Information about our Governors, and statements which you may wish to know.

Our Governors

• Chair of Governors - Mary Dooley
• Headteacher - Jayne Allton
• Staff Governor - Amy Coleman
• Co-Opted Governor - Brian Marshall
• Co-Opted Governor - Nikki Brownbridge
• Co-Opted Governor - Dan Houghton
• Local Authority Governor - Mary Dooley
• Parent Governor - Lauren Bilkhu-Smith
• Parent Governor - Ben Horton

Register of Business Interests for the Governors of Pinxton Nursery School (Maintained) 2024-2025

September 2024

Pinxton Nursery School (Maintained) Governing Body

All state maintained schools in England have a Governing Body, which is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school. A key role is to act as a ‘critical friend’: to support, to challenge, to ask questions and ultimately to represent the school community.

The Governing Body works in close partnership with the Headteacher, staff and the local authority. Whilst the Headteacher is, responsible for the day-to-day running of the school, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings and finance. It ensures the school functions well and maintains the proper range of academic and social objectives.

Governing Body meetings

The Governing Body has five Governing Body meetings per academic year to meet and review the progress of the nursery school. 

Governing Body meetings for the 2023/24 academic year are on the following dates:

• Tuesday 24th September 2024

• Wednesday 4th December 2024

• Wednesday 19th March 2025

• Wednesday 30th April 2025

• Wednesday 2nd July 2025

Governing Body committees

The Governing Body also has Committees to deal with specific details of governing the school.  These committees report to the Governing Body meetings.  The committees and their remits for review and challenge are as follows:

• Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC)- Key focus of the committee: -to monitor progress, pupil performance and other key improvement issues in the School Improvement Plan.
• Resource Management Committee (RM)– Key focus of the committee: - to determine, approve and monitor the school’s budget, budgetary systems and allocation of resources, including personnel, pay, premises, strategy, health and safety and security responsibilities.
• Headteacher Performance Management Committee (HTPM) - key focus to meet with the Headteacher and an External Advisor to undertake an appraisal of the Headteacher’s performance against previously agreed performance objectives. Agree objectives for the forthcoming Appraisal Cycle relating to Leadership and Management, Attainment and Progress and Teaching and Learning.
• Pay Committee
• Pay Appeal Committee

Link Governors

A number of governors are also ‘Link’ Governors with responsibilities to review curriculum and other areas of the school’s role.  Each named governor meets the teacher in school who is responsible for that area.

Governing Body Information

In September 2015, the governing body reconstituted under ‘The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012’.   The standard term of office for a governor is four years (one year for parent governors). The chair and vice-chair are usually elected annually at the first meeting of the academic year.

The Chair of Governors is Mary Dooley who can be contacted via the school.

The Vice-Chair of Governors is Nikki Brownbridge

The Governing body is made up of seven governors divided into five governor categories:

The Clerk to the Governors is Mrs Deena Tivey.

The Pinxton Nursery School Annual Impact Statement 2023 - 2024

The Governing Body at Pinxton Nursery School endeavours to fulfil the role defined by the Government supported by the local authority. In doing so we hope that we can help to make our school the very best it can be for the benefit of all children.

The department for education guidance specifies that the annual statement should explain how we fulfilled our responsibilities, including:

• The governance arrangements that are in place, including the remit of any committees
• Attendance record of individual governors at board and committee meetings
• An assessment of the effectiveness and impact of the board and any committee with details of any particular challenges that have arisen

The role of the governing body is intended to be strategic in nature while being a ‘critical friend’ to the headteacher and the school leadership team who are responsible for the day-to-day operational running of the school.  In reviewing how the school works the governors have gained an enormous respect for all the staff in the Nursery School.  The amount of effort, the care for our children and ‘going the extra mile’ from all our staff is nothing short of inspirational.

Governor Meetings

At Pinxton Nursery School members of the Governing Body play a strong role in driving the school forward.  The current Governors which are listed on the website, are all volunteers that come from a range of different backgrounds and experiences.

There have been six formal governor meetings in 2023 -2024 Governor attendance is always of a high level, with absences fully explained and accepted and approved by the Governing Body.  We have an experienced Clerk who ensures that all topics are addressed and covered over the year.  We have two sub committees that perform the detailed work in accordance with their terms of reference.

• Finance Committee

Responsible for monitoring and reviewing the school budget and the school funds

• Teaching and Learning Committee

Responsible for monitoring the impact of the teaching on children’s learning and the progress that children make.

