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Meeting Started at 5.30pm

1.  Welcome and Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received and accepted from JB, DM, DR and JH. The meeting was quorate throughout.

2.  Annual register of Pecuniary Interests

No interests were declared. Thanks were given to governors who have made their declarations on Gov Hub and reminders given to those who have not done this yet.

3.  Introduction of a potential Co-opted Governor

IM welcomed Anna Walklate (AW) to the meeting and introduced her to the board as a potential co-opted governor. All governors introduced themselves. AW briefly set out her experience and skills. She is a certified actuary who now trains actuarial students. AW has a child at Swanmore College and two younger children at Swanmore Primary. She is a governor at Swanmore Primary School.

AW was invited to leave the room while a vote was held. It was noted that AW would provide a useful link between college and the local primary school.

DECISION: The Board voted unanimously to co-opt AW to the Board.

AW returned to the room and was welcomed to the Board.

4. Minutes of the meetings held on 7^th July 2025

1. The minutes of the meeting were approved and will be signed electronically on Governor Hub.
2. Matters arising and Actions carried forward from this meeting

Actions carried forward from 7^th July 2025

Agenda item No	Action	When	Who
10/3/25 Item 3b	MT to speak to HR manager to set up access to the GDPR and Data protection training. 7/7/25 – MT has sources training from The Key and from the National College. The chosen training will be sent out to all governors to complete by the end of term. This is an item on the Safeguarding Audit so it is important to complete it asap. 22/9/25 – MT has organised the GDPR training and has shared links to this with governors. Another course is also now available on Gov Hub which takes 30 mins. Any governor who has not done this yet should ensure this is done and noted on their training profile on Governor hub by the end of this half term (24/10/25). On-going to check full compliance.	July 2025   August 2025             24th October 2025	MT   MT   All Govs     .
19/5/25 item 7b	IM to look at the formatting in the Strategic Risk Register during the next review to see if the rows and columns can be aligned and a summary added. 7/7/25 - The review meeting is not until next term, but Ian Moseley is looking at the formatting – keep action open.   22/9/25 – The meeting is due to take place in the next two weeks. COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	IM
7/7/25 Item 6 b	SB to amend the initials used for Brett Parker on the Risk and Opportunities register to BPR. 22/9/25 - COMPLETE	July 2025	SB
7/7/25 Item 4 a	HDT to arrange for the amendments to the Behaviour Policy agreed during the discussion and recorded in the minutes to be made to the Behaviour Policy. 22/9/25 - COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	HDT
7/7/25 Item 4 b	HDT to arrange for the MAC abbreviation to be written in full for clarity and also on p2 to amend the word ‘can’ be identified on Class charts…’ to  ‘is identified….’ 22/9/25 - COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	HDT
7/7/25 Item 4c	Clerk to amend ‘him/her’ to ‘themselves’ on the Committee TOR. 22/9/25 - COMPLETE	July 2025	Clerk
7/7/25 Item 5	HDT to look into the underlying reasons for the low attendance rates for PP pupils and report on this at the next meeting. 22/9/25 – On agenda COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	HDT
7/7/25 Item 5	HH and PHB to meet the nominated SLT member to review and recommend what data should be included in the HT report. 22/9/25 – HH and PHB are dealing with this and will arrange to meet GRS to identify KPIs for the HDT Report. At this stage it will not be a full set of KPIs, but these will develop from the initial set. On-going	Sept’ 2025   By the end of half term 24/10/25	HH / PHB   HH, PHB GRS
7/7/25 Item 5	IM to meet HDT to discuss how to approach meeting with the Editor of the newspaper. 22/9/25 – HDT to meet the Editor soon COMPLETE	July 2025	IM / HDT
7/7/25 Item 8	GRS to liaise with DR on the detail of the quote from Space. 22/9/25 – COMPLETE	July 2025	GRS
7/7/25 Item 8	GRS to liaise with IM and DR on the detail of the quote from Space and to share this proposal with them. 22/9/25 – COMPLETE	July 2025	GRS DR
7/7/25 Item 9	All governors to read the most recent KCSiE (2025) and complete the declaration on their Gov Hub profile by the next BoG in September. 22/9/25 – Some declarations have been noted on Gov Hub, and a reminder was given to those who have yet to do this. On-going to check full compliance	Sept’ 2025   by the end of Sept’ 2025	All Govs.
7/7/25 Item 9	HDT to arrange for further information regarding the proposed location of the pupil well-being room in the Pupil Centre to be available for Resources 22/9/25 – Areas visited by Govs during this meeting.  COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	HDT SB
7/7/25 Item 9	PBR to liaise with safeguarding lead to add a section regarding allegations against college users to the Lettings Policy. 22/9/25 – No up-date available c/f	August 2025	PBR
7/7/25	MT to draw up the proposal form for the WGBT. 22/9/25 – on this agenda COMPLETE	Sept’ 2025	MT

