Source: http://www.readbag.com/tavistockcollege-devon-sch-uk-governors-minutes-08-fgmminutes221008
Timestamp: 2019-11-14 22:03:29
Document Index: 717145346

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1']

Read Microsoft Word - FGM - minutes - 22 10 08.doc
Read Microsoft Word - FGM - minutes - 22 10 08.doc text version
Tavistock College Governors
Full Governors' Meeting (FGM1) 22 October 2008
Present: M Govier (Chair), K Bosworth, D Conn, R Connelly, C Eves (Principal), T Gibbins, S Hubbard, M Legg, K Lintern, H Lumley, G Lynch, S Powell, R Smith, T West and A Wright. In attendance: N Gardiner (Clerk)
Minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2008 in the Sixth Form Study Centre at 6.15 pm. 1. Apologies for absence The Governing Body sanctioned the absence of J Coupland. The Chair announced the resignation (received today) of S Boka, Parent Governor. There are now 4 Governor vacancies: 3 Community and 1 Parent. 2. Declarations of interest: a) Declarations of eligibility Forms were distributed to Governors, completed by them and returned to the Clerk. b) Declarations of business interests Forms were distributed to Governors, completed by them and returned to the Clerk. 3. Welcome to Sean Powell The Chair welcomed S Powell (recently elected as Staff Governor) to the Governing Body. All present introduced themselves to him. 4. Minutes of previous meeting ­ 03.09.08 and Part 2 minutes of FGM held on 08.07.08 The minutes of the AGM held on 3 September were approved subject to one correction to item 6. Agreed that Clerk would amend as necessary and present for signature to next FGM. The Committee resolved to move to Part 2 for discussion of the next item proposed G Lynch; seconded D Conn: Approval of Part 2 minutes (amended) of FGMs held on 8 July and 14 May 2008. The meeting then resolved to return to Part 1 ­ proposed T West; seconded M Legg. 5. Matters arising (not in later part of agenda)
Item 2 - Community Governor vacancies M Govier reported an advert had appeared in the Tavistock Times last week. We now have at least 4 people interested. Agreed that an extra meeting will be held after the advert deadline to discuss the list of applicants and decide on the 3 who will be invited to become Community Governors. Authority will be delegated to a smaller group of Governors for this purpose, to be made up of the Governing Body Chair and
the 3 Committee Chairs, together with sufficient other Governors to make the group quorate (i.e. 50% of the present membership of the GB). Applicants' CVs will be sent out to Governors beforehand, with the date for the meeting once it is fixed. Item 5 - Governor meeting dates for the year D Conn proposed the following dates for CCC Committee meetings: · 12 November · 21 January · 11 March These were agreed and M Legg will find a new date for the single issue Premises Committee meeting that had originally been set for 12 November. Governor training ­ M Govier announced that she had arranged for a further training session to be held on Wednesday 19 November. C Eves will attend; A Wright apologised that she cannot. Agreed that M Govier would request that the session begin at 5.30 pm (rather than 6 pm as last time). Clerk to send A Thomas a list of all Governor meeting dates for the year to be inserted into C Eves' diary. Item 11 ­ minutes of FGM held on 8 July 2008 Re school trips - Clerk confirmed she had been advised by C Tossell that Year 13 students are still the legal responsibility of the College until the end of August in the year that they leave. 6. Governor Roles and Responsibilities: a) Committee membership Committee Chairs were all prepared to stay in their posts for this academic year. Personnel &amp; Finance Committee ­ all current members will remain; H Lumley and S Powell will join. Curriculum, Communication and Community Committee ­ all current members will remain; S Powell will join. Premises Committee ­ membership will be: M Legg (Chair), R Connelly, T Gibbins, H Lumley, G Lynch and A Wright. The Chair had received advice from Devon Governor Services that the maximum number of Committees each Governor should sit on is 2. b) College links Governor links to departments and years, as well as membership of the disciplinary and complaints panels, were discussed and confirmed, as contained in Appendix 1 to these minutes (`Governor Roles and Responsibilities'). Proposed T West; seconded K Bosworth ­ Governors agreed to formalise the `Roles and Responsibilities' document, as appended. The Clerk will update the current version to incorporate the changes here agreed. 7. Terms of Reference for Committees Agreed that each Committee will confirm and ratify their own terms of reference at their next meetings.
Noted that the Chair is seeking advice from Devon Governor Services in regard to the delegation of powers to Committees ­ at the moment there are no powers delegated by the Governing Body of the College. 8. Principal's Report including SEF and College Development Plan update C Eves explained that a written report will be available for the next FGM, when the updated SEF is complete. He gave a verbal report: Academic · Departments have been updating their individual Improvement Plans in the light of the analysis done of the KS4 results. This showed in particular that Years 10 and 11 are doing better. Staff had not yet received the `value added information' but had used the figures from the Fisher Family Trust for this purpose. · Standards in the assessed course for PE were disappointing at KS4 and work is underway to improve this. · SATS are no longer to exist ­ currently teaching staff do not yet know what they will be required to do instead. It may be possible now to return to a system of tailoring the work to better suit the children, although some testing is necessary, in order to know how they are progressing. · Sixth Form exam results were very pleasing. Personal Development · There has been a very large increase in attendance. An external review has recently been conducted, the report of which is awaited. · Monitoring information will be included in the Principal's Report, as before Governors were asked to approve the proposed term dates for the academic year 2009/10. C Eves clarified the current position on Consultation Days and said there is some debate about whether these will continue, in their present format. Proposed G Lynch; seconded K Bosworth ­ school dates approved. 9. Reports from Committees: a) Personnel &amp; Finance T West gave a brief overview of the audit preparation work. He also drew attention to the monitoring of the school budget and pointed out in particular the high cost of utilities following a recent three­fold increase. There will be an overspend this year and increasingly a deficit likelihood ­ C Eves and the Senior Management Team have to address this over the next few months. Schools across the authority will be seriously challenged. R Connelly was unable to confirm whether or not DCC is looking at ways to help schools with the huge utility rises. The Committee resolved to move to Part 2 for discussion of a further item proposed T West; seconded K Bosworth. The meeting then resolved to return to Part 1 ­ proposed T West; seconded G Lynch. b) Curriculum, Communication &amp; Community D Conn stated that there had been no CCC Committee meeting since the last FGM.
