Welcome and Apologies

The new chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received and accepted from JB, GRS, JH, PHB and DR. The meeting was quorate throughout.

SaO was introduced as a new parent governor (subject to references) and welcomed to the Board. SaO briefly introduced himself to everyone. He is the parent of a pupil at Swanmore College and his professional experience has been mainly in Health and Safety. Currently in the ports around the south but previously airport based. Everyone then introduced themselves to SaO.

Declaration of Pecuniary Interests

No interests were declared.

Governors were reminded that they need to make declarations annually on Governor Hub and that staff governors were also required to do this in addition to any declarations made in school.

Minutes of the meetings held on 16th September 2024 and 30th September 2024.
a) The minutes of both meetings were approved and will be signed electronically on Governor Hub.
b) Matters arising and Actions carried forward from the meeting 16th September 2024.

And actions C/F from ExBoG on 30th September 2024

Approve Policies & Procedures (shared in advance of the meeting)

a) AI (Artificial Intelligence) Policy (Res Com) - APPROVED
b) Attendance Policy (S&W Com) - APPROVED subject to the addition of the reference to traveler children absence.

Q: Is there provision in the policy for the days absence for traveler children on travelling activities – this should be a set number of days a year?
A: (JP) We are aware of those provisions, this forms part of our weekly pastoral meetings when we review attendance. This needs to be checked in the policy.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the attendance policy to be checked for reference to traveler children days absence from school for approved traveler activities.

c) Child Protection Policy (S&W Com’) – APPROVED subject to all the amendments and additions noted in the minutes.

A typo was also noted on p15 ‘A’ members of staff should read ‘Any’ members of staff. MT advised that reports on safeguarding matters or concerns must be signed and dated if they are to be used for future formal action. There does not appear to be a separate category listed in the policy referring to exploitation and modern slavery. These link to County Lines and gangs. The HDT explained that this is a HCC model but this needed to be checked.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the typo on p 15 to be amended and a note added in the policy regarding signing and dating reports on safeguarding and to contact HCC to clarify the reference to exploitation and modern slavery.

d) Children with Health Needs who cannot attend school (S&W Com’)
– APPROVED – subject to the action to remove the inactive link on p 4.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the inactive link on p4 (reduced hours TT form) to be removed.

e) Designated Teacher for looked-after and previously looked-after children (S&W Com’) - APPROVED

f) First Aid Policy (Res Com’) – APPROVED
g) GDPR Policy (Res Com) - APPROVED
h) Health and Safety Policy (Res Com) – APPROVED Subject to the amendment noted below.

There is a typo noted on p16 para 3, a word is missing, it should read ‘only staff that are adequately trained ….’.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the amendment to be made to the H&S Policy p 16 para 3 add ‘trained’.

i) Procedure for Protected Disclosures (Whistleblowing) Policy (S&W Com’) – APPROVED
j) Pay Policy (Pay Com’) - APPROVED subject to the amendment noted below. This needs to read at p 3 point 15 ‘consist of at least three governors’.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for point 15 on p 3 to read at least 3 governors.

k) Performance Management Policy – teachers and support staff (Pay Com’) APPROVED subject to the amendment noted below.

There needs to be adjustment to p 4 of the PM Policy to say 3 governors and to remove /delete the other options in the model policy as appropriate.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the amendments to the PM Policy p4 (bottom line to read ‘3’ governors and adjust the options in the sentence of the model policy.

l) Capability Policy (Pay Com’) – APPROVED
m) Suspension & Permanent Exclusion Policy (S&W Com’) – APPROVED
n) Agree and adopt the HR guidance and policies set out in the HCC Manual of Personnel Practice (MOPP) Policies to be adopted individually (Res Com)- APPROVED
o) Agree and adopt Financial Policies and HCC guidance - EFS (Res Com)- APPROVED

SLAs
p) Hampshire School Staff Absence Scheme - APPROVED
q) Hampshire School Library Service - APPROVED
r) Insurance - APPROVED
s) Occupational Health and Wellbeing Service – HCC SLA for Occ Health not used by college.
t) Shared Services (Transactional HR and Pay, Finance and Cash Management) - APPROVED

HDT

HDT

HDT

Finance Report (SB)
(Item 6 was dealt with before item 5 to allow SB to leave once complete.)

a) The budget reports had been discussed in detail at Resources and the written reports shared in advance of this meeting. SB advised that these figures include the budget revision to the end of October. The ‘Big Picture’ report was shown to governors and the additional funding received from HCC for the School Budget Grant pointed out. The receipt of this funding has had a very positive impact on the in-year surplus. This additional funding is mainly to cover the increased costs arising from teacher and support staff pay increases. As a result, the overall budget surplus has increased to £223K (two hundred and twenty-three thousand) from the figure forecast in April. This is a very positive position to be in.

Governors were also shown the 5-year forecast figures in line with the Hampshire CC accounting guidance. In addition, SB had prepared a simulated budget based on an increase in income of 4% each year which is historically the approximate increase in the school budget. This enables college to plan for the money they expect to receive. These figures include the cost of an additional member of SLT agreed at Resources last week.