Full Governing Body

Responsible for setting and monitoring the budget of the school and overseeing the financial management of the school.  The Governing Body is responsible for the maintenance and the health and safety aspects of the school building.  The most important aspect of the Governing Body is ensuring that our children make progress, that pupils are well supported and that the school is well led, with enthusiastic, professionally competent and motivated staff.

As Governors we also ensure that we review our role and how we impact the life of the school.

School Improvement Plan (SIP)

Governors have worked collaboratively with the Headteacher and Senior Leaders in writing and monitoring the School Improvement Plan. The School Improvement Plan sets aim for the forthcoming year.  The SIP 2023/24 was based on priorities identified from the children’s data, self-evaluation and Ofsted priorities.  The SIP is set out with clear aims and a success criteria.  The SIP is monitored and reviewed termly with the Headteacher providing evaluation within her Headteachers Report to Governor.

The targets of the School Improvement Plan 2023/24

• To develop high quality and timely intervention and communication skills with all staff
• To develop staff skills and understanding of different groups within nursery.  To enable staff to provide appropriate learning experiences and ensure that all children have the same opportunities
• To review and develop the creative curriculum (Expressive Arts and Design) ensuring consistency of teaching opportunities for children within the indoor and outdoor provision

The Governors visit the nursery as part of the monitoring.  This is invaluable in ensuring the quality of teaching experiences and understanding how training and new resources have impacted the provision and provided better outcomes and opportunities for all children.

Data Analysis

Data is made available to Governors through termly meetings with verbal and written presentation from the Nursery Teacher.  By doing this the Governors are able to bench mark the data against previous years.  This ensures that the school standards and expectations are high and can be closely scrutinised.  Particular scrutiny is placed on the progress of children within our vulnerable groups, such as SEN, EAL, and those in receipt of pupil premium.

Policies

The Governors review all relevant policies on a programmed basis to ensure that all guidance is current and up to date.  Specific attention is paid to all safeguarding policies and those that are on the Department of Education mandatory list and those recommended by the Local Authority.

Financial Management

The Finance Committee ensures that the school’s money is spent effectively for all pupils.  All Governors have attended finance training and some have some professional background in finance. The Governors work closely with the Headteacher and School Business Manager to monitor the budget.

The impact of the Governors role in the school ensures that the budget is managed effectively and improvements are effective and continuous.

Staff Recruitment

The Headteacher, Teacher, School Business Manager and the Chair of Governors are trained in ’Safer Recruitment’.  Governors are involved in the recruitment and selection of all staff and use the appointment process to ensure that the nursery has high quality staff who share the schools mission statement and aims.

Governor Training

During the academic year Governors have received training in a range of subjects including Safeguarding, Child Protection and SEND.

Governor Development Plan

The objective of our development plan is to align the Governors focus to the School Improvement Plan, ensuring that the Governors hold the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the children, overseeing the financial performance of the nursery and making sure that money is well spent.  The development plan is updated annually to co-inside with the School Improvement Plan and the SES

Impact Statement Review

The Governing Body and the Headteacher are constantly striving to improve and develop the Nursery School.  The nursery provision has improved due to the continuous provision being updated with new equipment.  Staff are better informed about interactions with children, and language is being modelled by staff and displayed around the nursery to support children’s development.  Staff are confident in interacting and responding to all children’s needs.  They know the children well and what steps the children next need.  In response all children are making good if not better than expected progress.  The strategies and nursery provision enables all children to learn new knowledge and reinforces their previous learning.

Collaborative work with the other local Nursery Schools and Blackshale has been invaluable and has had a huge impact on the impact on the nursery’s continuous music provision and the teaching time.  It has also helped in providing children with new experiences and supported children’s speech and language development.  The staff training through this work has enabled all staff to feel confident in singing and using sounds to support and develop our children.  Children are seen to be more interactive and have enjoyed the new experiences of music and sound.  Providing children with aspirations for the future and opportunities in which all children can succeeded.

Governors Key Activities

1. Monitoring the implementation of the school development plan
2. Ensuring the continual update of the SES
3. Monitoring the budgets and understanding the impact of pupil numbers and the implications on the budget and staffing
4. Approval of teachers pay and pay policy
5. Audited and approved the Private School Fund
6. Reviewed the transition of all children starting in the nursery and the baseline data
7. Adjusted staffing accordingly due to the rise in numbers in the spring term
8. Approval of the S175 Safeguarding Audit and Action Plan
9. Approval of SFVS content and submission
10. Bench Marking school spend with those setting in comparison, identifying and ensuring value for money and where savings can be made.
11. Approval of spend, Headteacher – PC, Children’s PC and staff sickness insurance
12. Policy approval
13. Improvements of the school learning environments and nursery provision
14. Headteachers performance management and next actions