BASG AGM and Mick Waters – 27th November

On Wednesday 27th November 2019 the Buckinghamshire Association of School Governors (BASG) held their AGM; the main focus of the evening was for Mick Waters to talk about the Governors Role in Curriculum Effectiveness Balance in all Respects.

BASG had planned this event during the Summer Term, once they had heard about Ofsted’s approach to the changes to their Inspection Framework from September 2019, with a focus on the quality of education and the curriculum and its intent, implementation and impact.

There was a great turnout for the AGM, most notably to listen to Mick’s knowledge and experience on the curriculum.  Mick has a vast amount of experience as an Education Consultant and his previous role as the Director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Teachers, Headteachers, Governors, Chairs of Governors and even the Head of Achievement & Learning from Buckinghamshire County Council were in the audience.

Mick Waters spent two hours discussing the curriculum and taking questions at the end. The audience sat in silence as he discussed the importance of how you could use moments of news for the potential of learning and that pupils learn all of the time, whether we want them to or not! Mick spoke about what the curriculum is about, not just lessons, but routines, events, learning outside the classroom, what happens out of school and environments that children are involved in.

It was clear to the large number of Governors present that Governors, when visiting their Schools and talking to teaching staff, should check for themselves how much the children are gaining from every minute of their school-time experiences – it’s about more than the formal teaching of the curriculum inside the classroom.

Mick spent time focussing on what are we trying to achieve – intent. How do we organise – implementation. How do you know it is successful – impact and the leadership around these areas, Intent being integrity, implementation being to improve and impact to have insight.

The presentation had its moments of humour and was also thought provoking and inspirational.

Initial feedback on this event has been extremely positive, BASG will now aim to hold an event during the Spring Term with another high-quality speaker.