From September schools will have to report the following information on Pupil Premium:

• How much money the school has been allocated for the Pupil Premium in respect of the current academic year
• how the school intends to spend the money
• how it spent the allocation for the previous academic year
• what impact the expenditure had on the attainment of those pupils in the school for whom the funding was allocated

If a school does not have its own website it must arrange for information to be published on another website and inform parents of the web address of that site.

From 1 September 2012, schools will no longer be required to publish a prospectus, but will be required to publish certain information or set out where parents can access that information on their website (i.e. admission arrangements, Key Stage 2 or 4 results, latest Ofsted report, DfE performance tables, curriculum information, the school’s behaviour policy, how the school meets the needs of children with special educational needs, the school’s charging policy). Some of this information will have previously been made available through a school’s prospectus, and many schools may well continue to publish it as part of a prospectus which can be found on a website.

Both these requirements as they relate to local authority maintained schools can be found in:   The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

Academies will also have to comply: see article 33B of the model funding agreement:   Mainstream Academy Model Fund Agreement

May’s cover story looks at the All Party Parliamentary Group on School and College Governance.

The groups next meeting is on May 21st and will be used to consult on a draft of twenty questions which can be used by school and academy governing bodies to review their effectiveness.

Governors can nominate their MP to receive a direct invitation and also receive an invitation to attend themselves if their MP accepts. Send your address and your MP’s name to http://education.governance.appg@nga.org.uk 

Other useful information in the bulletin includes  link to the DFE website information about school funding changes, Need to know information and recent consultation documents.

NGA Bulletin Board 05 12 can be downloaded here.

Today’s blog comes from Steve Acklam, Chief Executive of the School Governors’ One-Stop Shop.

One FREE service that is NOT too good to be true!

School Governors’ One-Stop Shop (SGOSS) was launched in 1999 to recruit volunteers with transferable skills to be governors in schools in England.  This remit has never changed, and we have now secured places for over 13,000 volunteers.  Our aim is to work in partnership with local authorities, and increasingly, directly with schools.  Our added value is the ability to source skills that governing bodies may lack, or have difficulty finding.

The composition of the universe of governors we have recruited is also a-typical with 60% under 45; over 50% women; and 20%+ from an ethnic background. Schools and authorities look to capitalise in respect of skills and diversity.  There is no charge for any of the services we provide.

One of the challenges SGOSS still faces is that many governors and schools are not aware of us, and so I would like to publicly thank Modern Governor for this opportunity to highlight our services.

Do you have a number of vacancies on your governing body, or the need for a particular skill?  If so, following consultation with Head Teachers, chairs and clerks, SGOSS has launched a new web-based tool to help schools find a school governor with the right skills and talents. The Online Governor Recruitment Service allows schools to register their vacancies, and also provides access to resources for parent governor recruitment. The service is completely FREE and can be accessed at www.sgoss.org.uk/schools.

Or do you have friends, colleagues, or family members who might be interested in helping children get the best possible start in life through becoming a school governor? If so, they can apply on line via the website and an SGOSS Area Manager will help them to find a mutually beneficial vacancy. Working with authorities and schools we are able to maintain a comprehensive data base of vacancies.

Finally, I am genuinely pleased to be able to share some extremely encouraging findings based on the collated views of governors recruited by SGOSS. Against the background of the widespread acceptance that effective governing bodies add significant value in the critical areas of school improvement and compliance,  governors were asked “Is there a demonstrable causal link between the actions of/effectiveness of the governing body and pupil performance?”, and to provide examples of how. Over 600 governors responded; 96% of respondents opined that there is such a link; the appointment of, support for, and holding to account of the Head Teacher was regarded as the most important governor contribution. A full analysis of the responses will be available on the SGOSS web site shortly.

If any of our services would be useful to you, please don’t hesitate to take advantage of them. We will be delighted to work with you.

Steve Acklam, Chief Executive, School Governors’ One-Stop Shop.

http://www.sgoss.org.uk/

There’s only a few more days left to respond to the DfE’s survey of school governors about school finance and procurement.

