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CHESTNUT GROVE ACADEMY

Meeting of the Local Academy Committee

Thursday 22nd March 2018, at 6.30 pm

Minutes – Part A (non-confidential)

LOCAL ACADEMY COMMITTEE MEETING Present: Christian Kingsley CK Headteacher Martin Goffe MG Community governor William Gardner WG Community governor Rose Caldwell RC Community governor Richard Gorringe RG Community governor (Co-Vice Chair) Clare Holley CH Community governor Sarah Coyte SC Community governor Judi Dumont-Barter JDB Community governor (Chair) Sarah Marshall SMA Community governor (Co-Vice Chair) Beth Buchanan BB Staff governor Conrad Withey CW Parent governor In attendance: Steve Wallis SW School Business Manager Paul Hepworth PH GDPR lead and Assistant Headteacher Sarah Foxen SF Clerk

Meeting opened at 18:35

1. Apologies Apologies were presented for Helen Holding, Ben Keeble and Sarah Guerra. These were accepted by the committee.

2. Declaration of Interests CK, JDB, SMA, and SW declared as an interest that they are either Trustees of the Wandle Learning Trust, or are involved with it.

3. Register of Business Interests There were no updates.

4. Minutes of the previous FGB meeting The Chair invited comments on the minutes from the previous meetings: the AGM, the previous FLAC and confidential aspect of the FLAC. She talked through several matters arising. Firstly, she explained that Sian Mathias was leading on taking

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forward Trustee recruitment, and that the recruitment panel would need at least three people. She mentioned that WLT handbook, which she later explained in full detail, explaining that committee Chairs would receive information on the policies they were responsible for through this handbook. The Chair also updated the committee that Paul Thomas has had to step down as governor, due to other pressures on his time in his new work role. Further to this, she added that SC has stepped up, and has already chaired her first CFC meeting. On the matter of safeguarding, the Chair explained that she had had two interviews with Sheila Payen to look at the single central record and changes that should be recommended. The Chair articulated that she wondered if Sheila would be expected to take on responsibilities for the MAT. Question: Referring to the previous meeting’s minutes, a governor asked if the local MP had delivered on her promise to arrange work experience for a pupil, and a tour of the Houses of Parliament. It was explained that, unfortunately, the school had not had a response from the MP since following up with her. They were disappointed that they had not been able to take this opportunity forward. The Chair drew the board’s attention to the action for Parneeta Davies to prepare a document for governors on understanding ASP. She asked if this had been done. It was discussed that Parneeta had spoken to the T&L committee about data interpretation; however, the chair said she would still like there to be some more training available around understanding the DfE performance data. Action: RG will look into training for the T&L committee around understanding ASP. Question: A governor who had been absent from the previous meeting asked for more detail to be given on the discussion of the school’s use of social media. The HT explained that social media is something they are concerned about. It is part of the school’s health problem focus, and Jo Taylor will be reviewing how they teach about it. The Chair added that in the previous meeting Jo Taylor had said they weren’t using social media enough however, this was intentional. The HT then explained that he thinks there will be pressure with WLT to use it more, however, he is nervous about this. Question: A governor asked whether the board had been shown Rebecca Jackson’s report on young people’s trajectories in relation to school exclusions. It was explained that the work had been done, but not shared. Action: CK and JDB to gather data regarding young people’s trajectories in relation to school exclusions and ensure it is shared with the board. All agreed and approved that the minutes were an accurate record of the previous meetings.

