Autumn 2014

 All praise to You, Lord Jesus, Lover of children: Bless our family of schools, And help us to lead our children to You. Give us light and strength, And courage when our task is difficult. Let Your Spirit fill us with love and peace, So that we may help our children to love You. All glory and praise are Yours, Lord Jesus, For ever and ever. AmenLordchildrenSpiritchildrengloryLord

 Continued focus on governance through inspection – What Ofsted are saying.  Reconstitution of all maintained schools Governing Bodies – statutory requirements

 New inspection framework from Ofsted – Increased Focus on governance – Why, what are they worried about or what are we doing wrong?

For governors by far the biggest issue is lack of challenge and over-reliance on the headteacher, found in a large number of the schools sampled

The characteristics of strong governing bodies  Understand their role and how it complements head.  Skills / knowledge – of education, data, statutory responsibilities and performance management.  Want to see and hear from middle and senior leaders about their work - and challenge them on it.  Have the time to be a visible presence in the school.  Set challenging targets for performance at all levels, including in achievement, teaching and senior management work.  Can form their own analysis of the school’s performance without relying on the headteacher.

In the best schools inspectors found governors were very well informed  Regular meetings with the headteacher and presentations from staff inform governors' understanding of the school and its work.’  ‘The governing body seeks the views of parents, carers and pupils and uses the information obtained to inform the school's self- evaluation and the school development plan.’  ‘Governors have a good awareness of the school and a clear view of the strategic direction of the school through regular visits, including to lessons and focus groups.’  ‘Governors are closely involved in self-evaluation procedures, ask penetrating questions and expect and receive regular reports and presentations from staff to inform their strategic decision making.’

Common issues with governance -Weaknesses identified in inspection reports included:  not ambitious about expectations  lack of a ‘critical friend’ approach and challenge  over-reliance on information solely from the headteacher  do not visit the school  lack of engagement with school development planning  limited role in monitoring the impact of actions  limited understanding of data and school quality

Ofsted’s report: Getting to Good identified four key actions initiated by effective governing bodies  Headteachers and local authorities ensured that all governors were fully committed to the role. In some cases this led to individuals deciding to resign.  Governors embarked on training programmes, to strengthen their role.  Partnerships between governing bodies from different schools were established to share good practice.  Governing bodies worked alongside headteachers on school improvement. Often they were allocated specific aspects of school improvement to check and report on.

More detailed report recommendations provide an agenda for improving a governing body: The analysis of recommendations suggest that national priorities for improving governance should focus on:  techniques for governors to use in knowing their school independently of the head teacher  how to use data to get to their own independent view of achievement, including of specific groups  how to work with the head teacher on the performance management of staff and teaching in particular  how to plan and deliver performance management of the head teacher including setting targets

 We have simplified the twenty ‘self-evaluation’ questions from the Parliamentary group:  All Party Parliamentary Group on Education Governance and Leadership  1. Have we completed a skills audit?  2. Do we find and appoint people on the basis of their skills?  3. Do we understand roles and responsibilities?  4. Do we have professional clerking?  5. Is their budgeted training for governor needs?  6. Do we know national concepts of good practice?  7. Is our committee structure effective?  8. Does everyone contribute and do we review effectiveness?  9. Do we have clear planning with monitoring?  10. Does strategic planning drive our activities?

 We have simplified the twenty ‘self-evaluation’ questions from the Parliamentary group:  All Party Parliamentary Group on Education Governance and Leadership  11. Do we understand performance data?  12. How effectively do we performance manage the headteacher?  13. Do we ensure value for money?  14. Do we listen to pupils, parents and staff?  15. Do we report to parents and community? 1  6. Do we gain from collaborations?  17. Do we review the chair’s performance?  18. Do we plan for succession?  19. Are chairs re-elected annually?  20. How much have we contributed to school improvement 

 Outstanding Governance Governors or those with similar responsibility, stringently, hold senior leaders to account for all aspects of the schools performance  Good Governance Governors or those in similar positions systematically challenge senior leaders  Inadequate Governance Governors are not sufficiently diligent in holding the school to account for pupils achievement, the quality of teaching and the effective and efficient deployment of resources

Inspectors will judge how well governors evaluate:  Pupil progress – all and different groups  The leadership of teaching  The difference made by initiatives  The impact of senior leaders on improving the school’s effectiveness

 The School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (as amended) (“The Amendment Regulations 2014”), came into force on 1 st September 2014, requires that governing bodies of all maintained schools in England must be reconstituted under The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 (“the 2012 Regulations”) by 1 st September 2015 As amended by The School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2014, which were laid before Parliament on 25 th July 2014 and come into force on 31 st August 2014.

