JJanuary 2012
NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION
The LASGB is a member of the National Governors Association.
National Governors’ Association
BULLETIN BOARD
governorhq@nga.org.uk Website: www.nga.org.uk
1 Key meetings attended by NGA in November
o National Heads, Directors of Children’s Services and Governors Group (2.10.11): This meeting discussed independent advisers for Heads’ performance management, pensions and the DfE review of governance.
o PTA-
o School Funding Implementation Group and sub-
o DfE Capital Consultation Group (10.11.11)
o DfE Advisory Group on Governance (15.11.11) at which the main item was the DfE’s review of governance (see above)
o DfE Education Forum (16.11.11) chaired by Nick Gibb, Minister for Schools, at which further discussion of the review of governance took place
o Meeting with the School Commissioner, Liz Sidwell, to discuss the work of her Brokerage and Underperformance Division
o All Party Parliamentary Group on Governance (21.11.11): This was the first meeting of this group and NGA acts as the secretariat
o House of Commons Education Select Committee (23.11.11): NGA’s Chief Executive, Emma Knights, gave oral evidence to the Select Committee on the subject of Attracting, Training and Retaining Teachers.
o National College’s steering and partnership group meetings on the Chairs’ Development
programme
First in a new series of briefing notes from NGA
Knowing your school: RAISEonline for Governors of Primary Schools
The NGA has published the first in a series of briefing notes for school governors produced in association with partners. The first, written by RM Education, is aimed at helping primary governors’ understanding of RAISEonline, but we will follow this up with a version for secondary school governors. Further briefing notes will follow considering other aspects of school life.
Lord Hill, Parliamentary Under-
‘The Government is committed to publishing more school data and to giving parents more information. I congratulate the National Governors’ Association on producing notes on “Knowing your school” and I welcome this publication on RAISEonline for primary school governors.’
Unlike NGA material for members only, this briefing note can be forwarded to other primary schools, so please do circulate it to governors outside NGA network, and of course suggest they might like to join!
The briefing note can be downloaded from the NGA website – Knowing Your School
This month’s NGA poll
On NGA’s home page, there is a new monthly poll. Please vote in December’s: The NGA and RM have just issued guidance about RAISEonline – do you think your headteacher keeps your governing body sufficiently informed about this issue?
Last month’s NGA poll
Last month we asked you: Do governing bodies have a role in school improvement? 387 of you responded and of those:
91% Yes, a significant role 353
5% Yes, a small role 21
2% No role at all 9
1% Not sure 4
This question was posed because the Department for Education (DfE) is currently undertaking a review of governance with a focus on the role of governing bodies in school improvement. The review is examining:
• what we expect a highly effective GB would do in relation to school performance;
• the barriers that commonly prevent GBs from achieving this;
• the extent to which changes in policy and at local authority level will impact on GB effectiveness;
• ways in which the DfE could influence practice.
The review, which will report in the New Year, has identified the following issues:
• Lack of clear focus on raising attainment and narrowing gaps;
• Difficulty in attracting and retaining the right people and removing governors who are not performing;
• Difficulty in accessing and acting on information and data;
• Difficulty in getting the right relationship between the head teacher and GB.
The aim of NGA’s poll in November was therefore to get an impression of how widespread the lack of focus on school improvement and children’s attainment is. The result suggests that while some governors perhaps do not appreciate their role in school improvement the clear majority do.
NATIONAL COLLEGE – CHAIR OF GOVERNORS’ DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
National Leaders of Governance
The application round for National Leaders of Governance (NLG) will be opening soon on the National College website.
NLGs are highly effective chairs of governors who will work with other chairs to
help them develop and to improve school performance. The National College is working
with NGA and partners to designate around 50 NLG in this first cohort. NLGs will
be deployed to areas of greatest need, where their skills can be most effectively
used. It’s likely that the time commitment for an NLG would be 10 – 20 days per
academic year, and this would be made up of around three to six deployments, providing
a combination of face-
For further information: www.nationalcollege.org.uk/chairsofgovernors
NGA DATES FOR YOUR DIARY and NGA NEWS
NGA Summer Conference – Saturday 16 June 2012 – London
NGA Conference and 2012 AGM – Saturday 24 November 2012 (venue tbc)
NGA Annual General Meeting and Conference: Governors as Leaders
The presentations and report on the conference held in Birmingham on Saturday 19 November 2011 are posted on the NGA website.
NGA Conference for Chairs of Associations ~ a date for the diary
There will be a conference for Association Chairs on Saturday 4 February 2012 at the National College Conference Centre in Nottingham. This event will follow up some of the issues raised by the survey, giving associations a chance to share local practice, but will also provide an update on, and an opportunity to feed into, relevant national issues, including the National College’s development programme.
A direct invitation will be sent to all chairs of associations before Christmas.
NGA Website
We are continuing to update and amend the content on the relaunched website – please bear with us as we go through this process. There may be times when content disappears temporarily, but it should reappear in an updated form. If you have any problems with the website or suggestions of what you would like to see on the site, please contact laura.owen@nga.org.uk or philip.wood@nga.org.uk.
The Local Association page of the website has a list of all the Local Associations with links to help you find out information. Please view the web page: Local Association websites If there are any changes you wish to make, please contact Laura Owen via email at: laura.owen@nga.org.uk
CONSULTATIONS: NEWS and ACTION
PLEASE NOTE: The wording in consultation items is taken from the consultation summaries on the DfE website and express the views and proposals of the DfE, not those of the NGA.
1 Auxiliary Aids for Children with Disabilities
The consultation deals with implementing the requirement for schools and local authorities to make reasonable adjustments to provide auxiliary aids for disabled children under the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act covers England, Scotland and Wales, but this covers England only: parallel consultations will be taking place in Scotland and Wales
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ or sent by email to: AuxiliaryAids.CONSULTATION@education.gsi.gov.uk or by post to: Mark Sands, Special Needs and Disabilities Division, DfE, 1st Floor, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
DfE deadline 5 December 2011 Please copy responses to NGA
2 16 – 19 Funding Formula Review
Proposals in this consultation include moving away from the current complex system of funding on the basis of ‘payment per qualification’, to introduce a much simpler system of funding at the level of the learner. The aim is to make a reality of the proposals in Professor Alison Wolf’s report on vocational education. It also supports the Government's aims of reducing bureaucracy for education providers and making the funding system simpler, more transparent and readily understood by all.
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/, sent by email
to: 16-
DfE deadline 4 January 2012 Deadline for comment to NGA 9 December 2011
3 Study Programmes for 16 – 19 year olds
The Government response to Professor Wolf’s Review of Vocational Education, published in May 2011, accepted the Review’s recommendations in full. This consultation paper sets our proposals to ensure that all 16 –19 year olds study coherent, well thought out programmes which offer them breadth and depth and do not limit their options for future study or work. This new approach, planned to be introduced at the same time as a new funding formula in 2013, will give providers substantially more freedom in designing full time course provision for students between the ages of 16 and 19.
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ or sent by email to: Wolf.studyprogrammes@education.gsi.gov.uk or by post to: Helen O’Neill, Qualifications Policy Division, Level 2, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
DfE deadline 4 January 2012 Deadline for comment to NGA 9 December 2011
4 Removing the statutory duty to deliver work-
In line with work being done in regard to various aspects of work experience including
the changes that are being made around work experience for students, post -
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ or sent by email to: workrelatedlearningconsultation@education.gsi.gov.uk or by post to Sarah Ballinger, Department for Education, Post Point A, 6th Floor, St Paul’s Place, Sheffield S1 2FJ.
DfE deadline 4 January 2012 Deadline for comment to NGA 15 December 2011
5 Academies Land Transfer
This consultation asks for the views of local authorities and others in England on draft regulations that will enable the Secretary of State to secure the information that he may need in order to make schemes for local authority owned land that is no longer used for maintained schools to be transferred to Academies and Free Schools.
Alongside the draft regulations are model schemes for both freehold land and leasehold land, and a Q&A document with some further details on the measures, which DfE hopes will address any further questions anyone may have.
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ or sent by email to: LandTransferSchemes.consultation@education.gsi.gov.uk or by post to Julia Armstrong, School Choice, Organisation and Fair Access, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
DfE deadline 18 January 2012 Deadline for comment to NGA 3 January 2012
6 Revised School Premises Regulations
There are currently two sets of school premises regulations (for maintained schools
and for independent schools including academies and free schools) and a substantiation
amount of other legislation applying to all buildings including schools. These relate
to the safety and wellbeing of pupils. The Government is aiming to remove any school-
The consultation can be found at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
Responses may be made online at: www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ or sent by email to: PremisesRegulations.CONSULTATION@education.gsi.gov.uk or by post to Sally Smith, Central Capital Unit, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
DfE deadline 26 January 2012 Deadline for comment to NGA 7 January 2012
FOR INFORMATION
2 School Governors’ One-
The School Governors' One-
Visit the SGOSS website at: www.sgoss.org.uk
New Edition of Welcome to Governance – Pre-order your copy now!
A new edition of Welcome to Governance -