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5. Incoming Data Protection Protocols The Chair introduced the item by explaining that she and the Vice Chair had been to a meeting at WBC in which they learnt about their role in the GDPR changes. She said there are considerable changes and these will have implications for governors. For this reason, she had invited PH to talk to the board, to update on where the school was at in terms of readiness, and what governors should be doing. PH explained that the changes were pitched as a small change, but could actually be seen as a revolution. He gave some context: the changes are happening on a European level and will continue to be pertinent after Brexit. In the UK they will become legislation through the Data Protection Act 2018. The Information Commissioner’s Office and DfE have said there will not be a ‘cliff edge’ when the changes come into place; however, the school needs to show that they are working hard towards compliance. PH then gave a PowerPoint presentation which was circulated to governors and uploaded to Fronter afterwards. The presentation covered key definitions. Question: On the subject of ‘personal data’, a governor asked if SEN information fell into this category. PH confirmed it did, as children could be identified from the data. The presentation then covered: the principles of GDPR; how data could be kept safe and secure; why comply, and why now; the legal side to GDPR; Fines; steps to implementation; key priorities for staff; and key priorities for governors. PH explained the importance of having accurate data, not least because it has an impact on the census. For example, if a child’s postcode is wrong, the DfE won’t query it, they will simply not give money for that child. He also explained that he wasn’t particularly concerned about fines, as he thought the ICO would go after other organizations before schools. Question: A governor asked if all breaches needed to be reported. PH explained that the school doesn’t have to declare every breach; rather, they have to make a judgment call as to whether they need to declare it to the people involved. He explained that if, for example, an encrypted laptop was lost, it would be unlikely that anyone could access the data, thus they might not be required to report it. On key priorities for the governing board, PH said he had rated them as medium to high risk, and that this was the riskiest aspect of the school. He said this was because governors use personal email addresses. So as to be compliant, governors will need to move to using school email accounts. Questions: A governor asked if cloud based storage was an option. It was explained that with certain cloud based systems, you can specify that the data is stored in the EU where it meets Data Protection compliance. A governor then raised the point that they shouldn’t be receiving personal sensitive information. Another added that they would be getting it in disciplinary cases. PH said that it was precisely in this context that he was concerned.

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PH advised governors that if they lost data they should advise the school as it is their data. Questions: A governor asked if teachers had emails on their devices. PH said they did but that devices needed to be locked. Another asked if staff have to sign anything to say they have done training. PH said that they are looking into rolling out yearly online training for staff. A governor asked whether sanctions would be put in place for staff being irresponsible with data. PH explained that the ‘buck stopped’ with the Headteacher, however the school needed to prove that they had done all they could to train staff. With this in mind, they will build it into the beginning-of-year paperwork. A governor then said that they had heard the ICO has no money, and will be looking to make money through fines. She added that she saw no reason why paper files should exist; in her organization, they have a clear desk policy. She asked how CCTV was stored. PH explained that they save incidents recorded on CCTV in folders, which are then destroyed at the correct time. The governor added that there would be changes around fundraising with a need for renewal of explicit consent. PH confirmed they would action this before the 25th May. A governor asked whether there was a policy around subject access requests. PH responded that he was in the middle of writing all policies, which he was drafting based on models from the DfE and WBC. A governor asked how this applied to Friends of CGA. PH informed the board that the Friends of CGA have to cover themselves. A governor asked if the rollout was Trust-wide. PH confirmed it was. Another governor then asked if they were planning to have an external audit. PH explained that the ICO will come in when everything is more embedded. The governor encouraged the school to be proactive in inviting the ICO in. A governor thanked PH for his presentation and congratulated them on having got so far in their steps to compliance. Action: Alice Diamond to upload PH’s presentation to Fronter. Action: All governors to be using their CGA email addresses by Monday 16th April.

6. Chair’s Report The Chair gave an oral report to the committee. Committee restructuring and new deputies for committees The Chair said that SMA will become a deputy Chair. Together they have looked at the committee structures, due to the Chairs concern that they don’t have enough governors for the present structure. She said that for the moment they won’t

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combine the site and resources committee; rather, they will revisit this later on as things change in September. She said that she had asked SC and RG to find deputies or their committees. At present, they won’t grow the board any bigger; they are delighted to have WG and CH as new permanent governors. As Chair of WLT, Sian Mathias is getting clarity around what she wants to do and how she wants things to move forward. Both The Chair and SMA are Trustees for WLT, so can continue to ensure that things are aligned. Risk monitoring The Chair said that RG had proposed changing the way they think about risk monitoring. They have decided they won’t change the risk register, but will reflect on how they review and monitor it. She invited RG to give an overview of this RG explained that people rarely use risk registers as much as they could. Governors must have a process behind the risk register that governors can trust. They want to strip away the noise and see what they can get out of the register. Then it will be seen as a valuable process and document. It was decided that the review would happen on a termly basis. They will look between now and September at how the reporting structure works and how it could evolve. The Chair explained that the SLT were clearly constantly managing risk, they just don’t think about it in this way. She said the risk register is a governance tool, for governors to use; however, they want to combine it with the work of the SLT. As they review and monitor processes, they will talk to SLT about how they make sure they are reviewing risk. The Chair was clear that there should not be replication at Trust and Committee level. SMA added that the risks will be thought through at committee level, then these will feed up to Trust level. Question: A governor asked if the SLT did a risk register whether it would like the governors’. The Headteacher responded that it would. The Chair added that the risk register came from the SLT and that the partnership was stronger than they were acknowledging. The Headteacher encouraged governors that it was important that they communicated to the SLT that it was a collaborative endeavor. He simplified the interplay between the two by saying that the governors’ risks were the SLTs action points in their action plan. Governor visits The Chair said that these are organized by the Resources committee and that CW, SMA and CK have been planning these. Action: CW will get a list of visits and questionnaires out to board members. The Chair said that she had wanted to hold 1-2-1 meetings with all governors. Nearly all have come back to her, and it will be good to do this. Newsletter articles The Chair said that she would like to raise the profile of governors through contributing more to the school newsletter. She invited ideas or potential articles.