 

5. Finance Report (SB)

1. and b),

PHB set the scene by explaining that the process of preparing for the mid-year re-budget would be undertaken now, these figures are for the end of August.

SB explained that there had been a few changes to the numbers since the budget was set in April.

‘O’ Code (main budget) There was additional income of £158K (one hundred and fifty-eight thousand) and additional expenditure of £214k (two hundred and fourteen thousand). The in-year deficit is now £379k (three hundred and seventy-nine thousand) this is covered by the reserves b/f of £1.1m (one million one hundred and one thousand).

Changes on expenditure had come about due to salary increases some of which were not funded and agreed spending on Chromebooks and a minibus. These had been carefully considered and agreed by Resources. A full analysis of this was included in the Finance report shared with governors before the meeting.

‘Y’ Code (Swanmore Leisure) – there had been an increase in pay costs due to an increase in the minimum wage. Set against an expected increase in lettings income overall this resulted in an improvement of £3k (three thousand) overall.

‘J’ Code (Rural Schools Alliance RSA – teacher training) The budget was originally set with the expectation of 6 student teachers there are now 10 which means an increase in income resulting in an overall improvement of £8k (eight thousand).

Overall, this has increased the total budget in-year deficit by £45k (forty-five thousand) to £356K (three hundred and fifty-six thousand).

Q: Is the investment proposal for iPads included?
A: No this will need to be added.

SB went on the explain that there was an on-going issue with HCC funding for a high-needs pupil who was educated off-site. This had cost circa £60K pa but the additional funding which HCC had agreed took a long time to be paid. The HDT is meeting with HCC soon to try to get this resolved. This pupil has now left the school.

GRS referred to the proposal discussed during Innovation Day for an Alternative Provision unit on site which could help address this in the future if this idea was taken forward.

Q: Has this been added to the Risk and Opportunities Register?
A: Not yet.

ACTION: SB to add the outstanding payment for Alternative Provision Costs from HCC to the Risk and Opportunities Register.

SB

SB advised the meeting that she would be attending a Finance briefing ahead of setting the revised budget in November.

SB was thanked for her reports.

17.55 SB left the meeting

6.  Policies and Procedures for Approval

1. Adopt HCC Governors Good Practice Guide - APPROVED
2. Agree Code of Conduct for the Governing Board - APPROVED
3. Appraisal Policy (straight to BoG) – APPROVED

Q: How long will the appraisal process last?
A: Unions are trying to get this process stopped but at Swanmore we see this as a way of celebrating achievements and positive contributions.

HH explained that she had gone through the policy in detail as well as the policies on the agenda at 6l and 6m. These are HCC policies so if any changes were to be made, we would have to consult with unions. One change is that staff cannot be graded as ‘not achieving’ unless they are on the capability procedure.

BP said that the headteacher process is now called Headteacher Appraisal Process (HAP).

4. Health and Safety Policy (Res) - APPROVED
5. Behaviour Policy (Confirmation of finalisation see item 6) (S&W) – APPROVED

The main changes relate to mobile phones in college, the use of the Reset room and that the ‘Proud Card’ is now in place on a fortnightly basis.

6. Attendance Policy (S&W)- APPROVED
7. Child Protection Policy and Safeguarding Policy (S&W) – APPROVED subject to the following amendments;

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the links on the Child Protection Policy to be made live or removed and for the reference to KJ on pg. 28 para 3 be replaced with ‘Headteacher’.

HDT

8. Children with Health Needs who cannot attend school (S&W) – APPROVED
9. Designated Teacher for looked-after and previously looked-after children (S&W) -  APPROVED subject to the following amendment.