You can read more about the survey here: http://www.moderngovernor.com/dfe-survey-of-governors-2012/

The survey is open to all governors in any schools in England, and will be available online until Monday 30 April 2012.  You don’t have to be on the finance committee to respond.  It should take around 5-10 minutes in total to complete. All responses will be anonymous.  You can find the DfE Governor Survey 2012 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DfEGovernorsSurvey12

(By the way, did you know that the DfE is on Twitter? Check out www.twitter.com/educationgovuk – you don’t need a Twitter account to view their tweets.)

Modern Governor has announced that it has secured discounts of up to 10% off membership to the National Governors’ Association (NGA) for its 20,000 learners.

As the organisation for 300,000 governors in England the National Governors’ Association supports and promotes good governance in schools.  Member benefits include newsletters, magazines, guides, briefing papers, legal support and insurance.

Emma Knights, Chief Executive Officer of the NGA, said “At a time of unprecedented change in education it has never been more important for governor’s opinions to be heard.  By joining the NGA governors can join together and lobby government with a stronger voice that can’t be ignored.  The support of Modern Governor subscribers is really important to us.”

Upon successful completion of any of the 21 Modern Governor modules learners will unlock a certificate containing a discount code and a telephone number to call the NGA to arrange a new subscription.

Elaine Walton, Product Manager for Modern Governor, says: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the NGA to offer School Governors a fantastic discount on membership of their association.

“At such a challenging time for Education, with many new initiatives and a raft of new legislation, it is vital that an impartial body like the NGA exists.  School Governor training has never been more important, or so high-profile.  We sincerely hope that this discount will encourage Governors to both complete their online learning with Modern Governor, but also to become members of the NGA.”

Modern Governor subscribers can get £5 off the NGA Governing Body standard membership and £25 off gold membership.

As part of our ongoing partnership with the NGA, we’re also developing new e-learning modules with them too! Modern Governor working in partnership with the NGA.

There’s only 2 weeks left to respond to the DfE’s survey of school governors about school finance and procurement.

You can read more about the survey here: http://www.moderngovernor.com/dfe-survey-of-governors-2012/

The survey is open to all governors in any schools in England, and will be available online until Monday 30 April 2012.  It should take around 5-10 minutes in total to complete. All responses will be anonymous.  You can find the Governor Survey 2012 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DfEGovernorsSurvey12

The cover story for the April bulletin from the NGA is:

“Stronger Governance Systems”

In 2009, the then Department for Children, Schools and Families produced a programme designed to help governors improve the quality and impact of the contributions they make, so that they can support and challenge schools effectively. The main focus of the programme is school improvement, and it contains practical advice for strengthening the strategic role over the operational one. It was produced to work alongside guidance from the NGA and local authorities.

There are four elements:

• roles, responsibilities and accountabilities
• school improvement planning
• key indicators of how the school is doing
• school self-evaluation – the role of governors

Even though Ofsted no longer provides a central self-evaluation form (SEF), schools still need to carry out self-evaluation. The document takes you through how to evaluate the governing body’s own effectiveness, as well as the quality of the process.

The programme is free, and available on the NGA website: http://www.nga.org.uk/Resources/Useful-Documents/Stronger-Governance-Systems.aspx

There’s plenty of other useful information in April’s bulletin, including news about funding reforms, regional NGA meeting dates and news about DfE consultations.

Read more:

Download April Bulletin as pdf here NGA Bulletin Board 04 12

Carol

School Governors in Yorkshire and the Humber are to get access to free governor training through an exciting collaboration between local councils across the region. GLADYS, Governor Learning and Development in Yorkshire & the Humber, will give governors at participating schools access to the highly acclaimed Modern Governor service in a great example of how councils working together can  save money and achieve maximum impact from limited budgets.

Hailing the launch of this new online service, Sue Pagliaro, Head of Governor Support at City of York Council, says: “Working collaboratively and sharing resources is the way forward if governor support teams are to continue to provide high-quality services to the governors and governing bodies they serve within their local authority areas.  I am delighted to be working with such a talented and committed group of colleagues.”

Already proven return on investment, GLADYS gives school governors access to training on topics such as Ofsted, Safeguarding, Finance, Recruitment and Admissions. The e-learning costs councils 80% less to provide than classroom based training and is available to governors from participating schools in Yorkshire and Humber.

