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Meeting Started at 5.30pm

1. Welcome and Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. JB, JH, DM, PHB, TQ, TM, PB, AW and GRS sent apologies. The meeting was quorate throughout.

2. Pecuniary Interests

No Pecuniary interests were declared.

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 18 May 2026 including item 6 recorded separately as a Confidential minute.

(The confidential minute is open to governors but not to be externally shared.)

a) Approval – DECISION: The minutes of the meeting were approved and will be signed electronically on Governor Hub.

b) Matters arising and Actions carried forward from this meeting

The HDT confirmed that there had been no further communication from HCC about the item covered by the confidential minute.

Actions carried forward from 18^th May 2026

Item	Description	Who	By
18/5/26 Item 4a	SB to arrange for the additional footer to be removed from the policies leaving the one which states the version number. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	SB	End May
18/5/26 Item 4b	SB to arrange for the additional footer to be removed from the policies leaving the one which states the Document title and File Reference. 14/7/26 – Note policies will be amended as they come up for review. ACTION COMPLETE	SB	End May
18/5/26 Item 4d	Headteacher to arrange for the SEN Team to review the SEN Policy so that it covers how college enables pupils with EHCPs to be supported and to meet their targets in the classroom. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End May
18/5/26 Item 4d	Headteacher to arrange for capitalisation use to be consistent and formatting to be corrected in the SEN Policy by the SEN Team. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End May
18/5/26 Item 4d	Headteacher to look at how this information is reported by other schools and if there should be a separate SEN Information Report. Also to amend the title from ‘Info’ to ‘Information’. 14/7/26 – The SEND Information Report is on the agenda for BoG in September. ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End May
18/5/26 Item 4d	Clerk to add ‘up-dated SEN Policy and Information Report’ to the agenda for S&W in June. ACTION COMPLETE	Clerk	June S&W
18/5/26 Item 5	IM to review the final SLT links document and policy review schedule to make sure these align. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	IM	End June
18/5/26 Item 6	Headteacher to set up a Teams meeting with governors who are parents to discuss the toilet issues. 14/7/26 – this action has been superseded by a new ‘toilet’ initiative which has been announced to pupils and parents by GRS. There will be revised arrangements for toilet passes during lessons from September. Pupils were consulted on this. The HDT or GRS will keep Governors informed. ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End June
18/5/26 Item 8a	Headteacher to update the Strategy and Vision documents. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End June
18/5/26 Item 8b	IM to meet with Ian Moseley to review the Strategic Risk Register. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	IM	BoG July
18/5/26 Item 8c	IM and Clerk to complete the Gov Hub folder housekeeping. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	IM / Clerk	End June
18/5/26 Item 13	Headteacher to forward a copy of the events calendar to the clerk. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	HDT	End June
18/5/26 Item 13	Headteacher to propose an INSET day for the Governors to meet with the staff. 14/7/26 –IM has met with the extended leadership team. CLOSE THIS ACTION ACTION: IM to advise HT which of the INSET Dates 26/27 would be best for governors to attend to meet with staff.	HDT       IM	July BoG     End July
18/5/26 Item 15d	IM to discuss timeline and plans for implementing the communications toolkit with GRS.   14/7/26 – On this agenda ACTION COMPLETE	IM	End June
18/5/26 Item 15d	Clerk to add Communications toolkit and strategy implementation update to BoG agenda in July. ACTION COMPLETE	Clerk	BoG July
18/5/26 Item 15e	Chairs of the committees to formally co-opt the new governors to their committee at the next meeting. 14/7/26 – ACTION COMPLETE	PHB, DM, SO	June / July ‘26
18/5/26 Item 15g	Headteacher to arrange for SLT to review the suggested dates to check for any clashes and confirm to the clerk. 14/7/26 Pay committee date to move from Mon 18th Jan to Tuesday 19th Jan 2027 due to college timetable clash ACTION COMPLETE.	HDT	End June
18/5/26 Item 17	HDT to request an update of the plans for storage of the wheelchairs and any meetings planned. 14/7/26 – This is progressing. A grant funding request for CIL funding from Winchester CC has been submitted. Progress is on-going ACTION CLOSED.	HDT	End June

3. 2025/26 Review (IM)

(items covered out of agenda order)

IM gave a summary of the Board’s activities in support of the school’s strategic vision over the past year. A lot of work has been done in the college and the achievements and progress should be celebrated.

