Statutory Information and Register of Business Interests for School Governors

Name of Governing Body: Summerfield Primary School

Chair: Kath Halliday              Vice Chair: Louise Sanderson

The constitution of the governing body is:         

Headteacher, 1 x Local Authority (LA) governor, recommended by the LA and approved by the governing body, 2 parent governors, formally elected through a ballot of parents unless the election is uncontested 7 co-opted governors, nominated and appointed by the governing body 1 staff governor, formally elected by staff employed at school

 The governing body operates with the following committees:

• Resources committee - responsible for staffing including the appointment and role of the SENCO, equality and diversity, finance, property management, health and safety and nutritional standards. Committee chair – Kath Halliday.
• Teaching, learning and pupil support committee - responsible for teaching and learning matters including target setting, standards and achievement, SEND (including reporting annually on the success of the SEND policy), monitoring teaching and learning and curriculum provision and ensuring that the governing body is represented at school improvement discussions. As well as being responsible for behaviour, safeguarding, attendance, children’s spiritual moral social and cultural development, children, parent and staff voice, extra-curricular activities, cluster and other partnerships. Committee chair – Louise Sanderson
• Pay Review committee – responsible for ensuring the implementation of the school Pay Policy and Teacher Appraisal Policy.
• Pay Appeal committee – responsible for hearing pay appeals and ensuring a fair and proper process has been followed.

The following is a list of current and recent (in the last 12 months) membership including meetings attended and business/other interests declared.  Governors and associate members, if appointed, are reminded that they should declare any changes as and when they occur.

Welcome to Summerfield’s Governing Board 

The governing board is a group of dedicated volunteers who help to shape the style and direction of the school. We are very fortunate to have a dedicated team of governors.  We believe that effective school governance is at the centre of a good school.  We do all we can to promote and develop our governors to be skilled in their role as key strategic decision makers and vision setters.

The governing board consists of representatives who wish to make a positive contribution to children’s education. These representatives are called Governors and are people from the local community, local authority, parents and staff. Fiona Kirkwood, Headteacher, is also part of the Governing Body.

What do Governors do? 

Governors work as a team. They are responsible for making sure the school provides a high quality education and for raising educational standards in school. Governors make decisions about changes to School policies, Ofsted recommendations, budgets, premises and resources that promote effective ways of teaching and learning; they do this together with the Headteacher, who is responsible for the day to day management of the school. 

Governing boards are responsible to parents and the community. The governing board's main role is to ask challenging questions to be sure that the school is doing its best; this role is often called being a ‘critical friend’. 

The governing board:

• is accountable for the performance of the school to parents/carers and the wider community
• plans the school's future direction
• selects the Headteacher and Deputy
• makes decisions on the school's budget and staffing
• makes sure the national curriculum is taught
• decides how the school can encourage pupil's spiritual, moral and social development
• maintains the building, the grounds and all resources (such as computers and the furniture etc.)
• makes sure the school provides for all its pupils, including those with special needs.

All Governors meet together on a termly basis to discuss all matters relating to the School. Other committees, looking specifically at Teaching and Learning & Pupil Support and Resources, take place regularly during term. Governors also visit school classes, participate in events and support other activities. Some Governors also have specific responsibilities and class allocations 

Our School Ethos

 The governors believe that our school ethos of Respect Care and Potential is reflective in all those who are part of our school community. We are developing a curriculum that encompasses the ethos and values of our school and our key curriculum drivers of ‘communication’, ‘understanding the world’, ‘aspiration’ and ‘resilience’ reflect this.

Our pupils understand that success comes from resilience, determination and hard work and this is evident in our ‘Children’s Charter’ and our children’s attitudes.  Through teaching that goes beyond the curriculum they are able to reach their full potential and achieve.  We want our children to leave our school as good citizens who understand the community they live in and to have developed life-long skills. We want our children to be excited and curious about the world about them and develop the life skills they will need to be happy, successful, confident and resilient young people. 

Summerfield Governor Profiles

Kath Halliday, Chair of Governors

My name is Kath Halliday and I was appointed as a Local Authority Governor in 2007 to Summerfield Primary School. I was educated at Upper Wortley Primary school, West Leeds Girls High, Lancashire College of Agriculture/Reading University. I retired in 2012 following a career of 45 years in Agriculture. I became Chair of Governors at Summerfield in October 2017. My specific areas of responsibility can be found on the Summerfield website. I am also a Library Governor at the school. Apart from enjoying being a Governor I also enjoy reading and gardening. I also have an allotment.