IM congratulated SB on her excellent management and thanked her for the hard work she had put in to achieving the budget which is in such a good position. IM noted that the Financial Risks and Opportunities Report would be looked at in a future meeting.

b) Debt Recovery Report – this was shared and discussed at Resources the previous week.

SB left the meeting at 18.15

Headteacher’s Report (HDT)

The HDT written report had been shared with governors ahead of the meeting. The key headline is that the results in July are expected to be the best Progress 8 scores the school had achieved, although the checking exercise nationally is not yet complete, the score is expected to be +0.25 which should put Swanmore College in the top 10 of secondary schools in Hampshire. Parents will be informed of this excellent achievement once the results are final.

The HDT’s report sets out the ethos of the school and how the aim is to be inclusive to all pupils. Attendance remains a challenging issue as it does for all schools. Pre-pandemic attendance was around 95% now it is running at 93% which is in-line with attendance nationally. Suspensions also remain high. With the high number of permanent exclusions in the area, the College does not use The Bridge (a referral unit for Hampshire pupils) as much. The college is working with The Bridge on a pilot project to support some pupils who present with extreme behaviours. These pupils come from all year groups and the aim will be to work with some of these pupils so that they can access learning in the classroom environment. The HDT informed governors that once pupils are permanently excluded it is very hard for them to re-enter a main-stream school very easily, so the aim of the project is to formulate a new approach.

There are four active complaints currently being managed by the HDT in line with the Complaints Policy.

Q: What happens to escalate a query to a complaint?
A: The complainant has filled out the online form which then escalates their complaint so that it is dealt with in line with the Complaints Policy.

The HDT shared the college’s success in being awarded the ECO ‘Gold Award’ over the summer which is a very good achievement.

There was a brief outline for new governors about the Rural Schools Alliance (RSA) which is a teacher training school based in college. This year there are 10 student teachers which is a few more than normal. College is often able to appoint NQTs from here to September vacancies as this means appointing NQTs you know are high quality. The students are placed in other schools and are supported by Winchester University who award their qualifications.

The HDT’s report also set out the many successes in subject results from July 2024.

BP passed on her congratulations to Imogen a Yr 7 pupils who had spoken with confidence and enthusiasm at Community Committee earlier this month about the work of the pupil ECO Group.

College Strategic Risk Register

IM outlined the history of this item to the meeting. Strategic Risks are not covered in the financial risk report, so a new spreadsheet is also being developed to manage strategic risks. This will identify the risks; the causes and possible impact; and what actions now or in the future might be needed to manage the risk.

It is not intended to be a big, detailed report and will only include risks identified as being the most significant. The risks will be RAG rated, and the likelihood and impact of the risk occurring considered. It is important to have a plan in place for risks that have a low likelihood of arising.

Q: There are a few blanks in column B should this line up with column C?
A: No, these do not line up, they are separate lists based on the column heading.

IM thanked Ian Mosley who is the SLT lead on this work for his input.

NF said that she would try to use some of the risks identified during her link visits. IM agreed that this a good idea.

DECISION: It was unanimously agreed to adopt the Strategic Risk Register.

Safeguarding Up-date

Neither JH nor BRN were at the meeting to give an up-date. This was covered in detail at the ExBoG on the 30th September when the Safeguarding Audit was discussed and approved.

IM asked for a full up-date on safeguarding at the next BoG (10th March 2025).

ACTION: JH and BRN to give a full up-date on safeguarding at BoG in March 2025.

BRN/JH

Governor Matters

a) Committee TOR approval. The TORs for Community and HT PMR are still being reviewed by the committees.
DECISION: The TORs for Resources, Standards and Wellbeing and Pay were approved.

ACTION: The TORs for Community and HT PMR to be finalised by the next meeting of the committee and approved at BoG in March.

ACTION: Clerk to add TOR for Community and HT PMR to BoG agenda for 10th March 2025.

b) Governor Code of Conduct – this was recently reviewed and is not due again until March 2025.

c) CIP and Dashboard – IM had met with GRS before half term to review progress on the CIP. At the time all actions were progressing as planned. The dashboard is still in development and there will be a further up-date on this at BoG in March.

d) Governor training 2024/25 – IM encouraged all governors to look at the training available of the HCC website and aim to undertake at least one lot of training each year. This might link to their link role or another role or interest. At this point, BP noted that she could not find the DP training (see actions c/f to this meeting in item 3b. BP has an action noted there to email HCC to find out what training is available.)

e) Marketing and communications – DR had agreed to become the Link Governor for Marketing and Communications.

f) When DG’s term ends on the 10th December there will be a co-opted vacancy. JJ will be resigning from the Board on 20th January 2025 and his exit has been planned for SaO will be the new parent governor. MT will take over as DTG.

ACTION: IM to arrange for an email to go to parents regarding the co-opted governor vacancy which arises in December.

