Dear Parent/Carer Welcome to the fifth newsletter from the Governing Board of Parklands Junior School. The purpose of this newsletter is to inform you of the work being undertaken by the School’s Governing Board and its contribution to improving the outcomes for our children. Chair’s Message As most of you will know, the School has seen significant changes since October 2014 as the School’s leadership community – the Board and senior leadership team – create an environment of high expectation and aspiration. Governance has also seen significant changes, with the Board being unrecognisable from where it stood at the time of the last Ofsted Inspection, with an almost entirely new and appropriately skilled membership, who are working well together in supporting and challenging School leaders. The Board felt confident that its performance had improved sufficiently well (and it could demonstrate the same) to call for an external review of Governance to evidence its effectiveness and to help identify further areas for improvement. The external review took place over February and March and I am delighted to say the Report makes for very positive reading. In particular, the report states: “….complete overhaul of the composition of the governing board with some very good appointments to all categories of governors and a clear eye to the skills needed to rebuild this governing board. Members were recruited with specific experience in key areas such as HR, education, business and representing the interests of parents and the local community”. “Speaking to governors and the observation of the meeting showed a strong sense of common purpose and commitment both to the school and to one another as a team. There is a palpable strong trusting relationship between SLT and governing board, with both sides showing openness towards one another”. “….Governors didn’t shy away from tricky areas like a discussion as to how frequently the school should change the School Improvement Partner to ensure the relationship didn’t become too comfortable. This was a friendly but robust discussion, with clear and relevant arguments on both sides”. Both the School and Governing Board are building a significant amount of evidence to demonstrate that the School has robustly and decisively dealt with the issues raised in the last Ofsted inspection and to then articulate the impact these actions are having on our children, both in their day to day learning and wider School experience. I am grateful to my fellow Governors and the School’s senior leaders for helping to implement change, and some difficult decisions, so quickly and to the staff, pupils and parents of the School for responding positively to this, as our recent SATs results and parent survey show.

However, we are far from a complacent leadership community and so we will be holding an offsite strategy day before the end of this academic year to refocus and agree the School’s Development Plan for the next academic year and to ensure that we live up to our stated ethos of continuous improvement. Both the head teacher and I have worked to improve the working relationship with the Infants School, with regular Chair/head teacher meetings taking place between the two Schools. Building on this, we recently held a joint training event, facilitated by a high profile external trainer. This focussed on what makes good governance – beyond our core functions – and how both Boards can work together and share best practice. As a result, we are establishing a sub-group made up of two governors from each school to deliver on the above. We are planning to hold a “meet the governors” evening in the summer term, so that parents have an opportunity to see who we are and ask questions about our work over a coffee and cake. More on that to follow and in the meantime, I hope you all have a good Easter holiday. Keith Butcher, Chair of Governors, Parklands Junior School.