Annual Governance Statement

Academic year ending July 2023

In accordance with the Government’s requirement for all governing bodies, the 3 core strategic functions of the Writtle Infant School Governing Body are:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
2. Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Governance arrangements

The role of the Governing Body is to give strategic direction to the school, to provide constructive challenge in constantly endeavouring to raise standards and to ensure finances are well managed.

The Governing Body of Writtle Infant School was reconstituted in 2015 in accordance with Government requirements and is made up of 2 staff governors (including the Head of School), 4 elected Parent Governors, 1 Local Authority Governor and 5 Co-opted Governors. Co-opted governors are appointed by the Governing Body and are people who, in the opinion of the Governing Body, have the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.

Since the retirement of Mrs Castell, we decided to hold a skills audit before making any further changes to our constitution, to ensure the School has a varied skill set across the Board. We will update this statement when this has been completed.

The full Governing Body meets at least once each term; we also have a few committees to consider different aspects of the school in detail. At Writtle Infant School we have a Finance, Premises and Pay Committee, which focuses on finance, premises and some pay matters and meets within the full governors meeting; and a Pay Committee. We also have committees that meet if required to consider pupil discipline and staffing matters. Our meetings and monitoring visits are all in person by default.

Training opportunities for the governing body are also more readily available, with a blend of online and in person training attended.

Safeguarding

The Governing Body is committed to:

• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety, and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of children and young people;
• Promoting equality of opportunity and community cohesion where the diversity of different backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and positively valued;
• The fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs;
• Expecting all staff, volunteers and other workers to share this commitment.

Governors place great value on safeguarding and equality, we have a Nominated Governor for Safeguarding (Mrs Burton) who gives a termly report to the governors about all such matters where applicable.

All governors have annual safeguarding training and have also taken part in Prevent training.

Recent work and future objectives

Writtle Infant School is a school with lots to celebrate. Much of the year has been spent in preparation for a change in leadership structure. We said goodbye to Mrs Castell at the end of the Summer term and Mr Nick Taylor became Executive Head in September 2023. Our Deputy Head, Mrs Tracey Wilson, became Head of School in September 2023. We are currently planning on how we continue to strengthen the links with the Junior School.

Our recent Ofsted in May 2023 found us to be a strongly Good school and the report highlights many of the excellent things the school does for our pupils. We are very fortunate in this village to have a thriving school, with committed leadership and staff, who are strongly focused on providing the best for all pupils. The report also highlighted that the governing body is proactive in holding school leaders to account. This includes governors being actively involved in school leaders’ monitoring of the curriculum. This helps governors to have a knowledge of pupils’ educational performance.

Over the course of every school year we continually review our curriculum and this year has been no different. We want to provide a broad, balanced, relevant and engaging curriculum for all our pupils. We have brought in a new Phonics scheme called Little Wandle from September 2023.

We were also sad to say goodbye to two of our longest serving governors, Bobbie Charlick and Ralph Bray. We thank them so much for all the effort, enthusiasm and knowledge they have brought to us over the years. They will be missed.

The Finance & Premises Committee looks at the maintenance and development of the school premises and makes decisions about how the school should use the budget. We are looking at ways to improve the classrooms and playgrounds.

One of the roles for the governors is constantly reviewing and agreeing school policies, of which there are many. This year we have considered a number of key policies, including PSHE, Behaviour Management and Safeguarding and our SEND offering.

Policies, Minutes of Governing Body and Committee meetings are public documents. Policies can be found on our website, alternatively you can ask to inspect them and the minutes of all meetings at the school office.

At the end of each term the Governors and Senior Leadership Team analyse school data and the progress of each year group, looking at the impact of interventions and deployment of resources. We use this data to plan out our School Development Plan and priorities for the next school year. At the end of this academic year we are delighted to share that we have surpassed all of the national data figures for EYFS, Phonics and KS1 SATs.

Governors’ current achievements and future plans

We will be recruiting governors in the next school year to fill skills gaps within the governing body, once our audit is completed. We are now looking at our training needs and increasing our involvement in the development of the School Development Plan to ensure that we are making a positive impact on the school.

We continue to review and develop new governor induction and training to make sure it is fit for purpose and that training is value for money.

​​We continue to engage with suitable future options to secure the long-term future of the school.

Committees to which Governors belong, attendance record and number of courses attended during the last 12 month period to date

**Governors who are members of staff are separately listed in Headteachers Reports 

Register of relevant business and pecuniary interests during the last twelve month period to date