c) Premises M Legg reported that at the meeting of 24 September T Gilbert had updated Governors on sports facilities development, as well as the improvement works carried out in the summer. The other major issue is access to school site ­ T Gilbert and his team are very worried about the dangers posed by congestion and very large numbers of vehicles entering and leaving the site, including lorries doing deliveries early in the morning when children are crossing over the entrance. Personnel from DCC had visited to view the problem and a report back from that meeting was now awaited. It is planned to have a Premises meeting to look at this single issue as the Committee feels it needs addressing urgently. L Coe is looking at the number of vehicles accessing school premises in the school day, and ways of reducing this. M Legg also said that, as Health &amp; Safety representative, he attends a Health &amp; Safety meeting once a term with T Gilbert, P Moss and S Powell. He will ask L Coe to circulate the minutes from these meetings to all other Governors from now on. 10. School Causing Concern Action Plan update C Eves confirmed with Governors that they had received the monitoring visit report from the Summer Term. Now that the SMT is at full complement again a day will be set aside (probably the next Consultation Day) to work on the Plan, with particular focus on Section 2. D Conn said that it was very good to have back the 2 members of the SMT who have been away from work. He will be helping C Eves and the SMT to follow through with work on the Action Plan during the Autumn Term. Policies for ratification: · Freedom of Information Publication Scheme (as amended) The Clerk had made the required amendments. Proposed R Smith; seconded K Bosworth ­ the Scheme was ratified. · Policies recommended for ratification at the Personnel &amp; Finance Committee meeting held on 15.10.08 11.
Maximising Attendance and Managing Sickness Absence Proposed R Connelly; seconded G Lynch ­ ratified. Flexible Working Request Proposed A Wright; seconded G Lynch ­ ratified. Noted that a new model document regarding flexible working is due out, because of a forthcoming change in the law in connection with staff who have children under 5 years of age. Complaints Procedure Proposed M Govier, seconded A Wright ­ ratified. 12. Governor visits It was agreed that the updated list of Governor department links will be put into the Staff Bulletin, so that staff can see who their link Governor is. Governors will make appointments for visits themselves, direct with Heads of Department, and inform both the Clerk and A Thomas of dates of visits.
T Gibbins presented his report (circulated to Governors) of his recent visit to the DT department. There was some discussion about T Gibbon's mention of concern about staff changes and the temporary positions within the department. C Eves said that he had discussed this matter with DT staff this morning. 13. Approval of future student trips The following proposed trips had been put forward for approval: 1) 28 November ­ 7 December 2008 ; German School exchange to Celle led by Monika Buss Meyer for Years 8/9/10/11/12 ; 10 students ; LEA approval / Risk Assessment / Costing sheet ­ all done. 2) 13 ­ 19 April 2009 ; Sports Development Tour to Malta led by Tristan Forster for Years 12 &amp; 13 (and a few Year 11s) ; 50 students ; LEA approval etc not yet done. 3) 8 ­ 11 July 2009 ; Enrichment days ­ Pastoral to Disneyland &amp; sightseeing, Paris led by Diane Jones for Year 7 ; 88 students ; LEA approval etc all done. 4) 7 ­ 20 November 2009 ; Japanese exchange to Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, Japan led by Crispin Chambers for Years 11 &amp; 13 ; 20 students ; LEA approval etc all done. 5) 5 ­ 11 February 2010 ; History visit (AS &amp; A2 students) to St Petersburg &amp; Moscow, Russia led by Diane Jones for Year 12 (2008 ­ 9) ; 25 students ; LEA approval etc all done. Governors were given a brief written description of each trip, but agreed that in future they would also like to see in advance the proposal forms, which showed whether the risk assessments etc had been done. As these are completed by hand, the Clerk will investigate the possibility of scanning them into a computer file, in order to e-mail, rather than post, to Governors. It was agreed that following this meeting the Chair would sign the forms for those trips where all the necessary checks have been done and for trip number 2) above the Chair will sign the form once the checks are completed. 14. Correspondence A list of correspondence received by the Clerk is contained in Appendix 2 to these minutes. Noted that Governors were concerned to hear of the long-term absence through sickness of the new School Nurse. The Chair will discuss with C Eves a suitable response to Devon PCT. 15. Boundary Committee consultation Included within this consultation are proposals for the development of Tavistock, one suggestion being for the building of a new primary school, as well as other facilities, such as to provide adult learning education for the disabled. It was felt that some problems could be solved by these developments, but other areas could be left not as well developed. A joint meeting between the Governors of Tavistock College and the Governors of Tavistock Primary School to discuss a response to the proposals is being held at 5.30 pm tomorrow (23 October) in the Atrium (at the College).
The Committee resolved to move to Part 2 for discussion of a further item proposed T West; seconded G Lynch The meeting then resolved to return to Part 1 ­ proposed T West; seconded G Lynch
Microsoft Word - FGM - minutes - 22 10 08.doc