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The Headteacher suggested a piece on the expansion as at parents evening a number of parents had said they understood why the school was doing it but were worried as they had wanted their children to go to a small school. He suggested in three to four months time would be a good time to do this. A governor suggested a piece on being part of a MAT and the range of things the school can offer, in particular vocational courses. The Headteacher said that they needed to think this through first. SMA said that in their CFC committee meeting they had thought about focusing on pupils who don’t achieve as highly and how those pupils are catered for – for example ,the pupils that won’t go to Russell Group universities: do they feel part of the school? She said that the year before they had had lunch with the head boy and girl and deputes, who had all said how wonderful their experience of CGA had been; however, they had also said that they knew there were pupils in the school who had a different experience. Action: SC, SMA and BB to discuss organising a student voice around BTEC pupils, and how this might become a newsletter piece. Governors also suggested a piece around Pupil Premium and the Safeguarding audit. Another idea was to do a piece on parents’ evening – including governors’ attendance, and drawing on questionnaire data. The Head said that at the parents’ evening the night before, 168/180 parents had attended – meaning a 93% engagement rate. This shows the levels of engagement. The Chair summarised that there had been growth in engagement, and the Headteacher added that it had been good to have governors at parents’ evening so that parents could get to know them. He said that the demographic changes that the school has seen in the past five years might contribute to the increase in engagement as the school has become truly comprehensive. Action: SC to pull together paragraphs from governors on their experiences of parents evening and parent engagement. To be sent to SC’s new email address. Article to go out three weeks after return from Easter. Action: JDB to write a piece on safeguarding, to go out in the next couple of weeks. Behavior policy review The Chair said they wanted to get together a group of governors to review the behavior policy. The Chair will work with Becky Jackson on this, and SC and CW will assist. Governor action plan The Chair invited each committee Chair to write a few lines about the main achievement of their committee, and identify three or four targets for next year,

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based on reports from the Headteacher and the SIP. These will feed into the governors’ annual report. Action: Committee chairs to write a few lines about the main achievement of their committee, and identify three or four targets for next year, based on reports from the Headteacher and the SIP.

7. Headteacher’s Report School expansion The Headteacher summarized his report, which had been circulated to the board in advance of the meeting. He began by talking about the school expansion and how they had been approached by WBC with an invite to expand from 6- to 7-form entry. They have accepted this, a building expansion which will cost £4 million. WBC has also asked them to take a bulge, which would push numbers in that year group up to 240. The Head said he was more dubious about this and is resisting this, as he doesn’t know that they can cope with this, whilst they would be able to cope with the additional form entry. He said the expansion will give extra facilities and they will be able to expand the sixth form. He said they were one of three schools expanding and that one of the most exciting things was it will give the school additional flexibility with their curriculum. WLT The Head gave an overview of key progress with WLT. He said that they now have branding, and that they are currently in the process of developing policies and trustee handbooks, and are recruiting remaining Trustees. Sian Mathias has scheduled a joint governors’ meeting for the 2nd May. Action: Alice Diamond to send around details of the joint governors meeting on the 2nd May. The Head also drew governors’ attention to the successful Christmas concert, and that their second community newsletter had gone out. Question: A governor asked how far the newsletter was circulated, as certain people who were very local didn’t seem to have received the letter. The Head said it was circulated to about 1000 houses and distributed by sixth formers. He will check the reach of the newsletter. Action: CK to check the reach of the newsletter. Alice to send copy to all governors / upload to Fronter. Admissions The Head said that next year CGA will be taking 10 extra pupils, and that he and the Chair had agreed this. This will mean there will be bigger classes. They have been able to offer specialist language and art places.