Fiona Kirkwood– Head teacher  

I am now in my 5th year of Headship following on from 26 years’ experience progressing from being a Class Teacher through to leadership responsibilities. I joined the Summerfield team 14 years ago as Assistant Head. I always wanted to teach and feel I have been in a very privileged position in being able to do so. I qualified as a teacher in 1997. I joined the Governing body in October 2018. I am enjoying this role, working alongside an enthusiastic and committed team. I have two children. My son is 21 and my daughter is 17. Both my children are very active. My daughter plays football and my son previously competed in Muay Thai. I also enjoy exercising and time at the gym really helps my mental health and well-being. My favourite hobby is spending time with family and friends. My approach to having the privilege of this responsibility is based on taking a whole child perspective to secure positive emotional health and well-being in order to support the most effective learning experience - and children achieving to their true potential, being the best they can be and valuing life-long learning. 

Wendy Hitchen

I started volunteering as a Governor in early 2018. I work for a financial services Outsourcer with sites across the UK and Ireland and am responsible for managing risk across a large range of projects. I believe it's important to be an active member of my local community and want my 4 children to grow up to do the same. I am a Committee member of Farsley in Bloom and was thrilled that I was asked to be a Governor at Summerfield. I look forward to being able to help Summerfield continue to be a school that's enthusiastic, committed and passionate in supporting pupil's growth and learning.

Louise Sanderson- Vice Chair

I am a former pupil of Summerfield, and look back at my time at School with happy memories. I have worked for the public sector for over 20 years including in the NHS and most recently for Leeds City Council. I have predominately worked in HR, administration, management and leadership positions. I have been volunteering at Summerfield for over 10 years and enjoy supporting School, helping out where I can and giving a bit back to the local community where I also live. Outside of work I am a proud mum and my son Joseph was at Summerfield before moving to West SILC. My young daughter has recently started in School and is loving it! I look forward to continuing to support Summerfield, and its wonderful children in the future.

Jo Purdie Cole

 I started as a Governor at Summerfield Primary in May 2018. I moved to Leeds in 1997 to train to be a teacher. I have experience of working in mainstream primary and secondary schools. 13 years ago I started work as a teacher at the West SILC (Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre) in Stanningley. I have progressed from class teacher to middle leader and senior leader. I feel passionately about the education of all children and young people, especially those with SEND. My personal qualities that apply to this role are; integrity, good sense of humour, friendly and good communicator. I am married with 2 amazing step children aged 16 and 13. Personally, a work/life balance is really important, particularly time with my husband and step children. I enjoy reading and have been a member of a book club for nearly 10 years. I love walks along the canal and opportunities to travel, especially to European destinations. When I get the time and opportunity I really enjoy being creative, making things or sketching.

Governors can be contacted via School.

Summerfield Primary School

Annual Statement of the Governing Board (23/24)

The School and Governors

Summerfield Primary School (SPS) is a one form entry school in Bramley which serves the local community and the surrounding areas.  It is well known for being a caring and nurturing school. As Governors we are proud of the rich diversity of our school community and try to ensure this is represented on our governing board(GB). The GB at SPS is a compact group of skilled and experienced people, who work voluntarily for the school and are happy to do so. The GB recognises the importance of identifying the effectiveness and impact of its governance and has 3 core functions:

Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.

Holding the Headteacher to account for the education performance of the school and its pupils, and effective and efficient performance of its staff.

Overseeing financial performance and ensuring money is well spent.

This year (23/24) the GB has welcomed 1 new Parent Governor. All new Governors receive induction and safeguarding training. In addition, they are trained for their specific roles in school. All Governors are required to complete a termly report regarding their specific roles. All Governors are expected to complete annual training on safeguarding. The Full GB hold a minimum of 4 meetings per school year. In addition, we have committee meetings each term. Our committees are Resources and Teaching, Learning & Pupil Support. All of our meetings are clerked by a trained professional clerk. All of the Governors are allocated to a class and they are encouraged to visit their class as often as possible but at least once per term. This is so they can get to know the pupils and staff and make sure that the children are happily engaged in the lessons and enjoy being at SPS. Governors are also encouraged to join in activities where appropriate and take part in educational visits.

