CHESWICK GREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL GOVERNOR BLOG

The Governors have been very busy this term, each of the committees have now met, and last night we held our first full board meeting of the 2017/18 school year.

At the full board, all of the committees reported on their activity, Governors updated the board on training that they had attended, and recieved a report from the Head Teacher.

Committee Reports:

Curriculum and Performance

There was an extra ordinary meeting of the curriculum and performance committee this term. All governors were invited to hear about the new PSHE curriculum named‘Jigsaw’.

Simone Seickell presented to Governors on Jigsaw. This report will therefore summarise the information we recieved about Jigsaw.

The Jigsaw curriculum replaces an old system call ‘seal’ (social emotional aspects of learning). Jigsaw is now in all LA schools. Previously, some schools had bought this in and had seen good results. Jigsaw has previously been assessed via a health related behavioural questionnaire in schools. Assessments are held in years 2, 4, 6 to test how PSHE is doing.

The context for PHSE (Personal, Social and Health (economics) education) requirement is that 1 in 10 children in the UK at this time have a diagnosable mental health problem.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw is comprised of Emotional literacy, mindfulness, and spiritual development. It is a whole school approach, all year groups work on the same theme – presented as a jigsaw puzzle. Each section or piece of the puzzle starts with a whole school assembly. There are 6 puzzles per year, (each half term) with 6 pieces for each puzzle.

Jigsaw is facilitated with tools; for example Jigsaw friends (a cuddly jigsaw piece),jigsaw charter (a charter which is in view for the children to see), jigsaw chimes, and a jigsaw journal (portfolio). The whole programme is underpinned by mindfulness -the children being more mindful to themselves and others.

Strategy committee

The Strategy committee has met twice this term and has considered several tools that are used to monitor governance and ensure good governance of the governing body.

In particular the committee considered:

· Governing board effectiveness:- do we have the right skills, are we as effective as we could be and does the chair show strong and effective leadership?

· Vision, ethos and strategy:- does the school have a clear vision and strategic priorities, are we engaged with the school, the widerschool sector and the outside world

· Effective accountability:- Do we hold the school leaders to account, are we having an impact on the outcomes for pupils?

The governing body uses a self evaluation document, and a skills audit provided by The Key (an online resource for Governors). After extensive discussion, and work across the summer the members of the strategy committee were content that governing body is working effectively. The process of self evaluation has been useful, but the committee felt that there would not be any significant gain from changing its practice.