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Question: A governor asked how big the classes would become. The Head said they would go up to 31 or 32 children . He said that they had accepted the extra children in part for the money, but also that the extra children would give them more stability, as they would have to lose 10 pupils before they would need to start thinking about casual admissions. A governor said that this entrepreneurial spirit was so valuable for the school and so helpful for the finances. She added that they had had no staff lay offs, which was really great, and the Head said that this could be a newsletter article. Awards The Head then moved on to explain that Jo Taylor had won an award for her work and the school had won the School Equalities Award. He wanted to say a big thank you for all the hard work that had gone into realising this. The Head was delighted to report that they had achieved the Healthy Workplace Charter and were one of only 190 organizations in London to do so, as well as one of the first schools. Teaching, Learning and Assessment The Head said the curriculum policy had been reviewed. Maths and science continue to be supported with support plans. In maths they have had two NQTs, which has had implications on teaching and learning. They have appointed three teachers for next year. They have signed up to Maths Mastery through Chesterton and staff are being trained. This will give them a solid footing. They feel that the key to maths and science success is sustainability. They have a new School Link Inspector who has done a report, which said much the same as the previous one. They have had to cancel the mock Ofsted visit twice now due to unforeseen circumstances. They have decided not to plan for a third one as they don’t want to put staff through the process again. However, preparations for both of the previous ones means staff are ready. Ms Gosling will be leaving at Easter. The Head wished to thank her for the ten years she had put in to CGA. They have found a replacement. They are also going to be recruiting to music and drama and are investing in performing arts. All support staff performance management has been done. A governor commented on staff recruitment that it seemed like there was a talent pool, despite reports to the contrary. The Head explained that the new school building as well as the school’s results certainly helped attract good candidates. Nevertheless, the pool of candidates was not as rich as they would have hoped. This being said, they were delighted with their drama teacher appointment. He said that there was a strong field for the assistant Headteacher position, and he thought this was down to the school being seen as progressive and forward thinking.

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The Head then updated on school building work; namely, that they will be demolishing the building at Easter. He said that they won’t be able to buy solar panels, however, there may be opportunities to work with companies on getting panels on the roof. They have new cleaners, which are fantastic, and the contract for the school expansion feasibility study has gone to tender. Road safety The Head reported that the school had written to everyone about this. The chief engineer at WBC had come out to visit the school to walk through the traffic calming measures on Chestnut Grove. The engineer had said that they need hazard lights and safety railings at the temporary – and eventually new – entrance. WBC have agreed to do this and the school has shared this news with parents and Friends of CGA. Unfortunately, lollypop people are no longer funded. He added that most accidents don’t happen on Chestnut Grove; rather, it’s a case of children just walking out into the main high road. He said they had done lots of work with children, which seems to have improved things. The Head said that the expansion would make things more challenging and that they had been recommended having a staggered end of day. He said this was extremely difficult to implement in practice. However, they might try doing this by just 5 minutes as this would still make a difference. Question: A governor asked if it would be possible to have multiple exits. The Head explained that this would not, because of the supervision required. Another governor asked if the Friends of CGA feel they have been heard and the Head said that they did.

8. MAT update

The Chair gave a brief update from a report that Sian Mathias had sent through. Sian reported that they had been busy, but that the heads of CGA and Chesterton were demonstrating a clear and effective model of leadership. She reported that they had had an ambitious start, with the introduction of a new finance system introduced across schools. The safeguarding leads are working together. Trustees have been working in the past three months on developing a new MAT handbook, strategic plan, policy schedule, risk register and model for due diligence. The WLT has agreed to membership with the NGA and The Key. Next they would like to develop a prospectus so that they have a positive message to share with schools that want to join them. SW reported that at Trust level they were trying to establish which policies would be trust level, and which would sit with the LAC. They are putting policies into the WLT and LAC handbook. SW then shared the financial policies handbook and used it to demonstrate how policies would be designated. Question: A governor asked if there was a list of all policies, so they could be sure that none fell through the cracks. It was confirmed there was. A governor then asked

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that for each policy the scope and applicability was detailed, so that this was very clear for all parties. SMA said that the WLT handbook will be done from the summer onwards, so they will be able to draw down from this. Action: Alice to send invites to meeting on 16th of April, in which policies will be discussed.

9. School expansion A report on this was uploaded onto Fronter prior to the meting. The Chair said that in general the report seemed positive.