Areas identified from school internal and external quality assurance processes.

This year (23/24) the school leaders completed a self-evaluation of the school taking into account SATs reviews and internal monitoring of pupil progress and attainment. This in turn informed our School Improvement Plan which set out 4 priorities.

Quality of education: To put in place a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and including pupils with SEND, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Behaviour and Attendance: To improve attendance levels to be in line with national.

Leadership and Management: To ensure that distributive leadership is in place that enables staff to take ownership of, and be held accountable for, their areas of responsibility.

Early Years: To further develop the EYFS so there is a focus on skills-based learning and opportunities to apply it across the provision.

Additional School Priories were as follows:

Improve attendance to be in line with national, particularly for SEND, disadvantaged and persistently absent children.

In EYFS, focus on questioning, language enrichment, further development of provision and implementing a clear and consistent pedagogical approach across nursery and reception.

Subject leaders to focus and monitor the curriculum effectively and assess the impact of it.

Further embed and assess the impact of the reading for pleasure initiatives.

Improve teaching of phonics and reading in KS2 to further close the attainment gap.

Improve opportunities for writing across the curriculum.

Enhance and enrich the SPS curriculum.

Impact of The Governing Board.

In addition to the roles of the GB already mentioned, we have also worked together in our strategic role on the following:

Attendance: Ensuring pupils attend and enjoy school, feel valued and feel part or the rich community. We monitor attendance and are satisfied all procedures are in place to maximise attendance.

Staffing: Ensuring staff are supported and developed and the staff structure is appropriate to meet the needs of the pupils at SPS.

Performance Management: Governors hold the Headteacher and teaching staff to account for their performance. We do this via performance targets and operation of the school appraisal policy. Additionally, a panel of Governors carry out the Headteachers annual appraisal supported by an external adviser. This is also reviewed throughout the year.

Policies: Governors approve policies and procedures and publish staff policies on the school website.

Pupil Attainment: A continued focus of the GB and closely monitored by the Teaching, Learning and Pupil Support committee, being closely linked to the School Improvement Plan.

Safeguarding: This covers Health and Safety in the classroom and Physical and Emotional Wellbeing in school and at home. We have Safeguarding, H+S and Wellbeing Governors who all regularly monitor that all the processes and procedures are in place.

Financial Management: The Governors ensure that the school funding is spent in the best interests of the children and ensure that robust financial management procedures are in place.

Effectiveness of the GB.

The GB at SPS have a good mix of skills and experience and clearly defined roles. We are expected to keep updated on educational issues.  We also listen to the views of the pupils and staff through our visits, the school council and pupil/staff surveys. We also listen to our parents and carers via school open days and questionnaires.

To make sure we are as effective as we can be we have an annual review of our roles, training and development needs.

All Governors are committed to their own continued development so they have the knowledge to support the school and ask appropriate and informed questions in meetings and visits to the school.

In addition, 5 of the Governing Board were present to answer questions at the OFSTED inspection in December 2023. It is reassuring to note that SPS has many positives in the report, in particular that it is classed as a safe school and that we have good SEND provision.

The Ofsted report can be found on the SPS website.

Future Planning.

Whilst continually making improvements to our own effectiveness the GB will support the school in identifying the priorities for the year ahead. Pupils and staff will remain our priority in our decisions as we try and provide the best education and pastoral environment for them.

We will continue to monitor the school budget which is affected by reduced funding and rising costs, to ensure that staffing levels and resources do not suffer and the children’s learning and development continues to be of the highest standard.

In the coming year the Governors are hoping to see continued improved resources/provision for the EYFS.

The GB are also hoping that the pupils and staff continue to engage with and enjoy the inspirational and aspirational curriculum.

The GB are also hoping to help extend SPS hospitality into the community with further plans being developed to use our resources/outdoor facilities to maximum effect.                                   

Kath Halliday (Chair of GB )

( Sept 2024)

*If anyone is interested in becoming a Governor and feel they have the necessary skills and time, please will they initially contact the SPS office.