About Govas

GOVAS works closely with the Stockport Children and Young People Directorate, but we are a fully independent association of governors affiliated to the equally independent National Governors Association. Every governor in Stockport is automatically a GOVAS member (as long as your institution pays their subscriptionof £10.00 PA)and our Management Committee is made up exclusively of serving volunteer governors in Stockport’s schools – nursery, primary secondary and special. Our biggest strength is our links with all the school governors in Stockport through our newsletter, special communications, and this website.  

 

Welcome back to the Summer Term: SATS and elections, what more could we ask for? Maybe a resolution to the National (Fairer) Funding Formula would be welcome, and school funding in general, but i’m afraid that must wait until after the General Election now.

Firstly, a big thank you to all of you who made the Stockport Governor Conference the best ever. Over 140 of you converged on Marple and the feedback, which you can see on our website (-click here-) was overwhelmingly positive. One area that we can improve is to improve the description of the workshop contents, so that is already on the list for next year. 

As usual, the support of the LA was vital to the success of the conference and the presentations are all now on GovernorHub.

As referred to above, the results of the second stage of the consultation on the NFF have now been delayed until after the election. Regardless of this, all schools are facing challenging times financially and making better use of the available money we have is going to be a key theme for some time. As well as the support from the LA, there is a lot of information out there. The DfE have produced resource packs and NGA have recently announced training workshops. As we revealed at the Conference, we have been working on putting together a workshop on Financial Efficiency and we are now pleased to announce that it will take place at Priestnall School on Wednesday July 5th. It will run in conjunction with the GOVAS AGM, which will be as brief as ever, and is provisionally scheduled for 6-9pm. We were keen to have the workshop led by a practitioner skilled in presenting, so we have been working with the National Association of School Business Managers and one of their trainers, Dawn Boyes, who is a School Business Manager, will be delivering the workshop. 

We will inform you as soon as this event is open for registration, but please make a note in your diaries.

Enjoy the term!

The School Forum who are they and what do they do click here for further information

In this issue, we are including key points from the Schools Forum meeting held on 16 March 2017 particularly; School Admissions Appeals, The 2017/18 Schools Budget Update, Scheme for Financing Schools proposed amendments and the National Fairer Funding Formula (Stage 2 consultation documents). A full copy of the minutes will be made available via the Council web-site in due course, see section 9 below.
Schools Forum Meeting 16 March 2017 – Key Points

1. Matters Arising from 26 January 2017 Meeting minutes
No key matters arsing to report.

2. SCHOOL ADMISSION APPEALS PROCESS
Report presented as tabled
Discussions: Short discussion took place relating to the actual process and how could head teachers request input/attendance to the actual appeals hearing meeting.
Decisions: N/A.

Actions:
1. Schools Forum members to note the report; and
2. Karen McCrevey to circulate information to head teachers outlining the process / administrative arrangement to all head teachers

3. 2017/18 SCHOOLS BUDGET UPDATE
Report presented as tabled

Discussions:
1. Discussion took place relating to representatives on the DSG review group and could representation be extended to respective head teacher consortia groups – Agreed.

Decisions:
1. Sue (Queensgate), Danny (Post 16 Aquinas) and Ian Roberts (Vice-Chair/Primary Governor) all agreed to be part of review group again.

Actions:
1. PB/PH to arrange meeting for the DSG review group to meet (approx. May) and invite all Schools Forum representatives and Headteacher reps share detail with wider consortia groups.

4. SCHEME FOR FINANCING SCHOOLS – 2016 PROPOSALS

Workload is one of the main reasons that teachers give for considering leaving the profession and latest research published shows that working hours are still too high. The DfE have published an action plan that provides an update about how they have been helping to remove unnecessary workload along with further activities they intend to undertake in the future. The plan is based around the three biggest concerns that teachers have raised - marking, planning and resources, and data management. Review groups were set-up to cover these areas, and you can access the reports here:

Report from Marking Policy Review Group – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-marking-policy-review-group-report

Report from Planning and Resources Review Group – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-planning-and-resources-group-report

Report from Data Management Review Group – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-data-management-review-group-report

You will find a poster on our website (click this link) and leaflet on our web-site (click this link) to help you review your expectations on Headteachers and senior leadership teams, and to support ‘Reducing Workload’ initiatives in your schools.

We would be delighted to receive any examples of reducing workload initiatives and how successful they have been.

Finally, a reminder that it is the Stockport Governors Conference on Saturday 11th March. (Register Here) We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

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, and the performance management of staff; and
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

You will be familiar with the three core functions of school governance, but we’re sure that many of you are struggling with the third one.

