Sent on behalf of Gareth Drawmer, Head of Achievement and Learning
Dear Colleagues,
Please find attached the first newsletter concerning our strategy, Closing the Gap in Bucks.
Closing the Gap newsletter Autumn 2020
The first event is the conference this Friday, I look forward to seeing you there.
Warm regards,
Gareth
Gareth Drawmer
Head of Service
Achievement & Learning
Sent on behalf of Gareth Drawmer, Head of Achievement and Learning
Dear Colleague,
Thank you to everyone who has already signed up for the Closing the Gap conference on Friday. Please do register if you are keen to hear from primary and secondary schools, both within and outside of the county who have developed strong models of support for pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium.
The agenda for the session is attached to this email.
Closing the Gap in Bucks Nov 2020 Agenda
This is the first piece of outward facing work that we are carrying out to support the agenda of closing the gap in Buckinghamshire and will be followed by a series of events to support school leaders in this area.
I appreciate that this is a hugely challenging time for you all, but I hope that you will make time on Friday afternoon to attend the conference. We all recognise that the attainment gap is not going away and that the events of the past six months have compounded the issues for many of our children.
I look forward to seeing you (albeit virtually), on Friday.
Warm regards,
Gareth
Gareth Drawmer
Head of Service
Achievement & Learning
Children’s Services
Buckinghamshire County Council
County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1UZ
Dear everyone
Welcome to the invite for this term’s Jordan’s meeting. We decided to delay our meeting to just after half term in the hope that as we would be preoccupied with the immediacy of full school return there would be more certainty about the future by now in troubled times. Well, in some sense there is now ;- we know we are going to be in a COVID world of ‘bubbles’ and now ‘tiers’ and also tears (sorry – pun intended!) for the long haul.
This of course presents challenges for how to do governance within this new normal. We now have to do all the governance stuff that was put on the ‘back burner’ last spring. So it seems timely to be sharing our ideas and experiences in the light of DFE/NGA advice received of how we are doing this, what is happening in our schools so we can raise questions, share concerns and build on local good practice.
Jordans Chairs Group Meeting
Saturday 7th November 2020 9.30-10.45am via MS Teams
Click here to join the meeting
As ever we have put together a loose topic led agenda to inform the discussion:
1. Staying Strategic in current times
2. Focus of your Boards Agenda’s and Headteacher Reports on areas of focus for your schools
3. Remote Education
4. High Needs Update
5. Headteachers Standards updated
6. Ofsted!
7. Free school Meals – Christmas/Easter holidays?
Please can you email me (ASheddick@carringtonjs.co.uk) if you would like to share any experiences, raise questions by anything on the list in advance of the meeting as this will aid chairing the meeting on-line.
Please do invite any other chairs/Vice chairs with whom you are in touch
The meeting will be on MS teams and the invite link is here: Click here to join the meeting
Anne Sheddick
ASheddick@carringtonjs.co.uk
Sent on behalf of Gareth Drawmer – Head of Achievement and Learning
Good Afternoon,
Please see the document attached, thank you.
EHE Your Duties Our Expectations
Kind Regards
Tracey Erasmus
Side by Side Support Officer and Educational Visits Coordinator
Children Services
Buckinghamshire Council
Dear Colleagues,
Following on from the Executive Director Briefings we have produced guidance for schools and the performance management of teachers.
Please see the attached document, for further information contact the HR Service Desk hrservicedesk@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Performance Management Guidance
Regards,
Hazel
Hazel David
School Improvement Team
Children’s Services
Buckinghamshire Council
4th Floor, County Hall
Walton Street
Aylesbury,
HP20 1UZ
Welcome to the October edition of the governance update. We know this has been an unusual start to the academic year. Governance has never been more critical, and governors and trustees have continued to provide support and strategic challenge within their schools and trusts. The actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak page is regularly updated with information for schools and academy trusts over this period.
Please also see the changes to the school exclusion process during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak page which is recently updated statutory guidance.