• Behaviour – the new approach to supporting good behaviour through the introduction of the reset room has been a great success. There has been a lot less negative feedback from parents as pupils have a chance to ‘reset’ then return to the classroom reducing the sessions spent in the Learning Hub. This has been a very positive step for the reputation of the college.
• Attendance – attendance remains a focus. There are many plans in place to improve rates of attendance, especially for certain groups of pupils. The action plans for 2026/27 draw on ideas that have been successful in other schools and will involve a stronger approach.
• Strategy – the work on developing a strategic direction towards the agreed vision with the best interest of the pupils at its centre, is now well established. This has included taking a more business-oriented approach and is carefully planned and evaluated through the College Improvement Plan (CIP). Most recently the governor dashboard is now in use to enable governors to challenge and evaluate the data on pupil outcomes.
• Attainment – The revision guides and support for Year 11 pupils has been excellent. Pupils were very well prepared with many receiving 1to1 support and felt very positive about their exams. College feel optimistic that this will have a positive impact on the results.
• IT Strategy – This has been a challenge but there is now a detailed workable strategy in place. The team working on it has been excellent. The MIS (Management Information System) replacement has undergone a thorough analysis. The decision on this is ‘on hold’ as there are several unknowns which will only become clear in time.
• Leadership Structure – the temporary leadership structure in place for a year while the headteacher recruitment process takes place is now off to very good start. The leaders have brought a lot of energy and ideas to their temporary roles.
• Finances – college is very fortunate to have a healthy budget and this is down to the hard work and expertise of SB (Senior Finance Officer) and PHB (Chair of Resources). Through these processes, the risks and opportunities are very well managed and controlled.
• Staff – staff feedback told governors that they would like governors to be more visible. IM and the headteacher have drawn up a guide to increase visibility in a manageable and workable way. This has involved the creation of working groups for Ofsted, SEND, Health and Safety and IT with governors working with staff to develop action plans and Investment Proposals.
• Policies – the policy schedule has been thoroughly reviewed and developed to link policy review to the annual business cycle with clearly defined responsibilities for committees and link governors to reduce time spent on this in meetings.
• Communication and Marketing – the communications strategy is now in place. The team involved including a governor (DR) worked closely with the external company to get this bespoke plan. The IT lead in the team has provided a very useful audio recording summarizing the achievements which is with the meeting papers.
• SEND and Safeguarding – governors have been closely involved in ongoing work to improve the experience and outcomes for SEND pupils. Safeguarding remains a main focus for the Board.
• Mobile Phone Policy – following the successful ban on smart phones for Year 7 in September 2025, this is being extended to the whole school from this coming September. There has been useful feedback from parents.
• Roles – people’s understanding of their role in making progress towards the vision has continued to progress and there will be further work on this during next year.

Areas of continued focus

• Attendance;
• Developing greater consistency for staff in following policy and processes;
• Application of the capability model to help preparations for Ofsted;
• Developing more pupil group specific targets for improving attendance;
• Setting predictions for the expected improvements at review of the introduction of new measures.

IM invited governor’s comment. Governors felt that there should be recognition of the number of new initiatives being worked on alongside the day-to-day work for staff. Direct access to the governor level dashboard was requested. Currently the dashboard can only be accessed in college during link visits with members of staff.

ACTION: GRS to see if there is a way of governors having access to the governor dashboard on Power BI when outside college.

GRS

Governors asked for names to be added to the SLT structure document and for this to be put in the ‘Governor Info’ folder on governor hub.

ACTION: GRS to add names to the SLT roles and responsibilities document and forward to the clerk.

GRS

ACTION: Clerk to add the up-dated roles and responsibilities document to ‘Governor Info’ folder on Gov Hub.

Clerk

5. Policies and Procedures for Approval

a) Policy Spreadsheet

The most recent version of the policy spreadsheet was shared with governors. This identifies link governor responsible for reviewing policies ahead of meetings. Amendments or questions should be addressed before the meeting wherever possible.

There are some governors who have several policies in their link area. IM asked anyone feeling they had too many to let him know so that these can be shared.

Policies for approval will be added to meeting folders at least two weeks before the meeting to allow link governors time to review and arrange adjustments where possible.

