Governor’s Newsletter to Parents/Carers April 2024

The Governing Body at Balfour Infant School meets at least 6 times a year to revisit the school’s aims, discuss the school’s effectiveness and progress towards its priorities and it financial position.

So far this year governors have carried out monitoring visits in school to review the following priorities:

• Pupil Premium Planning and Spending
• Sports Funding Planning and Spending
• Safeguarding in terms of staff recruitment and pre-employment checks
• Behaviour for learning
• Financial reporting and budgeting
• SEND provision, planning and support

Most recently governors met for their annual Governor Day held at the school on 11/3/24.

It was a pleasure to spend the day with fellow governors revisiting the school aims and priorities.

We are delighted to report back to parents that we reviewed the school’s aims, ethos as well as the school’s improvement plan including its self-evaluation on the day and found that all priorities were aligned and progressing well.

The financial position of the school is sound although the obvious challenges in a financial crisis were noted. We welcomed the input from the School Business Manager with regards the current and future budget for the school. The budget for 2024 -2025 will be agreed in the next meeting.

Governors also discussed their own development and took part in Exclusions and Online Safety training on the day.

All Governors had the opportunity to visit classrooms on the day and see first hand the children engaged in their learning. It was a delight to note how well behaved the children were and how positive their attitudes were. Our thanks are extended to the whole staff for the care and support they extend towards the children to enable them to achieve. We are looking forward to another year of positive outcomes.

In our next meeting in May we look forward to presentations from the school’s English and Maths Subject Leads where we will find out more about the progress the school is making towards its ambitious goals with regards English and Maths mastery. We will receive feedback on the audit the school requested from Kingsnorth English Hub’s and the work the school is carrying out with the Kent and Medway Maths Hub. In addition, we will receive monitoring reports from governors on the strategic development of the school curriculum in KS1 and EYFS and hear from the pupils as to how safe they feel in school and how any worries they have are resolved.

Governors Development : Governors have committed to attending complaints training by the end of the academic year.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you about the suggestion box in the school office, via which you may share any ideas or questions you may have for us. Alternatively, to find out more about the role of a school governor, then please visit the school website. We are currently seeking to recruit new governors and we would be happy to discuss further.