It has emerged that Governors will be expected to account specifically By Ofsted for the way the school's Pupil Premium is spent. Both in conversations and evidence within minutes, The Governors are likely to be probed. We therefore need to be ready with our answers.

New Ofsted Inspection Framework Sept 2012

The role of Governors has been emphasised in the new Framework. There will need to be a responsible Governor available when the Inspection occurs. Since one only gets a half day’s notice, more than one Governor needs to be prepared to meet inspectors.

The person(s) meeting the Inspectors will need to have prepared sufficiently well to answer any of the following issues

• Evidence of the Governors involvement in the self evaluation of the school
• Demonstrate an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school
• The extent to which statutory duties are met
• Evidence of Governors securing improvement

They will look at the minutes of Governing body and subcommittee meetings to see how school leader are challenged and held to account by Governors

They will be interested in

• Governor involvement in activities in the school day
• How Governors are kept informed about specific issues affecting standards
• How the allocation of resources relates to appropriate priorities
• How complaints are dealt with
• How the Governing body challenge the use of the school’s finances
• How the Governors are involved in the use of the Pupil premium
• How the headteacher’s performance management is related to school improvement
• How data is presented to Governors in an easily understandable way

In demonstrating this it will be important that the challenges/ involvement takes place and that minute takers record the challenge rather than recording a bland description of items raised.

These are my own list. A fuller discussion of the issues was presented by Chris Fallon (LCC) at the Chair’s and Vice Chairs meeting earlier this term

Alan Bowles

Ofsted now require evidence of progress throughout the Primary phase not just between Yr 2 and Yr 6. Here is an article to help understand the early progress required.