 All maintained schools in England not constituted under the 2012 Regulations must reconstitute by 1 st September As part of the reconstitution process, governing bodies must review their membership, in light of the requirements in terms of size and composition, contained in the 2012 Regulations, but also must ensure that they are no bigger than they need to be to have all the skills necessary to carry out their functions in compliance with the amendments introduced by virtue of the Amendment Regulations 2014.

 The 2012 Regulations have been amended so as to require that governors must have, in the opinion of the person appointing them, the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.  Governing bodies are required to identify any skills gaps which may need to be filled, either by training of existing governors and/or by recruitment of governors with the relevant skills and experience to meet the identified needs of the governing body

 In order to fulfil the new requirements for governing bodies to be no bigger than they need to be to have the skills necessary to carry out their functions, and the new emphasis on skills and experience, governing bodies need to carry out ‘skills audits’ to assess the existence and standard of skills and experience across the governing body.  Where vacancies arise on a governing body, a key consideration in the appointment and election of all new governors is the skills and experience that the governing body needs in order to be effective and how any potential governor can meet those needs.

 As part of the process of reconstitution, maintained schools will need to amend their existing Instrument of Government to reflect the requirements prescribed in the 2012 Regulation.  The diocese will provide you with an Instrument of Government which you must check and return to the diocese, at the same time confirming the approval of the Instrument both by the governing body and, also, by the foundation governors separately.  The diocese will then formally approve the Instrument and submit it to the local authority.

 Statutory guidance requires governing bodies to review their size and membership regularly to ensure effectiveness. Re-evaluation is particularly important at times when things are not going well at the school e.g. following a Diocesan or Ofsted inspection or a recommendation by the Diocesan Education Service or an external review of the governing body.

 Governing bodies are entitled to reconstitute on any date up to 1 st September It is up to the governing body, in consultation with the diocese and the trustees, to determine the most effective and suitable date for reconstitution as part of this process. You will need to ensure that, where an assessment of your governing body needs will result in a surplus of governors which is not eliminated by the required number of governors resigning, you take the following action:

 You must submit to your diocese the skills audits completed by all foundation governors in order that the diocese can decide which, if any, foundation governor(s) should be removed and will take the necessary action to remove such foundation governor(s);  b)In respect of all other categories of governor, that the governing body follow the statutory procedure for removal of surplus governors (as prescribed by Regulation 15 of the 2012 Regulations (as amended by the Amendment Regulations 2014)) by holding a vote in respect of each category in which there are excess governors. Governors must not vote in respect of their own category and no governor ceases to hold office until the votes on all categories are cast.

 Once the governing body has submitted and received back the final Instrument of Government made by order of the local authority, the governing body must check the Edubase database to ensure that all the school’s details recorded on the Edubase database are correct, and particularly that the school’s name appears exactly as it does on the Instrument of Government and that the religious designation is correct.

 Must have 2 elected parents separate from the Foundation Governors (2)  One Head teacher governor (unless resigns from office).(1)  One other staff governor(1)  Must have one LA appointed governor(1)  VA Schools must still enjoy a +2 voting majority for Foundation Governors(7)  Minimum size therefore is 12

 Where a school requires a larger governing body to maximise their skill-set (which is, of course, an area upon which the school will be judged by Ofsted), we strongly recommend that the additional governors are co-opted governors rather than any other category of governor – Remember the +2 rule

 Appointment of staff as co-opted governors: It is recommended that the number of staff appointed as governors is kept to a minimum to avoid conflicts of interests arising. In any event, the total number of co-opted governors who are also eligible to be elected as staff governors, when counted with staff governors and the head teacher, must not exceed 1/3 of the total membership of the governing body

Type of Governor No of Governors in category Model AModel BModel CModel DModel E Parent22222 Head teacher Staff11111 Local Authority Co-opted01234 Foundation TOTAL SIZE OF GB

 Term of Office is 4 years  Foundation Governors can only be removed by the person appointing them

 All maintained Diocesan schools to use the skills audit tool  Responses to be collated  Report written to analyse skills, gaps and training needs  Action Plan created to address gaps or deal with over capacity  Reviewed as standing item at each GB

 GB’s must be no bigger than they need to be to have all the skills necessary to carry out their functions  governors must have, in the opinion of the person appointing them, the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.  You must be able to demonstrate this through a skills audit and subsequent action plan  You must reconstitute by September 2015 – but Diocese wishes to have all new Instruments before the end of the 2015 Spring term