Forum 3 – Tuesday 23 May 2023, 5.00 – 6.00 pm

Governor Monitoring in Practice using Pupil Book Study at St Nicholas Priory Primary School

One of the key governance responsibilities is monitoring the progress and the performance of the school. School visits which focus on a key improvement priority or statutory duty demonstrates the governing board’s role in strategic management and holding the school to account.

How effective is your curriculum? How can you make sure you evidence that pupils Remember More and Do More and therefore making progress as described in the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework? What does this look like in practice for governors? What might governing boards use to support a consistent and evidence-informed approach to the monitoring of the curriculum?

This session develops the theory of holding a school to account by taking governors into the practical application of monitoring. It will explore one school’s journey using Pupil Book Study to support consistency in governor monitoring and how this approach has enabled them to assess the lived experience of their pupils.

Governors will leave this session with an understanding how effective pupil voice and book look monitoring can be used to evaluate the impact of the curriculum alongside the teaching and learning in the classroom.

This session will be led by VNET’s Principal Teaching and Learning Consultant, Emma Adcock. Emma will present this session with Dr Harry Turner, Chair of Governors at St Nicholas Priory Primary School.

Forum 2 – Wednesday 8 February 2023, 5.15 – 6.45 pm

Penny Rabiger will lead a session on Governance by Enquiry via Zoom.

School governance is complex and ever-changing. Governors often find themselves struggling to understand how they can be strategic, have an impact on the school and steer clear of operational mission-creep. Here is a way to organise your governance that will maintain interest and impact, and will ensure that governance is dynamic during meetings and beyond. Attendees will learn about the concept of governance by enquiry, will consider the structures and routines of their own governing board, and will explore how they might initiate their board’s first governance enquiry.

Forum 1 – Wednesday 19 October 2022, 5.00 – 6.00 pm

Governors will be aware that the Government published a White Paper earlier this year entitled ‘Opportunity for All’, where they set out plans for the contribution that schools will make to their levelling-up agenda.

The paper covers training for teachers and leaders, tutoring, SEN provision, a ‘parent pledge’, changes to the length of the school week, behaviour, attendance and academisation.

Rosemary Kett and Nania Poulson will lead a session via Zoom which will outline key aspects of each of the following sections and what those changes might mean for your schools and governing bodies:

Part 1 – An excellent teacher for each child
Part 2 – Delivering high standards of curriculum, behaviour and attendance
Part 3 – Targeted Support for Children
Part 4 – A stronger and fairer school system

There will be opportunities to discuss your current actions with small groups and share your experience of what impact these changes might have.

Rosemary and Nania will not have all the answers! But they will be able to bring some clarity to what, as governing bodies, you need to know, and what you should be considering in your early meetings of the year.

Please book the first session below – this will sign you up to the entire series. The Zoom link you will receive will be the same for each session.

This event is for VNET members only.