Thursday, August 7, 2014

Board Meeting Notes: Wednesday, 30 July 2014

AMESBURY SCHOOL BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Notes from the meeting held Wednesday 30 July 2014

1. Lesley outlined Hub Reviews which are part of the school's normal review cycle and this term will be focused on:
  • the quality of teaching sessions
  • student involvement in their own learning and their self-management
  • teacher knowledge of students  
  • teacher knowledge of the curriculum
  • levels of student engagement
 2. Half-yearly student achievement data will be presented to the Board at the next meeting. Lesley spoke about a "progress" review which has been carried out with regards to writing achievement which is strongly informing the delivery of writing this term.

3. Lesley presented a six monthly review of achievement in relation to the Annual Plan. This showed that good progress has been made, but that there are still goals to be achieved prior to the end of the year.

4. The Board reviewed and revised five policies to ensure they meet current best practice and legislative requirements. The following revised policies were approved:
    a. Community Partnering Document
    b. Religious Education Policy
    c. Self-Review Policy
    d. Theft and Fraud Policy
    e. Sensitive Expenditure Policy

     The Behaviour Management Policy will be further reviewed in the light of input from teachers.

5. The Board were informed that the staff had all been involved in a day's professional development to assist with the implementation of the Cool Schools' Peer Mediation Programme. Work is being done with student as part of rotations on Thursday and peer mediators will be chosen and the programme implemented at break times next term.

6. The Board approved the Ski Camp which is following the same structure as last year and will have the same safety protocols in place which were successful last year.

7.  Our recapitation application has been declined again. This was declined on the basis that the three schools are still not supportive of our application. The Board will take a couple of actions:
     i. Engage with the whole network (not just the three schools the Ministry consulted with) to see if we can get some network shift on this matter
     ii. Challenge the Minister's view that she "was not convinced that educational gains would be made if she approved" our application

8. Hall Report for Term 2: This signalled an increase in users for the seoond half of the year. The hall is now quite busy with an increased range of activities available in Churton Park which was a goal for 2014.

9. The finances were discussed. A six monthly review of expenditure and income against budget from our accountant was discussed. Income and expenditure are tracking as expected. Lesley has sent a letter to Resourcing at the Ministry requesting a continuation of the current level of resourcing and staffing into 2015 even though the roll will not have reached 200. She pointed out that the fixed property (including depreciation) and administration costs of funding infrastructure for 400 students (and classrooms for 250 students) exceed current funding from the Ministry and we are already having to find $140,000 to make our budget work this year. This situation will be much more difficult if our funding is cut as expected next year.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.