In the 2016 NGA/TES survey of governors and trustees, they received 5000 responses and found funding shortages are already having a real impact: 26% reported having made redundancies in the previous 12 months – but this number rose to 55% among secondary schools. 60% said that financial constraints would mean they need to reduce spending on staff over the next two years, rising to 77% for secondary schools.33% of those responding said that their school's offer to pupils has been reduced as a result of funding constraints and, again, this included 60% of secondary school governors and trustees.

These experiences back up findings of the National Audit Office, which is forecasting an 8% real-terms reduction in per-pupil funding for mainstream schools between 2014-15 and 2019-20 due to cost pressures. This is because, while the 2015 Spending Review protected the overall schools budget from forecast inflation, the projected increase in pupil numbers means that funding per pupil will, on average, see a real-terms reduction once inflation is taken into account. On top of this, schools are already absorbing higher costs through higher employer national insurance and pension contributions. When the apprenticeship levy comes into operation in April, this will put further strain on the budgets of many maintained schools.

The new national funding formula (NFF) is supposed to achieve fairer funding across England, but as proposed the NFF will not entirely end the school funding postcode lottery and will not make life any easier for many schools in the lowest funded areas, such as Stockport. This is in large part because the proposed changes are being made at a time of increasing costs for schools, and therefore the basic amount provided for each pupil is insufficient.

The School Forum who are they and what do they do click here for further information

Welcome to the 18th edition of the Schools Forum Newsletter……..

In this issue, we are including key points from the Schools Forum meeting held on 26 January 2017 particularly; Schools Funding Settlement 2017/18, The 2017/18 Schools Budget Update and the National Fairer Funding Formula (Stage 2 consultation documents). A full copy of the minutes will be made available via the Council web-site in due course, see section 7 below.

Schools Forum Meeting 26 January 2017 – Key Points

1. Matters Arising from 8 December 2016 Meeting minutes

No key matters arsing to report.

Note: School Admission Appeals process (Agenda item 8) – Request for LA to provide further information / response to Schools Forum on process/school head teacher input has been deferred until the next meeting to be held 16 March 2017.

2. SCHOOLS FUNDING SETTLEMENT 2017/18

Report presented as tabled

Discussions: N/A

Decisions: N/A.

Actions:

Dear Colleagues,

Firstly, a big thank you to all of you who attended our conference,“Education For All: the Implications for School Structures & Governance in Stockport”, in October. To get over 130 governors, trustees and senior leaders was a fantastic achievement and is a testament to the desire of everyone connected with our schools to keep up-to-date and look at ways to improve our practice. The feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive and it was good to see that a great many of you intended to go back and share your thoughts with your governing boards.The Conference also highlighted the high regard that the LA is held by many of our schools and this is something that we should celebrate. All the presentations are available from the menu on the right or click -Here-


One of the key themes to come out of the day, both through the speakers and the feedback, was the need for schools to collaborate more. As one of the comments we received stated: “Collaboration is what good schools do”. This flows nicely into the aim of the Stockport Governors’ Conference, to be held at Marple Hall School on Saturday 11th March. The Conference title is “The School-Led System: where are we now?” which will be looking at examples of how schools work together effectively in Stockport and what lessons we can learn. Further details will be released in the New Year regarding the workshops and key note speaker, but

The School Forum who are they and what do they do click here for further information

Welcome to the 17th edition of the Schools Forum Newsletter…….

In this issue, we are including key points from the Schools Forum meeting held on 8 December 2016 particularly; Road Safety near Schools, Admission Appeals Funding Arrangements, Apprenticeship Levy, Scheme for Financing Schools 2016 Proposals and 2017/18 Schools Budget/Funding Arrangements. A full copy of the minutes will be made available via the Council web-site in due course, see section 9 below.

Schools Forum Meeting 8 December 2016 – Key Points

1. Matters Arising from 29 September 2016 Meeting minutes

No key issues to report.

2. ROAD SAFETY NEAR SCHOOLS

Report presented as tabled

Discussions: Individual representatives outlined pertinent road safety issues to their own school/known areas. Jon Roper requested details of “Operation Eagle Eye” be distributed to all primary schools. The key project plan includes School Audits to be undertaken from January 2017 over a three year period.

Decisions: Schools Forum members supportive of the plans.

Actions:

1. Nick Whelan requested members email him further details of any school specific matters to himself (email address provided within report).

2. Nick to provide schools with detail of which School Audits will be undertaken when.

3. Key Road Safety information to be

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