(The following policies were brought forward from committees as there were outstanding questions.)

b) Behaviour Policy – the revised arrangements for mobile phones and the consequences of not following these has been added to the Behaviour Policy. Governors were advised that the ‘PROUD’ card had been replaced by a ‘THRIVE’ card which was bound within the pupil planners. Annotations will be added electronically to avoid misuse of the cards.

Pupils get a ‘clean slate’ every half term on their THRIVE card. Instances of breaches of the uniform code are also now recorded electronically.

DECISION: The Behaviour Policy was approved unanimously.

c) SEN Policy and Information Report

As requested by S&W the Information Report has now been extracted from the SEN Policy. Names have also been removed from the policy. The SEN Information Report will be shared at BoG in September.

DECISION: The SEN Policy was unanimously approved.

6. Headteacher’s Written Report

This report was written by GRS and presented by the Headteacher as GRS was not able to attend this meeting. Key areas were discussed from the report which was shared in advance of the meeting for governors to read.

Attendance this year is 90.44% compared to 92.1% at the same time last year. One contributing factor is engagement with parents so actions are planned to further develop relationships with those parents whose children have lower attendance alongside the other measures that will be introduced next year.

Unusually boys are seen to be outperforming girls in many areas shown in the data. This includes attendance, behaviour and progress. Looking into the reasons behind this will be analysed next year to see what actions need to be taken. Pupil Premium and SEND attendance is also low so these groups will be looked at more closely.

Learning Hub events have reduced significantly with the introduction of the Reset room. As the break from class is short in the reset room this has reduced the loss of classroom learning time.

Rewards can be seen to exceed 2 million positive behaviour points. It is good to see so many pupils being recognised for being on task and for their effort.

The number of suspensions to pupils has gone down since 2024/25. Ideally the numbers would be lower but the reset room has had a positive impact on this.

Staff changes – there are seven staff leaving and seven joining plus two teachers from the RSA Teaching School. This overstaffing will provide some flexibility and enable cover in case anyone else leaves.

Toilets – there will be new arrangements from September. Pupils with toilet passes will be allowed to go as normal other pupils will be allowed to go to the toilet but will be accompanied this will help pupils who do not like to use the toilets because there are others ‘hanging around’ in there.

JP left at 18.30

The HLTA attached to the SEND team has just started. Their focus will be on EBSA (Emotionally Based School Avoidance). This member of staff will also help to further extend the provision on offer.

The report included a summary report from each of the Associate Senior Leaders (ASLs) giving details of work in their areas of responsibility.

The GCSE Mock results in the spring were an improvement on the previous year’s so staff are optimistic about the results which will come out in August.

The numbers attending Swanfest this year were lower than previously, possibly because the acts were not well known. This may not be sustainable going forward.

In the headteacher’s view the interim arrangements for SLT were very positive with lots of fresh ideas and impetus for the work needing to be done. As each member of SLT has their own areas in the CIP including actions directly linked to the Inclusion Strategy, the impact will be tracked through there.

HH suggested that she arrange a meeting with all the governors and members of SLT involved in the Inclusion Strategy to ensure a common direction. It was agreed this was a good idea.

ACTION: HH to liaise with BRN and MT and email relevant link governors to set up a meeting early next year.

HH

IM brought up the headteacher recruitment exercise that would be starting in the autumn term. IM has spoken to HCC but advised governors that it is their process and the governors will make the decision. A group will be set up for governors involved in the recruitment process (see item 16).

IM gave his thanks to Phil Sleat who is retiring at the end of this term. Phil has been instrumental in the development of the IT Strategy and a very dedicated and hard-working member of SLT.

7. Finance Report (SB)

SB had shared the most recently available budget figures with governors ahead of the meeting. Overall, there is an improvement of £98K (ninety-eight thousand). The accruing sums for the STP replacement and the reserves are shown separately in a table at the end of the report.

There is now £328K (three hundred and twenty-eight thousand) towards the Investment proposals as well as the £500k (five hundred thousand) held as contingency.

There are now 10 student teachers starting in the RSA in September with the possibility of one more. Two of these students will be based off site in other schools. IM congratulated the college on a successful recruitment round especially as recruitment of students is generally down across other establishments. It was noted that a minimum of 6 students are needed to break even each year.

