Academy Committee Agendas
Academy Committee Agendas
Listed below is a brief overview of each of the standard agenda items shown in the annual work plan. It is intended to assist committee members in preparing for meetings and is not an exhaustive source of the information under each heading.
The minutes are an important record of the committee’s work. They should be a true and fair reflection of the committee’s discussions, but are not a verbatim record of every discussion. They should be useful and informative to non-attendees. Clerks are mindful that minutes can be seen by external agencies so may use some licence in recording difficult conversations. Committee members should ensure that they read these well in advance of the meeting and are able to report back on any actions assigned to them.
Committee members must declare any potential conflicts of interest, particularly pecuniary interests, which might arise from the meeting or from the committee’s work as a whole. If you are unsure about a potential conflict, it is best to declare it and to seek the direction of the Chair and clerk. Further advice can be obtained by contacting the Director of Governance & Compliance.
In the Autumn Term, an annual declaration will be made by all committee members. This information will be published on the school’s website. Committee members are reminded of the Code of Conduct, which sets out in detail their commitment to the Nolan Principles.
The Chair should use this opportunity in the meeting to provide feedback from any meetings with the CEO and the Chair of the Trust Board. They should also solicit input from other committee members for the next Chairs Forum meeting.
The report is an important and comprehensive statement of the school’s performance and is one of the most important documents that committee members will receive. It covers the following areas (this can be subject to change):
Assessment (EYFS, KS1 & KS2 Headline Data)
Admissions
Behaviour & Exclusions Data
Pupil Wellbeing
Safeguarding Referral Data & CP Register Data
Attendance Data
Risk Register
Progress on the Academy’s equality objectives & EDI Action Plan
Termly programme for year group visits, sports and performing arts opportunities and clubs.
Dates and annual programme for residential trips (Y3-6) (Autumn Term)
The report will be taken as read at the meeting, with questions invited by the Principal, so committee members should recognise the importance of reading it thoroughly beforehand.
Risk register
Guided by an oral or written update from the Principal, the committee should identify and discuss any strategic risks facing the school and agree how it/they might influence future agendas. For example, falling pupil numbers present a financial and reputational risk to the school – the committee might wish to consider further discussion on marketing as an extraordinary agenda item.
Discussion should focus on the nature of the risk, possible mitigation, probability and impact. A clear minute of any identified risk(s) should be reported to the COO & Trustees via the minutes.
Progress against equality objectives and the EDI action plan
The 2010 Equality Act consolidated discrimination law and existing equality legislation. It requires all public sector organisations to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty and to demonstrate how they are eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relationships between people who share the ‘protected characteristics’.
Specifically, public sector organisations must prepare and publish Equality Objectives every four years and update progress made against these objectives annually.
Schools have existing duties to ensure the academic success of all groups of pupils, so are advised to transfer equality objectives from the improvement plan. For example, this might be to improve reading outcomes for boys or to increase girls’ participation in science, technology and maths.
The school’s SDP & SEF is its statement of how it considers the school to be performing – this will follow a standard LEO format, which reflects the Ofsted framework and will be shown to an inspector in advance of any visit. The school’s ability to demonstrate a clear and honest view of its own performance is an important part of the quality of leadership and management, so it is important that the committee ensures that this document is reliable. It is useful for the committee to discuss this as early in the year as possible in order to inform its own priorities and activities. The SEF is a ‘living’ document, which the school will update on an ongoing basis – the Principal should inform the committee of any significant changes, especially where their evaluation in any category or for the school’s overall effectiveness is changed.
The Pupil Attainment & Progress Lead Academy Committee member is the Chair of the Academy Committee. The Pupil Attainment & Progress Lead will attend the termly meetings between the CEO or Director of Education and the Principal.
The school’s delivery plan sets out its headline targets and actions for its improvement. Depending on the phase of the school’s improvement, this plan will be underpinned either by a School Improvement Plan or a Rapid Improvement Plan. These are very detailed documents, which should reflect the priorities identified in the SEF. The committee must be careful not to go too far into operational detail. Instead, committee members should ask the Principal to report back on progress towards the objectives and performance measures included in the plan and to identify any notable successes, barriers to achieving these and key risks. Committee members should be ambitious, but realistic, in contributing to discussion of this document
Outcomes Predictions
By the Spring Term, schools will have collected assessment data on the achievement and progress of pupils and will have a good idea about the quality of teaching. From this point, schools will start to make predictions about the end-of-year outcomes, which allow them to target interventions and make changes to support children’s performance.
The committee should compare these predictions against the targets set in the school’s improvement plan and should work with the Principal to identify areas where action can be taken to address any areas of weakness, whilst recognising and remaining ambitious for areas of strength.
Where weaknesses are identified, the Principal should be able to explain these, any interventions that are in place, and to identify any reasons that targets will not be achieved.
Lead Academy Committee members should use the visit log template and must agree their written reports with the Principal before submitting them to the committee.
Additionally, committee members should visit the school regularly and purposefully – this includes, but cannot be limited to, school events such as the Christmas Play or Sports Day. Parent Academy.
i) Inclusion \ SEND report (Termly Report)
Focus of the report for the Autumn Term -SEND
Focus of the report for the Spring Term - Pupil Premium
Focus of the report for the Summer Term - Attendance, EAL & CLA
The committee should appoint an Inclusion Lead AC member to monitor and report to colleagues on the school’s provision for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities; to ensure compliance with obligations and to champion these children at committee level.
