March 2020

Hi to all...

There was no blog in February due to half term half way through (and the pressures of the NHS, my day job) and given that it has ben several weeks since I visited school.

Teaching & Learning

With that said, I took part in a Learning Walk with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) just before the break and identified some positive aspects of learning:

• Good behaviour across the school, in and out of the classrooms and evidence of staff using the behaviour policy to good effect.
• Sequencing of learning emerging from as young as Yr1, where children were able to vocalise how their previous learning linked with what they are learning in class presently and were able to explain what work they had been doing from their books.

Areas for continual development/implementation were identified by myself and the SLT, which will be reviewed by governors/SLT over the coming terms from future Learning Walks and Book Looks in school.

Planned governor focus and monitoring this half term includes English with particular focus on writing, marking & feedback in relation to the policy and the challenging of high achievers.

All monitoring is documented and discussed at Full Governing Board (FGB) meetings and reviewed, where applicable, over the coming half terms

Staffing

As governors we are often invited to sit on interview panels when recruiting new teachers and especially in the case of senior leaders across school. As a school, which has only recently hit capacity in terms of the amount of classes we have, there is always going to be changes to staff, whether it be temporary or permanent changes, to accommodate the needs of the cohort in each class and extra roles/responsibilities of staff as we encourage them to progress in their roles.

There is planned recruitment in school for teaching staff due to the patter of tiny feet, for which the governors congratulate individual(s) for. 

Additionally as aforementioned on Parent Hub, we have had recent staff departure in the way of Maureen Dixon, for which the school and governors thank her for her work in school, with particular focus in Little Pirates.  

Stakeholder Engagement

As a governing body we always welcome engagement from parents and the wider community at Drake. Myself and the Vice-Chair are parents at school and attend assemblies, cafes and other performances from our own children's classes and value feedback from a strategic perspective to ensure that the school remains as good/outstanding as we think it is. The plan is to officially gain the views of parents by way of questionnaire, which may be available at the coming week's parent/teacher consultations.

Thanks for reading :)

Carly

CoG