thanington Neighbourhood Resource Centre, Canterbury, CT1 3XE
• North Kent - Thursday 20 June 2019, 4pm – 5pm, Eastgate, Gravesend, DA11 8AD
• West Kent - Monday 16 September 2019, 4pm – 5pm, KCC, The Shepway Centre, Maidstone, ME15 8AW

For all Clerks – the 1^st hour will cover News & Updates from Ofsted, DfE and The Education People.  Following the release of the updated DfE complaints policy and best practice advice, we will be reviewing the roles of the Clerk and the Complaints Co-ordinator, providing the opportunity to discuss and network with those attending.

The Education People Service Clerks - The 2^nd hour will be for TEP Service Clerks only.

Manager - Suzanne Mayes:

[email protected]

North Kent (Dartford, Gravesham, Sevenoaks) - Jude Johnson:

[email protected]

South Kent (Ashford, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe) - Tina Gimber:

[email protected]

East Kent (Canterbury, Swale, Thanet) - Lorraine Monkhouse:

[email protected]

West Kent (Maidstone, Tonbridge & Malling, Tunbridge Wells) - Julia Durcan:

[email protected]