Elaine Walton, Modern Governor’s Product Manager, says “We’re thrilled that so many local authorities are joining GLADYS.    Governors will benefit from a wider pool of resources, while the local authority governor services teams will benefit from the fabulous functionality and tools we provide through the tried and tested Modern Governor service”

GLADYS is available to any school governor in the Y&H region from 1^st April and interested parties should contact their local authority governor services team to register their interest.

Importance of teaching white paper

More than a year has now passed since the Importance of Teaching white paper’s provisions were enshrined in the Education Act 2011. The ISOS partnership has now released its interim report looking at how Local Authorities have been approaching the three key areas of their role:

• Ensuring a sufficient supply of school places
• Tackling under-performance in schools and ensuring high standards
• Supporting vulnerable children

The report identifies the key issues facing councils and schools in 9 council areas as increasing numbers of schools become academies and Councils have to adapt to greater school autonomy.

The research found that the growth in academies over the last 18 months had been very rapid but uneven and the changes in educational funding had led to authorities having to restructure services which inevitably led to staff redundancies.

There has been a clear commitment to enabling schools to lead their own improvement, and Authorities have used the change agenda to exercise their local leadership role rather than resisting change and risk becoming irrelevant.

In terms of academy conversion, LA’s have seen it as their duty to present the evidence and arguments objectively and support schools to fulfil whichever path they choose. However, more support appears to have been given to the Primary sector as supposed to the Secondary who were felt to have greater capacity and experience to thrive alone or in partnership with other schools or academies.

There appears to be a worry that Local Authority services may not be maintained if Academies become prevalent and then schools may feel they might get left behind if they do not convert.

The report also looks at how the powers of academies to expand, and for new schools to enter the market, may affect the rate of school failure and closures in the long term, and the need to manage unsuccessful schools decisively.

The next phase of the research involves identifying the key areas where LA’s require support and creating Action Learning sets to help problem solve. The final report is due at the end of May 2012.

LGA/DofE Action research interim report can be found here:

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/home/-/journal_content/56/10161/3529972/ARTICLE-TEMPLATE

Modern Governor from Learning Pool today announced its continued sponsorship of the National Governors’ Association (NGA) for a second year with new online training for Academy school governors.

Emma Knights, Chief Executive Officer of the NGA commented “The support of Modern Governor is really important to us and we’re thrilled to be working together on some new e-learning modules around governing of Academy schools. These modules are the first available interactive online learning designed specifically for Academy school governors.”

The topics covered by the new modules are Converting to Academy Status, Academy Governance, Academy Staffing and Academy Finance and will begin to be released from April.

Elaine Walton, Modern Governor’s Product Manager, said: “In a time of immense change for education and governance, I think the NGA offers tremendous support to governors.  With a high number of schools converting to Academy status, our customers told us that they needed high-quality, interactive e-learning designed to support their Academy governors.  The NGA was our natural choice for a partner on these modules, as they offer impartial information and guidance.”

Used by over 20,000 school governors nationwide, Modern Governor is an online training resource to help school governors understand the legislation and governance issues that accompany their role.

The National Governors’ Association supports local governor associations and governing bodies and lobbies ministers and policy makers on all policies that impact schools.  It offers high-quality guidance, information, conferences and advice for governors and governance professionals.

Sign-up to Modern Governor’s newsletter to be alerted when new modules are released

Find out about our clear, open and transparent pricing for schools and local authorities

About Modern Governor

Modern Governor is the UK’s most popular e-learning for school governors. Over half of England’s local authorities make Modern Governor available to their busy school governors, to enable them to learn anytime, anywhere.  Our catalogue of e-learning modules focusing on key governance topics can be accessed by Governors from any computer with an internet connection, so Governors can fit learning around their busy work-life commitments.  Modern Governor has been developed by Learning Pool, the public sector learning community.

www.moderngovernor.com

About the NGA

The National Governors’ Association represents school governors in England; there are over 300,000 governors, the largest volunteer group in the UK. The NGA is  an independent charity that aims to support and promote good governance in our schools through lobbying, via a range of contacts with ministers, policy makers and education organisations.

www.nga.org.uk