Welcome to the School Governor Pages
Chairs' Leadership Development
Programme
For information on Cheshire East's licence to deliver
the National College for School Leadership's Chairs' Development
and forthcoming dates, visit the Governors' Network North West partnership
webpages or see the Development Programme flyer (PDF,
949KB).
What's New?
Governor Dashboard
You may already be aware that Fischer Family
Trust has been working on a Governor Dashboard in association with
the National Governors Association and the Wellcome Trust. The FFT
dashboard includes a wider range of school performance indicators,
including value added pupil progress for all subjects, attendance
by year group and a summary of strengths and weaknesses for the
school. It gives governors the information they need to answer
questions about how results and pupil progress compares to other
schools, and see which pupil groups (e.g. FSM/pupil premium) are
making good progress.
Each governing body still needs at least one
governor data expert who needs to look at RAISEonline.
However this dashboard will provide a very useful summary for every
governor. FFT will continue developing the governor dashboard and
plans for the next 12 months include extending the dashboard to
Infant school (KS1) and Post-16 (KS5) and developing an online
interactive dashboard. The NGA and FFT have also
produced two
briefing guides for the dashboard, as part of the NGA
‘Knowing your School’ series.
Governors are recommended to access
their school report but will need to do so via their school, as
Governors do not have access to FFTlive. The
Dashboard is:
- A four page summary
- Available for primary (KS2) and secondary (KS4)
- Provides information about school performance and context
- Will be updated early in the autumn term
Example versions of the dashboard are also available on
the
NGA website.
Sample
Dashboard for Primary school (Self Valley)
Sample Dashboard for Secondary school (Milton Abbey)
The DfE Governors' Handbook has now been published
The Handbook replaces the Governors’ Guide
to the Law and it provides information about the role and legal
duties of governing bodies in maintained schools and academies
(including free schools).
Section 1 outlines the core role and functions of school
governing bodies, all governors should read this section.
Sections 2 to 8 summarise all of the specific legal duties on
governing bodies –providing a first point of reference for those
with a specific area of interest.
Further reading, signposted from within each section, provides more
detailed information on governing bodies’ legal duties and any
supporting guidance or resources.
The Handbook is now available at the
DfE website.
Director's Report to School Governing Bodies
The summer term report is now
available.
Fischer Family Trust Data Dashboard for Governors
The Fischer Family Trust will be publishing a new data dashboard
for governors on 16th May (revised date). The dashboard has been
designed in conjunction with the National Governors' Association.
It will be available on the FFT website.
Governors will need to use their school's log in details to access
the dashboard.
School Funding
SEN Funding letter (PDF,
102KB), to all schools and governors, from the Director
of Children and Families.
DfE Schools Block Funding Formulae 2013-14.
Cheshire East Governors’ Conference at Tatton Park on 22 March
2013
The fourth Governors’ Conference for Cheshire
East was another enjoyable and informative day. The
presentations are now available from our speakers on the day:
Primary School Sport Funding
The Government is providing funding of £150
million per annum nationally for academic years 2013/14 and 2014/15
to provide new, substantial primary school sport funding. This
funding is being jointly provided by the Departments for Education,
Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and will see money going
directly to primary school headteachers to spend on improving the
quality of sport and PE for all their children. The sport
funding can only be spent on sport and PE provision in schools.
All schools with 17 or more primary-aged
pupils will receive a lump sum of £8000 plus a premium of £5 per
pupil (based on January 2013 Census). Actual funding allocations
will be notified by the DfE in late September / early October
2013.
Detailed information regarding, for example,
the purpose of and reporting requirements for the funding, can be
found on the
DfE website
The Director of Children's Services Report to School Governing
Bodies - future briefing dates
Arrangements for the Director of Children’s
Services’ Report to School Governing Bodies briefings are as
follows:
- Wednesday 1 May 2013
- Wednesday 18 September 2013
Both briefings will take place at the Chimney House, Congleton
Road, Sandbach CW11 4ST. Refreshments will be available
from 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start and the briefings will finish at
8.30pm. All governors are welcome to attend. Please
notify schoolgovernance@cheshireeast.gov.uk
if you will be attending.
Ofsted School Data Dashboard
Ofsted have now published a Dashboard for all schools and
academies. It is aimed at supporting governors in their
understanding of how well the school is doing, and is also intended
for parents.
LA update on the new SEN Funding
The LA
update on the new SEN Funding approach from April along
with a letter
from the minister, David Laws, to David Rutley MP , which
explains the Government’s view on this issue.
Re-Shaping Relationships with Schools
Thank you to the many school leaders and governors who attended
the event at the Tytherington Club on Wednesday 23rd January. The
presentation that was delivered at the session and feedback from
the table discussions can be downloaded by clicking on the links
below:
Revised Ofsted Documentation
Ofsted's framework
and guidance documentation was updated in December 2012.
Considering a Change of Status? A good practice guide for
governors and headteachers
Decisions about possible or actual changes of school status and
organisation are the responsibility of governing bodies. If
your school is looking at the potential benefits, challenges and
risks of federation, foundation, trust or academy status, you may
find this recently revised guide produced by the National
Co-ordinators of Governor Services (NCOGs) useful.
Visit the The Governors'
Learning Partnership webpages to view the document.
You will need to log in to view the resource. If you subscribe
to governor support and development and haven't yet got a log in,
go to 'create new account' at the top right of the
screen.
Other Useful Information and Resources
School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012
These new regulations took effect from September 2012. They
remove the requirement for schools to produce a prospectus and
instead publish specified information online. This will
include:
- details of the school’s pupil premium allocation and plans to
spend it in the current year; and, for the previous year, a
statement of how the money was spent and the impact that it had on
educational attainment of those pupils at the school in respect of
whom grant funding was allocated;
- details of the school’s curriculum, content and approach, by
academic year and by subject (including details of GCSE options and
other qualifications offered at Key Stage 4 (for secondary
schools), and approach to phonic and reading schemes (for primary
schools);
- where applicable, details or links to the school’s admission
arrangements, including its selection and oversubscription
criteria, published admission number and the school’s process for
applications through the local authority;
- details of the school’s policies on behaviour, charging and SEN
and disability provision;
- links to the school’s Ofsted reports and DfE School Performance
Tables and details of the school’s latest Key Stage 2 and/or Key
Stage 4 attainment and progress measures as presented in the School
Performance Tables;
- a statement of the school’s ethos and values.
National Governors' Association Self-Evaluation Tool
In conjunction with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on
Governance the
NGA
has produced a new
self-evaluation tool -
Twenty Key Questions for Governing Bodies.
Ofsted Report on Governance
Ofsted has published a report on good practice in school
governance. The
good practice in school governance summary and full report is
on the Ofsted website.
Understanding School Data
The booklet Making Sense of School Performance
Data - The Governors’ Role in Supporting and Challenging Schools
(PDF, 2.8MB).
Useful Links
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