We have published new role descriptors designed to provide high-level information about the roles in maintained school and academy trust governance, and the responsibilities of each role.
The maps and descriptions contained in the documents serve as an introduction to, and clarification of, the various roles in the governance system. The descriptors also include links to further support and guidance that you may find helpful. We would encourage you to read and share these descriptors within your governing board.
In addition, Baroness Berridge has written to all academy trust members highlighting the importance of their role in the governance system and to share the role descriptors.
The Governance Handbook is updated for 2020 to reflect policy and legislation changes from the past year, or to clarify language where necessary. For example, it includes information about cyber security in schools and the new requirement for trust boards to have a clerk/governance professional. There is also a new foreword by Baroness Berridge, who took over the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System in February 2020.
There are references to legislative and policy changes impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19), where this is seen as essential, but otherwise, please continue to use dedicated coronavirus guidance pages on GOV.UK.
It is important that governing and trust boards continue to support and collaborate with executive leaders and ensure that they are still fulfilling their duties regarding the 3 core functions of governance as set out in the Governance Handbook.
Governing and trust boards should continue to take a pragmatic approach to meetings. We would expect the chair to keep the conversation open with board members on how they wish to meet and make arrangements, as necessary. If any board members do decide to meet in person, then they would need to comply with social distancing, any local health and safety measures and the school and trust’s risk assessment.
Arrangements for meetings must facilitate all members’ needs so that boards can function effectively and in accordance with their legal (and any other governance) requirements, clerks and governance professionals will be essential in facilitating this.
The Department for Education and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been made aware of an increasing number of cyber-attacks involving ransomware infection affecting the education sector.
We recently wrote to school leaders with guidance on ransomware. Following this guidance will help schools cover the basics. You should:
We also worked with the NCSC on cyber security questions for governors and trustees to help inform conversations with school leaders.
Our funded development programmes are now available virtually and are suitable for home working.
The governance leadership programmes are ideal for those in roles such as chair, vice chair or committee chair and will support you to work with your board to increase its effectiveness.
The governance clerking programmes are suitable for all school, academy or trust board clerks and aim to increase clerking expertise.
For further details on these programmes go to our guidance on academy and school governance: professional development.
In September 2020, we published the recommendations of our external advisory group on NLG reform. The report sets out the findings and recommendations of the NLG reform external advisory group.
NFER have published a research report on school and trust governance, from a survey of those involved in governance from 1,207 individual schools, academies and trusts, and 30 interviews with individuals.
The report provides an independent picture of various elements of school and trust governance, including:
Conclusions are drawn about the governance system as a whole, as well as about specific types of governing boards, and the report suggests areas where support and guidance for the sector could be improved.
School and trust governance details are set out on the get information about schools (GIAS) website. It is important that these details are kept up to date, including email addresses, so the department can send direct communications when necessary. Academy trusts must notify ESFA about the appointment or vacating of governance roles within their trust. This is a requirement in the Academies Financial Handbook.
Contact your clerk or governance professional to add or update information in the governance section of GIAS using the school/trust’s DfE sign-in account.
If you are a clerk, governance professional, or are otherwise unable to upload your details to GIAS, email schoolgovernance.update@education.gov.uk and we will add you to the circulation list for this update manually.
Sent on behalf of Simon James, Service Director, Education
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for attending the Executive Director Briefings this term. Tolis has asked me to forward the slides to you and would like to thank you all for your resilience and focus on achieving great outcomes for your pupils.
Kind regards,
Simon James
Service Director: Education
Children’s Services
Buckinghamshire Council
County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1UZ
Simon.james@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Executive Assistant – Helen Carnie
Welcome to the October edition of the governance update. We know this has been an unusual start to the academic year. Governance has never been more critical, and governors and trustees have continued to provide support and strategic challenge within their schools and trusts. The actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak page is regularly updated with information for schools and academy trusts over this period.