The risks and Opportunities report was briefly discussed. This has been up-dated recently. It is unusual for the risks (£65K) and opportunities (£66K) to be so similar but that is likely to change in future years due to other changes.

8. College Strategy and Vision (IM and MOY)

The CIP has been recently reviewed and evaluated for the end of the year. The majority of actions are ‘green’ which is a really good outcome. It is an excellent management tool for SLT.

The CIP for 2026/27 is now being finalized and will be ready for BoG in September.

The Strategic Risk Register has been up-dated and the layout has been adjusted. IM and MOY meet twice yearly to review this. This process is a key part of the review cycle to help determine actions going forward.

9. Communication Toolkit and Strategy Implementation Up-date

An excellent audio report had been shared by Alex Grist to provide an up-date on the communications strategy. This is now being rolled out as planned.

Alex was thanked for her innovative and informative report.

ACTION: Clerk to share a link to the audio report on Gov Hub Noticeboard.

Clerk

10. GDPR – Revised guidelines and update (IM)

IM has sourced a GDPR Policy for Governors. This was shared in the papers. There are actions arising from the policy firstly multi-factor authentication needs to be set up on Gov Hub and secondly governors will need to use college email addresses for governor work rather than personal ones.

There also needs to be a section of the process for onboarding and offboarding governs added to the policy.

ACTION: Clerk to enquire at Gov Hub about setting up MFA for governors.

Clerk

ACTION: IM to liaise with GRS about governors having school email addresses.

IM

ACTION: IM to add a section covering the process for onboarding and offboarding governors to the Governor GDPR Policy.

IM

DECISION: Subject to the actions discussed the GDPR Policy for Governors was unanimously approved.

11. Safeguarding (BRN)

The safeguarding audit and action plan were shared with S&W and are included in the meeting papers. These need to be approved for submission to HCC by the end of September.

DECISION: The Safeguarding Audit and action plan were unanimously approved.

The 2026 Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) has been published. Governors were reminded that they need to read the document had make their declarations on Gov Hub before the end of September. Governors should also complete the annual online safeguarding training. Information will be shared by the clerk on Gov Hub noticeboard.

ACTION: Clerk to share a link to KCSiE and the updated training from the Key once available. Also remind governors to make their declarations by 31 September.

Clerk

12. Investment Proposals

IT Investment Proposal - The IP for the new website had been approved at Resources but the wireless switching up-grade IP had required some additional information to be added to it. And to be carefully reviewed by NF. This has been done and NF noted that it is a big capital spend on old equipment and that there has been no accrual towards the costs of up-grading. There was some discussion about the licencing agreements and which proposed solution would have the lowest costs as this was not clear. This decision does need to be taken before governors meet again as the work needs to be carried out as quickly as possible to go live by October half term.

DECISION: It was agreed to delegate the final decision on this to PHB and SB when there is further clarification as to which solution is least costly. The Board agreed unanimously that the least costly solution should be chosen.

This proposal will give faster and greater coverage across the site over the next 10 years. NF was happy with the life span, approach and hardware and said that if the licenses are for seven years, then the software will be supported for that period. It is unclear if the equipment will be owned or leased. It was requested that clear options and recommendations are added to the IP and to make it clear if this will be for 7 or 10 years.

DECISION: The Investment Proposal was approved subject to the action above and once the additional information discussed in this item and set out in the minutes is added.

Inclusion Investment proposal – it was requested at Resources that the three strands of inclusion were brought together in one proposal to make the overall picture clearer. MT, GRS and the SENDCo had discussed this in detail. IM advised that he was happy to approve this proposal.

DECISION: The Investment Proposal for Inclusion was unanimously approved.

Car Leasing Investment proposal – this proposal has been amended since Resources when it had initially been proposed that a vehicle was purchased. Resources raised some concerns about the plans in that proposal so a new solution to the provision of college transportation has been found. This involves leasing a new hybrid vehicle. This gets over all the concerns raised previously and SB has been able to sources a good leasing deal.

The vehicle will be used to transport pupils to alternative provision and also to enable staff to visit families where attendance is low to bring about improvements. It will be a very cost-effective solution.

Q: Do the travel costs in the proposal include staff time?
A: Yes.