ACTION: HDT to arrange for the reference to ‘someone’ on p3 para 2 in Designated Teacher for Looked-after and previously looked after children Policy to read ‘an appropriate school representative’.

HDT

10. Procedure for Protected Disclosures (Whistleblowing) Whistleblowing Policy(S&W) – APPROVED subject to the following amendments

ACTION: HDT to arrange for ‘Procedure for Protected Disclosures’ headers 5.1 and 5.2 highlighted words to be put in brackets (and remove highlighting).

HDT

11. Disciplinary Policy (S&W)- APPROVED
12. Pay Policy (direct to BoG)- APPROVED
13. Capability Policy (direct to BoG)- APPROVED

A request was made that all policies that are on the website have standardised font – style and size, and consistent layout with a view to accessibility of the document. It was agreed that this would be a good development.

ACTION: HR Manager (Michelle Smith: MS) to be asked to review Policies to ensure consistency of layout and font – size and style and also how accessible the document is to readers.

MS

A ‘thank you’ was given to MS who reviews all the policies, which is a big task.

7.  Safeguarding (IM)

The Safeguarding Audit and Action Plan were reviewed by Standards and Wellbeing last week. It was agreed that all governors should be familiar with these documents as safeguarding is a key responsibility of the Board. There are amendments to be made to the Action Plan, but these are not shown on the document in the folder for this meeting. This will ensure there is more detail on the Action Plan.

The data tables were reviewed and the fact that self-harming incidents are increasing (not the number of pupils affected) noted. It was felt that it would be useful to have cumulative data columns in all the tables.

Q: Is this data available in Power BI?
A: No but it could be part of the discuss about what data is shared with Governors.

Q: Is there any categorisation duplication?
A: Yes and although training is improving how consistently incidents are categorised this can still vary. One impact on the number of incidents is that staff are getting better at recording this information.

Q: If staff are promoted is there a safer recruitment process?
A: Yes and all SLT are safer recruitment training. This is up-dated every two years.

Q: P34 refers to all governors doing annual safeguarding training.
A: Yes this process is in place and will come up during the governor training item on this agenda.

ACTION: All governors to complete the safeguarding training shared on a link on Governor Hub recently and to note this on their training record.

ALL Govs

8.  Headteacher’s Report (verbal)

GRS started by setting out the proposal for the purchase of staff iPads that had been taken to Standards and Wellbeing last week. Currently only 50% of staff have iPads which leads to a two-tier system for pupils. iPads are used as a key tool in Teaching and Learning and has led to improvements where these are available to staff as they allow teachers to give immediate feedback on work by sharing images on the interactive whiteboards / TVs. Access to resources via the iPad has also increased the use of innovative teaching methods. If all teachers have iPads all pupils will have access to the immediacy of learning through feedback with a positive impact on learning ‘in the moment’. Provision of iPads for teaching is also an important attraction for teachers working here enabling Swanmore College to attract high calibre staff. The HDT confirmed that he had watched a lesson recently where work was improved significantly using this method.

Q: Why have only 50% of teachers got an iPad?
A: Budget constraints. Initially iPads were given to staff with the skills to develop their use in the classroom and then there was no money available to purchase more.

Q: Will the current iPads need replacing?
A: Yes, at some point this technology does go out of date after about 18 months.

It was noted that SB will need to know this going forward so that costs could be included in the budget planning.

Q: Is there any reason why we are not using android technology?
A: Initially three different tablets were trialled, but the iPad was much better what may ned to be considered in the future is whether we use Microsoft or Apple systems.

Q: With the possibility of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach being introduced should we be thinking about compatibility?
A: (NF) Compatibility is better now so this is much less of a problem.

DECISION: It was unanimously agreed to delegate the final decision on this proposal to Resources when they consider the costs affordability next week.

1. and b. GCSE Results – The HDT shared the data reviewed by Standards and Wellbeing last week. The main point to note is that there is no Progress* data this year as these pupils did not sit KS2 SATs due to Covid. Instead, progress is being measured against the targets set following CAT (Cognitive Ability Tests) test taken on entry to Year 7.

The data shows that the number of pupils achieving higher grades this year is a lot lower than normal. This may be because the year group had a lower starting point than other year groups. The meeting discussed the possible reasons for this including the impact of home learning in Year 6 during Covid. This could also be a result of a tightening of marking and raising of grade boundaries this year it is likely to be a combination of factors.

Boys performed much better than girls against their targets. School data for the EBacc’ is lower than national data because this is not a focus at Swanmore because our approach has always been that pupils do not have to sit a modern foreign language. The Attainment 8 score is now back to its 2019 level (pre-Covid).

Q: When was the last time that Standards and Wellbeing had the chance to debate the approach her to the EBacc’ as this is now getting more prominence and is felt to show a more rounded outcome?
A: Some time ago.

ACTION: Clerk to add an item to the next full Standards and Wellbeing meeting agenda to debate the approach to the EBacc’ qualification.

Clerk

 

ACTION: GRS to provide a report on the EBacc’ to Standards and Wellbeing to inform the debate.

GRS

The meeting then looked at the data outcomes for individual subjects. It was noted that vocational courses tend to have higher outcomes. Comparison data shows that the current Yr 11 are doing better that the previous Yr 11 at this time. The SEND gap was wider for this cohort than the previous year and girls did less well than boys. These are two areas which are focus actions in the CIP 2025/26. Girls attendance was also low last year with the impact of social media and mental health having a noticeable impact.

Tour of the new library, SEN area and reset room – the Headteacher took everyone on a tour of the areas that were moved and restructured during the summer to provide for a quieter area for SEND pupils and to make better use of the former library area as a new reset and R and R space.

The governors found this very informative and passed on their thanks to the Operations Manager and his team for a tidy job.

19.15 - HH left

19.30 – AW left

     c) PP Pupil attendance to be deferred to next Board meeting.

ACTION: Clerk to add PP Pupil Attendance to the Board agenda for 1st December.

Clerk

    d) Behaviour Policy – covered earlier in the meeting.

9.  Headteacher Up-dates

a) Strategic direction – See confidential minute.

b) The IT Proposal will be going to Resources next week for final approval.

10. New Ofsted Framework

IM has prepared a paper on this which is in the meeting folder. The discussion will be deferred to the next Board meeting.

ACTION: Clerk to add discussion of New Ofsted Framework to the Board agenda on the 1st December.

Clerk

11. College Improvement Plan (CIP)

a) Sign-off the CIP 2024/25 – Approved

This was the first year of using this format for the CIP. Most areas had been successfully achieved. The exception being the IT (which focussed on AI) and Communications. Both have taken more time to achieve. The Marketing and Communications contract has now been signed with ‘Space’ and work on this is proceeding. GRS outlined key aspects of the process including the use of KPIs and the structuring of the plan around 4 ‘pillars’ which are the areas in the previous Ofsted framework these are still relevant so will be retained for 2025/26.

For 2025/26 more people have been assigned as responsible for actions which includes to Associate Assistant Headteachers. The plan provides a structure for SLT meeting discussions and aims to be clear and transparent. The new plan is not yet on Gov Hub as there were some issues uploading the spreadsheet, but this will be added as soon as possible.

In 2024/25 the work undertaken on teaching and learning was not evident on the CIP. SLT have learnt from this and have included more breadth of coverage in the 2025/26 CIP.

The CIP 2025/26 will be formally approved at the next Board meeting when everyone has had the chance to read it.

ACTION: GRS to upload the 2025/26 CIP to Gov Hub.

GRS

 

ACTION: Clerk to add formal approval of the CIP to BoG agenda 1st December 2025.

Clerk

12. Governor Matters

1. Governor Safeguarding training / KCSiE – dealt with earlier in the meeting.
2. Subject Link Governors – IM asked for a volunteer to take on the Curriculum Link area. TQ offered to take this on alongside her other link areas. AW will be taking on Health and Wellbeing and IM will take ‘Behaviour &
3. Attendance’ link governor role.

BP is reviewing the TOR and Protocol documents and this will be shared at the next Board meeting.

c) Agree TOR and Protocol for link visits 2025/26 – defer to next meeting.

ACTION: Clerk to add TOR and Protocol for link visits to December agenda.

Clerk

 

d) Governor Training 2025/26 – MT (Designated Training Governor DTG) is proposing that the WGBT (Whole Governing Body Training) has a focus on data. This would be delivered in-house and focus on actual data and data sets to answer the question ‘How do we know we are providing quality Education?’.

Governors were also asked to make sure all training courses undertaken are recorded in the training section on individual profiles of Gov Hub. This will enable a more thorough analysis of training undertaken going forward.

e) Governor Skills Audit – MT had drawn up a report on the skills matrix outcomes. Some scores may need to be revised for those governors that have been in place for some time. A more thorough audit will be undertaken next year in the summer term with feedback to the Board in September.

There followed a discussion about the scores given in the analysis which was clarified post -meeting as a range of 1 (no experience) to 4 (highly experienced).

f) Marketing and Communications – not covered here.

g) Resignations, vacancies, recruitment – There are now 4 vacancies for co-opted governors. BP will be start looking at recruitment advertising in October.

h) Changes to terms of office – none

13. Matters Arising from Committee meetings

None

14. AOB

The meeting ended at 20.00

Date of Next Meeting – Monday 1^st  December 2025

Steering 4.15pm followed by BoG 5.30pm

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Summary of Actions Carried forward to 1^st  December  BoG meeting

Reference	Action	When	Who
10/3/25 Item 3b	MT to speak to HR manager to set up access to the GDPR and Data protection training.	July 2025	MT
10/3/25 Item 3b continued	7/7/25 – MT has sources training from The Key and from the National College. The chosen training will be sent out to all governors to complete by the end of term. This is an item on the Safeguarding Audit so it is important to complete it asap.	August 2025	MT
10/3/25 Item 3b continued	22/9/25 – MT has organised the GDPR training and has shared links to this with governors. Another course is also now available on Gov Hub, which takes 30 mins. Any governor who has not done this yet should ensure this is done and noted on their training profile on Governor hub by the end of this half term (24/20/25). On-going to check full compliance.	24th October 2025	All Govs
7/7/25 Item 5	HH and PHB to meet the nominated SLT member to review and recommend what data should be included in the HT report. 22/9/25 – HH and PHB are dealing with this and will arrange to meet GRS to identify KPIs for the HDT Report. At this stage it will not be a full set of KPIs but these will develop from the initial set. On-going	Sept’ 2025   By the end of half term 24/10/25	HH / PHB   HH, PHB GRS
7/7/25 Item 9	PBR to liaise with safeguarding lead to add a section regarding allegations against college users to the Lettings Policy. 22/9/25 – No up-date available c/f	August 2025	PBR
22/9/25   Item 5	SB to add the outstanding payment for Alternative Provision Costs from HCC to the Risk and Opportunities Register.	By Nov Resources	SB
22/9/25   Item 6g	HDT to arrange for the links on the Child Protection Policy to be made live or removed and for the reference to KJ on pg. 28 para 3 be replaced with ‘Headteacher’.	asap	HDT
22/9/25   Item 6i	HDT to arrange for the reference to ‘someone’ on p3 para 2 in Designated Teacher Policy to read ‘an appropriate school representative’.	asap	HDT
22/9/25   Item 6j	HDT to arrange for the words in headers 5.1 and 5.2 highlighted words to be put in brackets (and remove highlighting).	asap	HDT
22/9/25   Item 6	HR Manager (Michelle Smith : MS) to be asked to review Policies to ensure consistency of layout and font – size and style and also how accessible the document is to readers.	As policies reviewed	Michelle Smith
22/9/25   Item 7	All governors to complete the safeguarding training shared on a link on Governor Hub recently and to note this on their training record.	By end Sept 2025	All Govs
22/9/25   Item 8	Clerk to add an item to the next full Standards and Wellbeing meeting agenda to debate the approach to the EBacc qualification.	Feb 2026	Clerk
22/9/25   Item 8	GRS to provide a report on the EBacc to Standards and wellbeing to inform the debate.	Feb 2026	GRS
22/9/25 Item 8	Clerk to add PP Pupil Attendance to the Board agenda for 1st December.	Dec 2025	Clerk
22/9/25 Item 10	Clerk to add discussion of New Ofsted Framework to the Board agenda on the 1st December.	Dec 2025	Clerk
22/9/25   Item 11b	GRS to upload the 2025/26 CIP to Gov Hub.	asap	GRS
22/9/25   Item11b	Clerk to add formal approval of the CIP to BoG agenda 1st December 2025.	Dec 2025	Clerk
22/9/25   Item 12 c	Clerk to add TOR and Protocol for link visits to December agenda.	Dec 2025	Clerk