Rothwell Primary School Governing Board
(Sept 2022)
Chair Pauline Walker
Vice Chair Jo Bentley
The constitution of the governing board is:
- Headteacher – Leila Rothenberg
- 1 x Local Authority (LA) governor, recommended by the LA and approved by the governing board- Pauline Walker
- 2 parent governors, formally elected through a ballot of parents unless the election is uncontested – David Miller and Ben Gray
- 8 co-opted governors, nominated and appointed by the governing board- Robert Seymour, Patricia Rose, Jo Bentley, Laura Beane, Paul Rothwell, Lucy Driver, Angela Walker and Kim Hindle
- 1 staff governor, formally elected by staff employed at school – Emily Wandless
- 1 associate governor – Rhonda Mitchell
The governing board operates with the following committees:
Resources committee (including Pay Review) – responsible for staffing including the appointment and role of the SENCO, equality and diversity, finance, property management.
Committee chair: Patricia Rose
Committee members: Pauline Walker, Paul Rothwell, Jo Bentley, Ben Gray and the Headteacher
Teaching and Learning committee – responsible for teaching and learning matters including target setting, standards and achievement, SEN (including reporting annually on the success of the SEN policy), Pupil Premium, monitoring teaching and learning and curriculum provision and ensuring that the governing Boardis represented at school improvement discussions.
Committee chair: Jo Bentley
Committee members: Pauline Walker, Robert Seymour, Laura Beane, Paul Rothwell and the Headteacher
Pupil Support committee – responsible for behaviour, attendance, children’s spiritual moral social and cultural development, links to healthy schools. Also includes children (school council), parent and staff voice, extra-curricular activities, cluster and other partnerships.
Committee chair: Angela Walker
Committee members: Pauline Walker, Lucy Driver, David Miller, Kim Hindle and the Headteacher.
Pay committee – responsible for hearing pay appeals. Matters are dealt with by the Resources committee.
Headteacher Performance Review committee
Committee members: Pauline Walker, Robert Seymour and Laura Beane.
Appeals committee – responsible for hearing appeals and ensuring a fair and proper process has been followed.
Committee members: Paul Rothwell, Robert Seymour and Laura Beane
Governor Responsibilities
- Pupil Premium & COVID-19 Catch up Funding – Paul Rothwell
- PE Sports Premium – Ben Gray
- Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – Kim Hindle and Rhonda Mitchell
- Safeguarding, Children Looked After and Child Protection – Lucy Driver
- SRE – Lucy Driver
- Health and Safety – Patricia Rose
- Equalities and Inclusion – Pauline Walker
- Training – Pauline Walker
- EYFS – Jo Bentley and David Miller
- Literacy – Pauline Walker and Jo Bentley
- Maths – Robert Seymour and Laura Beane
- Attendance – Angela Walker (Pupil Support Committee)
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) – Pupil Support committee
The following is an attendance record for individual governors at meetings of the full governing body (online via zoom; Governor Strategy meeting in person)
| Full Governing Body Meetings | |||||||||||
| Full Gov Body 24/11/21 | Full Gov Body 26/01/22 | Full Gov Body 06/05/22 | Gov Body Strategy Meeting 15/07/22 | ||||||||
| Mrs Pauline Walker | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Dr Jo Bentley | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mr Robert Seymour | Y | Y | Y | A | |||||||
| Ms Patricia Rose | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mr Andrew Ellis ( term finishes July 21) | Y | Y | Y | A | |||||||
| Ms Angela Walker | Y | Y | Y | A | |||||||
| Ms Jenna Callaly | Y | Term finished Nov 2021 | |||||||||
| Ms Emily Wandless | Started in June 2022 | A | |||||||||
| Ms Laura Beane | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Ms Katie Green | Y | Term finished Nov 2021 | |||||||||
| Mr Paul Rothwell | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mrs Lucy Driver | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mrs Leila Rothenberg | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mr David Miller | Started in Jan 2022 |
Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Mr Ben Gray | Started in Jan 2022 |
Y | Y | Y | |||||||
| Ms Kim Hindle | Started in May 2022 |
Y | Y | ||||||||
| Ms Rhonda Mitchell | Y | Y | |||||||||
| Ms Rhonda Mitchell (as Associate Governor) |
Y | A | |||||||||
Y – in attendance
N – not in attendance and no apologies received/accepted
A – apologies received and accepted
X – not in post/not a member
Mr David Miller and Mr Ben Gray start in Jan 2022
| Position | Start | End | Any other educational establishment governed | Relationship with the school staff including spouses, partners and relatives | |
| Mrs Pauline Walker | Chair of governors LA governor Resources, Pupil Support and Teaching and Learning committees |
From Nov 2014 | None | None | None |
| Dr Jo Bentley | Vice-chair of governors Co-opted governor Pupil Support and Teaching and Learning committee EYFS governor |
