Annual Governance Statement

for the Governing Board of

Parbold Douglas Church of England Academy

SEPTEMBER 2022

In accordance with the Government’s requirement for all governing bodies, the three core strategic functions of the Parbold Douglas Church of England Primary School Academy Governing Body are:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

2. Holding the Headteacher and school to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;

3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

General Comments

Our 2021/22 school year has drawn to a close after yet another unprecedented period for all of us.

Our school leaders, teachers and support staff have worked tirelessly to ensure that pupils would continue to have excellent educational provision and support as the school has moved back to a normal working pattern.

The Governors and Headteacher have continued to explore the formation of a Multi-Academy Trust. Towards this end the governors agreed that the school should enter into a closer working relationship with Mawdesley St Peter’s Church of England Primary School from the start of the summer term. Parents were informed.

The Governors would also like to thank the parent community for their wholehearted support.

The work that we have done on the Governing Body:

Resources and Audit

• Throughout the year there were interim Budget reports which detailed the school’s financial position in relation to income and expenditure, particularly in relation to the school budget set in 2021 for the 2021/2022 school year. This process continued in summer term 2022 when the new budget for 2022/2023 was presented, as well as budgets for 2023/24 and 2024/25, and agreed.  
• The Academy’s External Audit report shows that the financial position of the school is secure.
• The Governors considered the Pupil Premium spending as well as examining the impact of this in the previous school year.

Standards

• The Governors considered many issues over the course of the year, in particular ones related to pupil achievement, so that they could be sure that the school was on track to fulfil its ambitious targets for all pupils - with additional focus on ‘closing the gap’. With regard to assessment information, the Governors were kept informed of our procedures relating to pupil progress and how these are used to support future learning.
• The Governors were kept informed of curriculum decisions.
• Updates to the School Development Plan were discussed. The Governors wholeheartedly approved of the aims of the three main strands to the SDP – ‘Curriculum’, ‘Shining Even Brighter (COVID 19 Recovery)’ and ‘Leadership and Development’.
• Governors noted and discussed the wider strategies to support children’s well-being through external links.
• Governors noted and celebrated the superb strategic work the school has delivered to provide an exceptional personal development offer for all pupils. This included expanding the school’s extra-curricular offer with a varied range of opportunities each half-term. Participation rates at these extra-curricular clubs were exceptionally high.
• The Pupil Curriculum Committee gave an excellent presentation at the last FGB meeting of the year. It was wonderful to see how articulate and well informed these Year 6 pupils were about the curriculum.
• Governor visits in the Autumn and Spring Terms had highlighted strong delivery of Maths and Phonics across the school.
• Reports from the meetings between the SEND lead teacher and the link Governor were received. Reports from Link subject governors were received.

Premises, Health and Safety

• There was a review of the Risk Management Policy.
• Health and Safety issues were reviewed and updated; in particular Governors requested that compliance to food standards be added to the Health and Safety report.
• Issues related to the school buildings and premises were discussed with forthcoming plans for improvement. The Governors see it as a priority to progress the plans for the further development of the Nursery, which has been held up by the pandemic.

Governance arrangements:

• There are 12 Governors, consisting of 8 Foundation Governors, 2 Staff Governors, 2 Parent Governors.
• The Full Governing Body met on the usual four times in the year; all but the last of the meetings were held by Zoom.
• Full meetings of the of each of the Resources/Audit, Premises and Standards Committees were held three times during the year. Some meetings were by Zoom, but increasingly we have moved to face-to-face meetings.
• The Remuneration Committee met in October to fulfil their statutory responsibilities.
• The Headteacher’s Performance Management meeting took place in September, supported by an external LA advisor.
• A Safeguarding review meeting was held in September. A Safeguarding external audit took place during the year.
• Also, there were regular meetings of the following committees; Budget, Nursery and Wellbeing.
• FGB training:

1. A variety of sources have been accessed including LPDS, NGA (Virtual College), Blackburn Diocese.
2. Following on from guidance from the DfE concerning the government’s desire to encourage single academy trusts to consider forming MATs (multi academy trusts) the FGB had training on both the legal aspects of MAT formation from PDAs legal advisors and on other aspects of MATs from the Blackburn diocese Director of Education.

• As a priority the governing board continued to closely monitor the wellbeing of the Headteacher, staff, pupils and parent communities as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to have an affect school and home life.

A separate document in the Governors’ section of the school website details the attendance of each individual governor at these meetings. Governors had good attendance at meetings.

How you can contact the governing board:

We always welcome suggestions, feedback and ideas from parents – please contact the Chair of Governing Body, Mr Grant Carruthers, via the school office.

Our Governing Body: