Stockport Governor Association

“Doing more with less”: Stockport Governors’ Conference  Saturday March 19 2011

Overall summary

In these straitened times, a conference with the theme of keeping standards high with ever-decreasing budgets was a sufficient draw for over 100 of Stockport’s governors to give up a sunny Saturday morning. And they were not disappointed.

Governors, members of the “largest body of volunteers in the country” –the best example there is of the Big Society , pre-dating by decades the current use of this phrase  - were first of all  thanked for their work by no less than the local MP, the executive member for children’s services and his chief officer, and were then treated to a highly practical and realistic keynote presentation and a choice of follow-up workshops on related topics.

The keynote address was a collaborative affair; three highly successful women -

the headteachers of a local high school and one of its feeder junior schools, along with the principal of the local FHE college  -  gave an honest and stimulating account of how they had moved their institutions forward, in two cases at least, from a very low base. Two salient points emerged - that there was no quick fix, but that clarity of purpose and total focus on this purpose were what mattered.  It was unwavering attention to environment, ethos and most especially to any institution’s most precious resource, its people, along with an unswerving focus on outcomes, rather than influx of cash, that raised aspirations and drove up standards. Remarkably, despite the very great differences in size of their respective institutions, all three presenters, when they came together to plan the presentation, had been amazed to discover the similarity of the approaches each had adopted separately, and with similar levels of success.

The interactive workshops that followed  (see reports below) – on value for money, funding and developing your governing body – complemented well the initial presentation, giving participants the opportunity to extend their knowledge, discuss relevant issues and share experiences. Governors certainly went away keen to try out some of what they had learnt in their own schools and feeling somewhat clearer about how to ensure that improvements can still be made and sustained in challenging times.

MAUREEN BANBURY

Workshop on “Value for Money”

This was a well attended workshop led by Michelle Murray, Headteacher of Gatley Primary School, Stuart Foster, Chair of Gatley Primary Governors and Phil Beswick, Advisor from SMBC.

The workshop aimed at the following outcome:

To develop the role of governors in their understanding and evaluation of

• judgements on value for money

• ways to evidence the process and adult/pupil outcomes.

Phil Beswick welcomed us and outlined PLLA (priority learning local authorities)

Its principles are:

• building on strengths
• realising potential
• choice
• improving outcomes defined broadly child and adult
• adult learning as the focus increased accountability capability and responsibility
• partnership in collaboration.

The workshop groups then discussed a definition and suggested that Value for Money (VFM) is:

‘Optimising outcomes for children’ and ‘optimising each pound spent.’

‘Developing the capacity of staff, teachers and non teachers’

Gatley Primary School developed its capacity to deliver VFM by:

1. Establishing a strong sense of core educational values driving all decisions - ‘Visioning the future’
2. Ensuring effective resource management - suitability of staff and their deployment
3. Focusing resources on improving outcomes for individuals and different groups
4. Developing sustainability within schools - building capacity from within (developing adults)
5. Making efficient and creative use of the learning environment inside and outside
6. Using high-quality material resources and equipment to enhance delivery and develop children's knowledge, skills and independent learning

1. Demonstrating the effectiveness of financial planning.

In an OFSTED Subject Survey last November Gatley was commended for the above as features of good practice and also for

• Reducing reliance on external expertise
• Staff teams and the development of teaching support staff
• Curriculum initiatives planned to produce pupil outcomes and well considered use of funds
• After careful cost benefit calculation, very effective partnerships with other schools to achieve staff development and identify areas for improvement
• School development plan includes detailed timetable for school self-evaluation – impact on pupil outcomes is tracked and evaluated
• Governors question all proposals and reports vigorously and expect any expenditure to be linked with improved pupil outcomes
• Use of external benchmarks to aid understanding of spending and assist the above
• Extensive use of pupil feedback to inform the planning and evaluation of developments including identifying underused resources.
• Creative methods of collecting such feedback.

Other notable points of interest in Gatley’s presentation were:

• Their mission statement aspires to create active and independent learners
• Wide use of mobile laptops for flexibility; they are used outside the IT suite
• Imaginative use of non-classroom space for learning opportunities (the site is small) including corridors, awnings and the exterior
• The priority attached to collecting evidence. Their chair of governors thinks all relevant discussions should be minuted – including subgroups
• ‘Green Screen’; video creation and editing software used to produce evidence of the staff groups meetings and pupils’ activities, and also to collect feedback from both
• The staff curriculum teams numbered six and include TAs
• The school is focused on how adults learn together, promotes shared accountability and authority, and closely consults its staff.

The chair of governors stressed the need for Ofsted to have evidence based on minutes for all key decisions. To that end, the governing body links its governors to curriculum teams who then feed back information to the governing body.

Phil Beswick closed the session, briefly mentioning two online LA resources:

• Learning Leads which enables interactive discussion between schools and
• Stockport Leadership Framework which offers ‘a language of performance’ to assist managers in analysing their performance.

IAN ROBERTS with the help of NEILL ELLISON

Workshop on “Making the best uses of resources”

This workshop was presented jointly by Peter Hughes, Group Accountant and Simon Finch, Strategic Accountant, CYPD. The content of the presentation was extremely comprehensive covering (i) scene setting – the current national and local climate (ii) setting a balanced budget 2011/12 (iii) broader VFM perspective and longer term, all very helpful information for governors. What was also excellent was that everything was explained in language which was straightforward and easy to understand.

The presentation started off by posing a series of questions which the audience was asked to hold in mind throughout and to take away with them:

• Does the GB have sufficient financial competence to challenge?
• Is there a link between budgeting and plans to raise attainment?
• Does the school review its staffing structure regularly?
• Does the school benchmark and investigate variances?
• Does the school have a clear plan for using balances?
• Can the school give examples of improved use of resources?

The first topic, setting a balanced budget for the current financial year, took governors through the processes , identifying how these related to individual schools, including schools in financial difficulties.

This was followed by the topic of the broader VfM perspective: key lines of enquiry, barriers to achieving improved VFM, where to get external advice - DfE publication January 11 on improving efficiency in schools; DfE and Audit Commission toolkits; and guidance and opportunities within Stockport MBC. At the end of the presentation, it had been proposed that a table top discussion and feedback would take place, but, because the presentation stimulated many questions, time defeated us. However the table top questions, circulated to particpants, were as follows:

• How can governors help overcome the VfM barriers?
• How can governors initiate starting to look at VfM opportunities?
• What level of LA support do schools need to help them achieve VfM?
• What examples of delivering savings and/or achieving VfM are governors aware of in individual schools?

Governors were invited to feed back to Peter and Simon their thoughts and suggestions on these, as well as further questions, by e-mail.

IAN RITCHIE

Workshop on “Developing your governing body – are you fit for purpose?”

This was attended by around 35 delegates and proved to be a good exchange of views led by three knowledgeable officers from the local authority. The session was introduced by Libby Evans, Head of Governor Services SMBC. Her two colleagues would help us look at our current strengths as governors and as a Governing Body (GB) and then the barriers /challenges to what we do.

The first section was led by Joseph Kelly, Senior School Improvement Adviser (Primary) and we considered: organisation, distributed leadership, team work, managing relationships, reflection time, deeper understanding of school issues, benchmarking, and accountability. We then had feedback from governors working in paired groups to look at current strengths and what is going well. Some good points were felt to be: a GB with no vacancies, good attendance, committees doing much of the work, better links with teachers, classroom visits, a chair who knows the governors well and uses their skills.

The second section was led by Graham Hunt, Senior School Improvement Adviser (Secondary) who noted that the challenges are increasing. The new Ofsted inspection element for a GB has clear expectations; is it 'fit for purpose'? There is a new government and whilst the themes continue much as before, there are changes. All schools will be allowed to develop as they choose. There will be more freedom to innovate, but also freedom to make mistakes. Governors will be held more accountable for what happens in their school. More on-line data will be available for parents. Many local authority posts that previously supported schools have now gone. Governors won't have School Improvement Partners to help in future. Outstanding schools will have fewer Ofsted inspections. The emphasis is now more on school-to-school support to help each other improve. But can schools afford to allow their best teachers to help in other schools? On budgets, there will be hard decisions to make on how tighter resources will be used. For a GB, the strategic role is retained but there is need for better deployment. A GB could be smaller in future but 'world class training' will be identified to enable it to ask key questions of their school staff.

There was feedback from governors on how we can meet the challenges. Ideas included: time management; use of data; problem solving/team building; good relationship with teachers; use of mentors (e.g. new governor sitting next to chair or buddy at initial meetings); induction lasting the whole of the first year, not just one meeting; need to make sure people understand the issues through information packs and jargon-busting; need to explain things as we go along; opportunities for social contact; regular away-days; meeting staff more often; meetings to start more informally; chair skilled in talking to people; more work on decisions done in committees; needs for clear organisation; dates of meetings fixed well in advance. However, governors have to read the papers before meetings! School ethos and values will make a difference as well as the operational issues.

Libby then summed up the session and confirmed that the handouts will be made available. We were encouraged to identify 3 key activities that we think our own GB should engage with to help ensure that we can effectively challenge and support the school in championing high standards.

We all felt this workshop, and the conference as a whole, had been very worthwhile.

ROBERT TWIGG