DECISION: The Investment Proposal to lease a car was unanimously approved.

Security fencing to the front of the school - The headteacher raised the matter of the investment proposal for security fencing at the front of the school. This had not been agreed at Resources as there were further questions arising. The headteacher explained that this is urgent safeguarding and security work and it is planned to be completed during the summer so it is in place for September. If it is not agreed the fencing can not be ordered in time. It is a 3m high wire fence which is a type used for school security fencing.

DECISION: It was unanimously agreed to delegate the decision on the fencing to SB and PHB so that any remaining questions can be resolved and the fencing ordered as soon as possible.

13. Ofsted Working Group (IM)

AW is leading this working group working with IM, BRN, and GRS. A template from ‘The Key’ is being completed to show how the expectations of the Ofsted framework are met. The group will meet regularly to build the evidence needed in preparation for the Ofsted Inspection which is likely to happen next May.

Summary sheets outlining of the self-evaluation outcomes for governors to use as an aide memoire during the inspection will be prepared.

The aim is aspirational and is to be ‘Exceptional’ in all areas. The group will look at the ‘good’ criteria as well.

The WGBT on the 8th March will cover the things governors need to know for the anticipated inspection. There will also be a meeting on the 7th October at 5pm with an experienced Ofsted Inspector (Chris Racside). The headteacher and PHB both know Chris and have arranged this Q&A session so that governors can ask her questions to clarify their understanding of the process and expectations.

ACTION: PHB to write out to governors to ask for questions to be prepared for the Inspector.

PHB

14. SEND Working Group Report

This had been discussed in full at S&W and reviewed during the Investment Proposal items in this meeting.

15. Literacy Up-date (DR)

This report had been prepared to provide governors with an up-date on the work being undertaken by the teachers in the literacy department. DR had seen the effort and hard work as well as the impact this is having on pupils during link visits.

The report includes a summary of the strategies in place to support pupils transitioning from KS2 to Year 7 many of these pupils arrive below age expectations in literacy. A creative approach has been adopted to support these pupils to get to where they need to be.

ACTION: DR to thank the English staff for their hard work and this report.

DR

16. Governor Matters (IM)

a) SEF – covered already.

b) Elect Chair and Vice Chair – IM advised he was prepared to stand again and there were no other nominations.

DECISION: IM was unanimously voted in as Chair of the Board for 2026/27

As BP had sent apologies it was agree that the Vice Chair election should be added to the first meeting in September.

ACTION: Clerk to add ‘election of a vice-chair’ to the BoG agenda for September.

Clerk

c) Committee membership. 2026/27. The committee membership has recently been reviewed to allocate the governors who have joined during this year. It was noted that if possible, another governor would join the pay committee. There will also be a need to appoint a third governor to the HT PMR panel. This will be addressed in September.

d) Governor training – the clerk had recently shared a link to the HCC training brochure on Gov Hub. Governors were encouraged to look at this and to book on to relevant training. MT has also sent out the annual governor skills audit. Responses will be collated and shared at BoG in September with any training needs identified.

e) Governor roles and responsibilities -  no changes

f) Link governors – not covered

g) Resignations, vacancies and recruitment – JH is resigning as governor at the end of this term. This will mean there are two vacancies for co-opted governors. BP will be initiating a recruitment exercise in September.

h) Changes to terms of office – none

i)  Meeting date schedule – a clash had been identified with a college event on the 18^th January so Pay committee will move to Tuesday 19^th January at 5pm.

17. Matters Arising from Committee meetings

None

18. AOB

IM outlined the initial work to start the process of recruiting a new Headteacher. A working party comprising IM, BP and PHB will be set up volunteers were invited to represent parents and inclusion. HH put herself forward as link governor for PP and SEND, AR was also happy to join as a parent governor. The first meeting will be in November to prepare for the Interview and draft questions.

IM will contact HCC to say what support is needed for the process.

IM also recognised the hard work JH had put into her governor role unfortunately her work commitments prevent her from continuing. JH was thanked for her contributions and wished ‘good luck’ for the future.

IM also passed on his thanks to the SLT and the staff who worked hard to make Swanmore such a good school. He also thanked the governors for their hard work and for giving up their time to be governors.

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The meeting ended at 19.40

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Date of Next Meeting – Monday, 14 September 2026 5.30pm