Please also see the changes to the school exclusion process during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak page which is recently updated statutory guidance.
We have published new role descriptors designed to provide high-level information about the roles in maintained school and academy trust governance, and the responsibilities of each role.
The maps and descriptions contained in the documents serve as an introduction to, and clarification of, the various roles in the governance system. The descriptors also include links to further support and guidance that you may find helpful. We would encourage you to read and share these descriptors within your governing board.
In addition, Baroness Berridge has written to all academy trust members highlighting the importance of their role in the governance system and to share the role descriptors.
The Governance Handbook is updated for 2020 to reflect policy and legislation changes from the past year, or to clarify language where necessary. For example, it includes information about cyber security in schools and the new requirement for trust boards to have a clerk/governance professional. There is also a new foreword by Baroness Berridge, who took over the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System in February 2020.
There are references to legislative and policy changes impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19), where this is seen as essential, but otherwise, please continue to use dedicated coronavirus guidance pages on GOV.UK.
It is important that governing and trust boards continue to support and collaborate with executive leaders and ensure that they are still fulfilling their duties regarding the 3 core functions of governance as set out in the Governance Handbook.
Governing and trust boards should continue to take a pragmatic approach to meetings. We would expect the chair to keep the conversation open with board members on how they wish to meet and make arrangements, as necessary. If any board members do decide to meet in person, then they would need to comply with the rule of 6, social distancing, any local health and safety measures and the school and trust’s risk assessment.
Arrangements for meetings must facilitate all members’ needs so that boards can function effectively and in accordance with their legal (and any other governance) requirements, clerks and governance professionals will be essential in facilitating this.
The Department for Education and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been made aware of an increasing number of cyber-attacks involving ransomware infection affecting the education sector.
We recently wrote to school leaders with guidance on ransomware. Following this guidance will help schools cover the basics. You should:
We also worked with the NCSC on cyber security questions for governors and trustees to help inform conversations with school leaders.
Our funded development programmes are now available virtually and are suitable for home working.
The governance leadership programmes are ideal for those in roles such as chair, vice chair or committee chair and will support you to work with your board to increase its effectiveness.
The governance clerking programmes are suitable for all school, academy or trust board clerks and aim to increase clerking expertise.
For further details on these programmes go to our guidance on academy and school governance: professional development.
In September 2020, we published the recommendations of our external advisory group on NLG reform. The report sets out the findings and recommendations of the NLG reform external advisory group.
NFER have published a research report on school and trust governance, from a survey of those involved in governance from 1,207 individual schools, academies and trusts, and 30 interviews with individuals.
The report provides an independent picture of various elements of school and trust governance, including:
Conclusions are drawn about the governance system as a whole, as well as about specific types of governing boards, and the report suggests areas where support and guidance for the sector could be improved.
School and trust governance details are set out on the get information about schools (GIAS) website. It is important that these details are kept up to date, including email addresses, so the department can send direct communications when necessary. Academy trusts must notify ESFA about the appointment or vacating of governance roles within their trust. This is a requirement in the Academies Financial Handbook.
Contact your clerk or governance professional to add or update information in the governance section of GIAS using the school/trust’s DfE sign-in account.
If you are a clerk, governance professional, or are otherwise unable to upload your details to GIAS, email schoolgovernance.update@education.gov.uk and we will add you to the circulation list for this update manually.
During the partial closure of schools in the summer term, routine Ofsted inspections were suspended. As schools have now fully reopened, Ofsted have begun a phased return to full inspections; carrying out interim visits in schools across England.
This information sheet covers: NGA_COVID-19_Information-sheet_Ofsted_autumn_term_Oct_2020
Interim visits will not result in any evaluation or graded judgement of a school, nor will they use the education inspection framework and school inspection handbook. School leaders are not required to make any specific preparations for these visits.
Buckinghamshire Association of School Governors
Your Local Voice for School Governing Bodies
Contact
Email: admin@bucksgovernors.org
Tel: 07818 453741