10. Reports from committees Children and Families Committee SC said the committee had spoken about the very positive safeguarding report and the new student voice. They spoke about parent questionnaire and parental engagement. SC has had a couple of meetings with Friends of Chestnut Grove Academy. This is a small group, and the meetings focused on how they might broaden their engagement and widen their appeal. SC has also met with Sarah Dovey (head of SEN) and SEND parents. They spoke about two issues: 1) the behavior policy and its incorporation of the voice of pupils; and 2) communication for children with additional needs. Teaching, Learning and Assessment RG reported that the committee has had a theme of maths and science this year. They are pleased to be able to challenge the SLT on this and to see positive developments in both. They have reviewed the new curriculum policy, which is a splendid document. They looked at the pupil premium impact report and confirm that it is being used without a doubt to the benefit of those pupils. They also looked at GCSE data, the Y11 diagnostic impact report and Progress 8 and Attainment * data. Site MG reported that the hold up on the demolition was due to the discovery of an asbestos panel. WG and MG met Sharon Noble to discuss fundraising for solar panels. This does not look likely; however, there is the possibility of bringing in a company who would put panels on the roofs, then CGA would get a small percentage of the profits. MG has found a social enterprise that would do this. The organisation covers costs of installation, and the school would make 2-3 times the amount over the life of the panels. Resources SMA explained that the ToR will change slightly with the MAT conversion. The committee looked into the financial forecast. They budgeted for an £80K deficit, knowing they had money in the bank, and they are on track for this. In fact, they are in a stronger position. They discussed how costs for certain things have reduced such as photocopying, with food waste diminishing. They also talked about HoD visits.

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11. Governor training

This item was not discussed.

12. SEND policy ratification The send policy had been drafted. This will always remain specific to CGA, despite the MAT status. The Chair proposed ratification of the policy. This was seconded by MG, and all governors approved it. Approval: The board ratified the SEND policy.

13. Any other urgent business The Chair said that they don’t have a standing item for Friends of CGA. She wrote to them and asked if they would like to provide the LAC with updates. The Friends will do this going forward.

14. Date and time of next LAC 14 June 2018, 6.30 pm

Meeting closed at 21:10

Agreements summary

Actions summary

Action number

Agenda item

Action Responsible

1 4 Action: RG will look into training for the T&L committee around understanding ASP

RG

2 4 Action: CK and JDB to gather data regarding young people’s trajectories in relation to school exclusions and ensure it is shared with the board.

CK and JDB

3 5 Action: Alice Diamond to upload PH’s presentation to Fronter.

Alice Diamond

4 5 Action: All governors to be using their CGA email addresses by Monday 16th April.

All

5 6 Action: CW will circulate the questionnaires out to board members. Alice Diamond will get a list of

CW / AD

Agenda item Agreement

4 All agreed and approved that the minutes were an accurate record of the previous meetings, held on the 14th December 2017.

12 The SEND policy was ratified by the board.

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visits. The Chair said that she had wanted to hold 1-2-1 meetings with all governors. Nearly all have come back to her, and it will be good to do this.

6 6 Action: SC, SMA and BB to discuss organising a student voice around BTEC pupils, and how this might become a newsletter piece.

SC, SMA, BB

7 6 Action: SC to pull together paragraphs from governors on their experiences of parents evening and parent engagement. To be sent to SC’s new email address. Article to go out three weeks after return from Easter.

SC

8 6 Action: JDB to write a piece on safeguarding, to go out in the next couple of weeks.

JDB

9 6 Action: Committee chairs to write a few lines about the main achievement of their committee, and identify three or four targets for next year, based on reports from the Headteacher and the SIP.

SC, MG, SMA, RG

10 7 Action: Alice Diamond to send around details of the joint governors meeting on the 2nd May.

Alice Diamond

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7 Action: CK to check the reach of the newsletter.

CK AD

12 7 Action: Alice will send Community letter to all governors or upload onto Fronter.

AD

13 8 Action: Alice to send invites to meeting on 16th of April, in which policies will be discussed.

Alice Diamond

Papers summary

Title

Minutes of the Full Governing Body’s AGM, 14th December 2017

Minutes of the Full Governing Body, 14th December 2017

Confidential minutes of the Full Governing Body, 4th December 2017

Headteacher’s Interim Report, December 2017

Paper on School Place Planning and Capital Strategy

SEND policy

Agreed as an accurate record:

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Signed: ________________________________ (Chair of Governors) Date: ________________________________