The committee should consider:
How the school is meeting its obligations in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and specifically Chapter 6;
The impact of the SEND notional budget, pupil premium expenditure (as per item 10) and additional measures taken to support pupils with SEND, including requests for top-up funding and how this is being utilised with evidence of impact of targeted interventions;
The school’s involvement of parents and children in its decision-making and co-production of plans for support and
The school’s co-operation with the Local Authority and other agencies in securing appropriate support for pupils with additional needs.
Any reports shared by the Education & Standards committee.
ii) Safeguarding report (Termly Report)
The committee should appoint a Safeguarding Lead AC member to monitor and report back to colleagues on how the school meets its safeguarding obligations; to highlight key strengths and weaknesses of the school’s work in this area and to ensure that steps are taken to improve and support safeguarding efforts.
iii) Curriculum including Staff presentations (Report due in Spring Term only)
The committee should appoint a Curriculum Lead AC member to monitor and report back to colleagues on how the school meets its curriculum obligations. The committee may invite presentations (these could be previously recorded) from subject or phase leaders; these can be a relatively informal discussion about the staff member’s area of work. The committee should not ordinarily ask for new work to be done – for example, the Principal’s Report will include updates on performance in the subjects and phases, so these data can serve as the basis for the discussion.
Committee members will recognise that this is an additional time commitment for the members of staff concerned, so it is important that these presentations are purposeful and relate to its priorities for the school. For non-priority areas, it might be more useful for an individual member to make this the subject of a visit to the school.
iv) Stakeholder Voice / Wider Community Engagement (Report due in Autumn Term)
The committee should appoint a Stakeholder Voice/Wider Community Engagement Lead AC member to monitor and report back to colleagues on how the school connects to their school community and the stakeholders within it (also see item 17). The committee may invite presentations from other stakeholders. For example, the parents’ association or the school council might be asked to talk to committee members about their work.
Survey responses from parents, pupils and staff
Where the school has conducted stakeholder surveys, the headline figures should be reported to the local committee. The committee should consider whether these pose any significant risks (for example, low staff morale presents a school with a retention and productivity challenge) and ask the Principal what steps might be necessary to address them. The committee should return to any significant findings and actions at a later point in order to monitor the impact of any response.
v) Pupil Attainment & Progress Lead - see item 5 above for reporting.
The Pupil Premium Grant is paid to schools for each child who has been eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) in any of the last six years. Since it is connected to families’ eligibility for a range of benefits, FSM is a widely-used indicator of deprivation, which is correlated with educational underperformance. The purpose of the grant is to enable schools to “close the gap” between Premium-eligible children and others and the school is held to account for this, including through the requirement to publish its plans and an impact statement.
In addition, the Pupil Premium is paid to schools for each child who has been ‘Looked After’ for a day or more at any point in the last six years; this includes those who have been subject to Guardianship or Residency Orders. For children of service personnel, the Service Premium is also paid out of the Pupil Premium and is paid to schools for each child whose parent(s) have been in active service at any point in the last six years.
Primary schools receive a PE and Sports Grant to promote physical activity as part of the Government’s childhood obesity strategy. The school has similar reporting requirements for this money as for the Pupil Premium.
Annual Audit/monitoring reports will be received from internal/external agencies. Committee Chairs and Lead AC members may be invited to participate in the audits when they are carried out.
A good question of such reports is “were there any surprises?” – this allows the Principal to reflect on their own judgement of the school.
Committee and Principal will agree the subject areas(s) for the following term. The subject lead will be invited to attend the meeting to give a 5 minute presentation followed by 10 mins questions from ACMs. Presentations may be pre-recorded.
The committee should dedicate time during its meeting cycle to focus on priorities for the academy and to address any training needs within the committee.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and, for committee members, this starts with knowing the legal expectations of the school. In particular, committee members should know and understand their obligations under Part 1 of Keeping Children Safe in Education.
Committee members should also be aware of the school’s responsibility under the Prevent Duty. It is also advisable for the safeguarding lead member and/or chair to attend Prevent training.
At the first meeting of the year, each committee member will be asked to sign to say that he or she has read and understood these safeguarding requirements. Committee members will also be asked to complete online safeguarding training.
The Trust Board has delegated the admission authority to each school’s academy committee.
The whole academy committee, or an admissions panel established by the academy committee, must agree to the September admission offers for Reception and Nursery. The academy committee must keep a clear record of any decisions on applications.
The vice chair should give as much notice as possible if they intend not to seek a further term; they should also discuss succession with other committee members to solicit interest. The chair will be expected to play a leading role in succession planning on the committee.
Any committee member other than a member of staff at the school may put themselves forward to be vice chair. Candidates must read the LEO Chair Role Description in advance in order to ensure that they understand the commitment – they will be asked to confirm that they have read and understood this before the election.
The election of the vice chair should be overseen by the chair. Candidates will be asked to explain their motivations and intentions to fellow members. If required they will leave the room whilst a vote is held. The ballot should be counted by the chair, who will record the outcome and notify candidates.
Committees are asked to appoint members with lead responsibility for:
Pupil Attainment & Progress (Chair of the AC)
Safeguarding
Inclusion (including SEND and PP)
Stakeholder Voice/Wider Community Engagement
Curriculum
Committee members have a responsibility for their own performance and should use the opportunity of this item to reflect on their needs, composition and achievements.
The skills audit asks members to rate their experience and confidence in a number of areas. Not everybody can be strong in all of these areas, so the results should be aggregated to reveal any overall skills gaps. The committee should reach a view on whether or not these relate to priorities for the school and how they should be addressed, for example through training or skills-based recruitment.