IM advised the Board that the Meon Valley Times would do an article about the college as long as there was an event or college focus in the article it would be acceptable to mention any governor vacancies. This could link to the results once they are confirmed. IM also felt that it would be useful to offer an information face to face session for parents to come into college to meet governors and to hear what governors do so they can understand the role better.

ACTION: IM to organise an information session about governors and the role of the Board for parents.

JH has agreed to stay for a further term of 4 years.

h) Due to the timings of the meetings scheduled for next term the Resources Committee in March falls after BoG. PHB has requested that the approval of the SFVS for 2025 is delegated to Resources as the return must be made by 31st March 2025. The submitted document will be shared at BoG in May.

DECISION: Governors agreed unanimously to delegate approval of the SFVS for March 2025 to the Resources Committee.

i) The Curriculum Review and refresh proposal had been shared at Resources and Standards and Well-being. It is a project being led by GRS. The report had been shared in advance on Governor Hub. There had also been an information session for Yr 10 and 11 parents which had been very well attended. IM said he thought the new arrangements introduced so far were excellent and help parents too. The plans and strategies had been agreed by Standards and Well-being and the costs approved by Resources.

DECISION: The proposal for Curriculum Review aims 1, 2 and 3 were unanimously approved.

BP / TPa

Clerk

Link Governor Reports

IM advised governors that the SLT contacts list had been updated, and this version was now available on Governor Hub. Where the subject had a mandatory link role there should be three link visits undertaken each year. For the non-mandatory link roles, this could be two or three visits arranged each year. All governors, who had not yet arranged a meeting this term for their role, were asked to arrange this as soon as possible.

The TOR for the link governor role was discussed. The lists of what this ‘should be’ and ‘should not be’ were felt to be very helpful. It was suggested that the safeguarding question list was added to the document as an appendix. Each visit should last no more than an hour. These should be opportunities to explore information about the link area and to have a positive dialogue with the SLT contact. Link Governors should know any actions in the CIP that relate to their subject so that these can be explored during the visit. The list of safeguarding questions aims to provide example questions which can be asked during the visit. There is no need to cover more than one question, and some link areas do not lend themselves to this line of discussion.

Q: Should we email the HDT when we are visiting?
A: The HDT said that he preferred it is governor dropped in to say hello and had a quick chat if he was free.

IM shared an example of a report on a link visit he had undertaken recently for information. He advised governors that the Clerk would send out a spreadsheet for completion about three weeks before the end of each term. This information would then be collated by the Clerk on to one spreadsheet to be used as a record of visits and to provide information for BP to summarise link governor activities to BoG annually.

DECISION: The Link Governor TOR was unanimously agreed.

Matters Arising from Committee meetings

No matters or questions were raised

As this was Dennis’s last meeting before his term of office ends, IM and the HDT took the opportunity to thank Dennis for his hard work and commitment to the college. IM was pleased to be taking over as Chair at a time when the board was in such a strong position.

The HDT thanked DG for the time he had given to the role of Chair, he had been a supportive friend and colleague during his eight years as Chair.

DG thanked everyone for their good wishes saying that it had been a pleasure to give back to the college, both he and his son had attended. He was proud to be leaving the board in such a good position with such a breadth of skills and a worthy successor as Chair.

The meeting ended at 19.00

Date of Next Meeting – ExBoG 16th December at 5.00pm via Zoom (link will be sent via email and also made available on the Gov Hub noticeboard).

Full BoG - 10th March Steering at 4.15 followed by BoG at 5pm (note slightly earlier start due to pupil presentations).

BP to investigate the availability of DP training and let all governors know.)

ACTION COMPLETE – there is no HCC Gov training on GDPR. This is available through the Legal Services SLA which is suitable for governors as well as staff. Access would need to be given to governors. BP has asked the HDT if this can be arranged. BP 23/11/24

HDT to arrange for the attendance policy to be checked for reference to traveler children’s days from school for approved traveler activities.

Notes on this provided by school
29/11/24 - I have been advised that this is an HCC policy and we are unable to make any changes to it. Systems are in place to monitor these and are discussed at weekly pastoral meetings. We are therefore unable to amend the policy.

HDT to arrange for the typo in p 15 Child Protection Policy to be amended and a note added in the policy regarding signing and dating reports on safeguarding and to contact HCC to clarify the reference to exploitation and modern slavery.

Notes on this provided by school
29/11/24 - All safeguarding reports are created on our CPOMS system and therefore are automatically dated and digitally signed. Any pupil statements are signed and dated by the pupil and member of staff assisting with the statement and then scanned and uploaded to CPOMS. As this is an HCC policy, we are unable to make such changes.
29/11/24 - (exploitation and modern slavery) Again, this is an HCC policy but our Safeguarding Policy, which runs alongside the Child Protection Policy, does have a section relating to this. The question has been asked as to whether it would be useful for the Safeguarding Policy to be present to the BoG at the same time as the Child Protection Policy so that they can be viewed together?