From Nov 2014 | None | None | None |
| Mr Robert Seymour | Co-opted governor Teaching and Learning Committee |
From Nov 2014 | None | Also a governor at Royds School | None |
| Ms Patricia Rose | Co-opted governor Resources Committee Health and Safety |
From Nov 2014 | None | None | None |
| Ms Angela Walker | Parent governor Pupil support committee Attendance |
From June 2014 | None | None | None |
| Ms Jenna Callaly | Staff Governor | From May 2018 | None | None | None |
| Ms Laura Beane | Co-opted governor Teaching and Learning Committee |
From May 2016 | None | None | None |
| Ms Rhonda Mitchell | Co-opted governor Pupil Support committee Child Protection, Children Looked After and Safeguarding |
From Oct 2016 | None | None | None |
| Mr Paul Rothwell | Co-opted governor – resources committee – Pupil Premium governor | From July 2018 | None | None | None |
| Mrs Lucy Driver | Co-opted governor SRE Sports Premium |
From Sept 2018 | None | None | None |
| Mr David Miller | Parent Governor | From Jan 2022 | None | None | None |
| Mr Ben Gray | Parent Governor | From Jan 2022 | None | None | None |
| Ms Kim Hindle | Co-opted governor Pupil Support committee | From May 2022 | None | None | None |
| Ms Emily Wandless | Staff governor | From June 2022 | None | None | Member of staff |
2022 Governor Annual Statement
The effectiveness and impact of the governing board 2021/2022
The governing board completed a strategic review of governance on 15 July 2022. The areas where the governing board has had impact include:
- Ensuring effective use of the school’s resources including financial, personnel and premises.
- Improving our understanding of the needs of children in our school and how they are supported
- Understanding the curriculum and the effectiveness of its delivery
- Supporting the school’s leadership and management team
How have we achieved this impact?
- The governing board has ensured that appropriate financial standards have been adhered to and was actively involved in planning and supporting the decision to move from providing Nursery places to school entry starting at Reception level in Sept 2022. This enabled the school to focus on providing an improved Reception environment and contributed to financial improvement for the school.
A Governor from the Resources committee was present at the budget setting meeting and receives monthly budget reports showing actual transactions compared to budget. Unusual variances are raised with the School Business Manager. Budget reports, along with responses from the School Business Manager explaining unusual variances, are then shared with the Resources committee and full governing board as appropriate.
Two governors from the Resources committee have access to the Department of Education benchmarking summaries allowing comparison with other schools to ensure costs are comparable.
- We have recognised it has been another challenging year for staff and pupils due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Governors on the Pupil Support committee have proactively monitored health and safety and pupil and staff wellbeing and with a particular focus on understanding social, emotional and mental health needs. Governors recommended a health and wellbeing questionnaire which has surveyed pupils’ wellbeing and enabled identification of key areas of support for pupils. Governors have triangulated the questionnaire results by meeting with pupil focus groups to hear their views and needs.
- Staff have undertaken significant work to redefine the curriculum across subjects and year groups and to determine gaps in learning and strategies to mitigate this. Governors have met with school Subject Leaders several times during the year to discuss these evidence-based changes in curriculum delivery, the key areas of priority and their implementation, and the impact of these activities. We recognise that subject leaders have made significant progress in curriculum development and that there are clear plans to continue implementation for the coming year.
Measures of pupil’s progress and attainment are circulated to all governors and scrutinised at the governor Teaching and Learning committee meeting, with particular focus on progress of our Pupil Premium and SEND cohorts; this enables us to challenge leaders on the effectiveness of interventions where attainment gaps are identified.
- Governors have worked as a partnership with school and have adapted committee structures, communications in response to the pressures of COVID-19 to support school leaders while also meeting governing board requirements. For example we have introduced virtual governor meetings to reduce the number of school visitors and we have streamlined communication channels by use of designated governors. We have supported decisions to continue with some COVID-19 measures, such as hybrid assemblies to reduce the potential spread of infection and closing a class when the level of COVID-19 infections increased.