Our Lady of the Assumption Governing Body

“The school is a thriving partnership of people who pull together and are committed to continuing the development of the school.”

Statement of Governance

These last 2 years have been ones unlike anything in living memory, following government guidelines school had to close on two occasions for all children apart from those of key workers, but with God’s grace we are coming through this period stronger and more united as a school family than ever.

The governing board have continued to meet regularly throughout the pandemic utilising Zoom and have been in close contact with our Head Teacher throughout. At the start of the Pandemic, Governors and the Head Teacher took the decision to suspend committee meetings and meet as a full governing body on a weekly, then fortnightly basis, this allowed decisions to be made and approved quickly as the situation evolved. Governors adopted a light-touch monitoring and oversight role allowing the Head Teacher and Senior Leadership team to focus on the day to day running of the school

Miss Haggerty and our staff have put in a great deal of work to complete risk assessments and put into place procedures to minimise the risks within school. The governing body cannot fully express our pride and gratitude for all the hard work that has been done by our wonderful teachers and parents which has enabled our children to continue to receive their education through these closures and the continuing risk management plan. Our teachers embraced new ways of working through technology to deliver the school curriculum to children both in school and at home which has resulted in closer communications between parents and teachers.

Governors continue to support the school and have worked together to

Oversee the provision of home schooling for many children and in- school provision for children of key workers
Ensure clarity of vision, ethos, values and strategic direction
Ensure pupil attainment is monitored and maximised
Oversee and approve the school budget
Ensure that safeguarding measures are in place
Ensure that staff are supported as needed

The governing board regularly review our roles and the experience, knowledge and skills we bring to the board ensuring that there are no gaps that could affect our efficient governance of school, this enables us to fulfil our responsibilities in relation to the three core functions –

Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils and the performance management of staff
Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent

We have appointed a foundation governor from a previously held parent governor position and we now have two parent governor positions that we will fill in the coming year. In order to ensure that all governors can enhance their governance and leadership skills we regularly review the appointment of chairs and vice chairs at committee meetings. This will help us to ensure that there is appropriate succession planning in place should vacancies arise.

We continue to review policies and procedures to ensure that they are fit for purpose and meet our legal responsibilities as well as our vision and aims for both the school and pupils. We scrutinise and monitor the school budget to ensure it is managed effectively to be able to cope with ongoing reductions in funding against increasing costs. This was recently benchmarked by DfE against similar sized primary schools against the following areas:

Teaching staff
Administrative/Clerical Staff
Revenue Reserve
Pupil Teacher Ratio
Premises
Catering

Governors observed that the report demonstrated that school is making best use of its resources, with above average spend against all areas while maintaining a low pupil/teacher ratio and a good revenue reserve. We continue to be grateful to the PTA for the fantastic support they have continued to give in terms of fund raising, resources, time and commitment and urge parents to consider joining the PTA to make them even more effective and innovative.

We have now begun our second year of our three year School Development Plan (2020-2023). Due to the current situation, school improvement and development with be targeted on a small number of key areas which will have smart, manageable actions:

Review attainment and progress in English (reading & writing) across the curriculum
Developing curriculum and maintaining high standards
Developing Independence/ resilience
Continuing to embed Physical Development Vision
Engaging with parents to build on existing strong partnership with an emphasis upon learning together

I would like to express my thanks to all governors for their continued hard work and on-going support this year.

Mr G Smith. Chair of Governors