LIVERPOOL GOVERNANCE FORUM

Minutes of committee meeting held at 10:00 am on Tuesday 18th September 2018 at
Belle Vale Community Primary School, Besford Road, Liverpool L25 2QF

Key note speaker: Elaine Anderson, Head of Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare of Pupils, Hope School delivered a session on ‘The Thrive Approach’.  Please see Annex A. 
1.0 STANDARD ITEMS:

1.1	Welcome and Apologies

Present: Joe Hartley, (President), Kathy Desmond (Chair), Frank McFarlane (Vice Chair),    
                David Blythe (Honorary Secretary), Amanda Patmore, Dave Owens, 
                Cynthia Carmichael, Pauline Warrington, Maureen McDaid, Michael Morris,
                Barbara Murray.

Visitors: Howard Harris & Elaine Anderson

Apologies: Mary Donohue, Cliff Barton, Dave Cadwallader, Avril O’Brien, John Thornhill, 
                    Clive Jervis, Andy Chadwick.

Absent without apology:  Sharon Cody, Henry Mooney, Mark Rea 

     Elaine Anderson of Hope School and Howard Harris of Belle Vale Primary School were 
     welcomed.  Joe Hartley was also welcomed back after his recent illness. 

      1.2 Declaration of Pecuniary Interest
DB asked all members present to complete the declaration forms for the 2018/19 academic 
year.  

      1.3 Minutes of the July Meeting       
     The minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2018 had already been agreed by email and 
     posted on the LGF website. 

1.4	Matter Arising
MMcD apologised as she has not met with Terry Brown to compile an article on ‘school 
exclusions and early interventions’ for the termly Governor’s Newsletter.  A meeting has 
now been arranged for 15th October 2018 and the article will appear in a future issue of the 
newsletter. 

It was noted that FM had provided DB with contact details for Jacqui Taylor and 
arrangements have been made for the Young People Champions to deliver an overview of 
their role at our October meeting. 

AO’B is to be contacted be DB and asked to resend the link to the Twitter account.

Ruth Agnew was contacted regarding the delivering a session governor self-assessment at 
the forthcoming LGF conference. A cost of £250 + VAT was agreed.

DC to inform governors when the Autumn Termly Newsletter is uploaded to the SIL website (NB: The Newsletter has subsequently been issued and the link sent out to governors) 

 1.5 Finance: 
       DB emailed the current financial details to all committee members ahead of the meeting as   
             follows:

 Item	£	
Total income	3875:00	
Total expenditure	4101:58	
Opening bank balance at 1st September 2017	4849:50	
Closing bank statement at 31st August 2018	4622:92	
Operating loss for the 2017/18 academic year 	-226:58	

  

The Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31.08.18 was circulated by DB prior to the 
meeting.  A small deficit was noted, however, given the healthy balance on the account, this 
is not a cause for concern. The detailed formal statement will be presented to the AGM next 
month. 

2.0 FEEDBACK FROM LGF EVENTS & REPRESENTATIVES: 
    
 2.1 LGF Events - No further information since the last meeting

      However, DB had circulated prior to the meeting the two documents as follows:

 The final version of the 2017/18 LGF Annual Review to: 

•	All committee and associate members
•	3 Headteacher Associations for onward distribution to Head’s and Governors
•	Steve Reddy, Elaine Rees, Malik Killen, Sandra Tie and Lesley Chadwick

            Information regarding meeting dates for Liverpool Schools Forum and Liverpool Learning 
            Partnership. 
  
2.2 Liverpool Schools Forum - No further information since the last meeting 
KD to approach Mark Rea regarding non attendance as LGF representative at LSF meetings

      2.3 LLP (Executive Board, All Learners, LWNM & Maths Group)
      Executive Board - No further information since the last meeting.  

       KD stated that she is unable to attend AGM which is to be held at LACE on 25.9.18 at 
       2:00. Dave Owens agreed to attend in her place.
       							
All Learners - No further information since the last meeting.  

The next meeting is to be held on 26.9.18 at 8.30, venue to be confirmed. Dave Owens 
agreed to represent KD. FM also stated he would find it difficult to attend, but as no other 
Governor was able to attend he would attend, but may have to leave early.

Maths Group -    No further information since the last meeting

      Learners Who Need More -   No further information since the last meeting

Towards the end of last term, DB had met with Anthony McVerry who is a staff governor at 
Abbots Lee School following his expression of interest to represent special schools. It was 
agreed DB should firm up the arrangements.   

2.4 Liverpool Safeguarding Board – Young Ambassadors are to attend next LGF meeting.  
It was noted that there is no longer a need to have to have a Safeguarding Board. In its 
place will be an ‘arrangement’.  Clarification is needed as to whether there is to be any 
involvement from educational bodies.  FM will continue to update the LGF as information 
becomes available.  
      
2.5 Others  

Chief Education Officer Interview Panel:
  This involved three LGF members taking part in two days of rigorous interviewing.  Eight  
  candidates were interviewed in all.  The process also involved a panel of Head Teachers 
  and pupils. Concern was expressed that the initial process was poorly organised.  The 
  process resulted in the successful appointment of Heather Duggan, who is currently Head 
  Teacher of Archbishop Blanch, CE High School.

             Nebula:
  BM shared information regarding a meeting she recently attended with a Liverpool based 
  company, Nebula.  The meeting took the format of a presentation/brainstorming session 
  where participants were asked to share their thoughts on a ‘dashboard’ on attendance for 
  head teachers.  The company is hoping to secure funding for a pilot scheme that will use 
  intelligence/data from schools, NHS etc. to help improve attendance and performance.  A 
  small number of schools have been identified for inclusion in the pilot scheme and it is 
  hoped that it will be possible to use the data to identify schools that may need early 
  intervention as well as other wider applications. BM is to share information regarding any 
  progress as it becomes available.
.

3.0 ITEMS FOR MENTION:
						
3.1 Twitter Account      
            AO’B is to be asked to resend the link to the Twitter account to LGF members.

3.2 Website
DB reported that the website is up to date and there have been 147 hits since last meeting. 
The schedule of meetings was on the website including the formal notice of the AGM on the 
16th October and the Conference on the 17th November 2018. 

3.3 Future events (Meetings, Venues, Conferences, AGM etc.)
      Promotional flyer detailing our autumn term events was circulated by PA in advance of the meeting.

Members were asked to consider likely venues for future meetings. St Julies (MMcD), 
St Vincent’s School for the blind (FM) and Mosspits School (DO). 

3.4 NGA - No information since the last meeting.  
      It was noted that the NGA Conference is imminent.  Members asked to check their email 
      inbox for the date and venue.  

 3.5 LGF AGM – To be held on 16.10.18 at 10:00-10:30, Archbishop Blanch CE High School. Young Ambassadors are to address the meeting.  It was suggested that, for the sake of expediency at the AGM the proposers and seconders for the positions of Chair, Vice Chair and Honorary Secretary should be discussed at this meeting.  Please see below:

Proposers and Seconders for LGF Positions
Chair – Kathy Desmond: Proposed by Frank McFarlane, seconded by Amanda Patmore
Vice Chair - Frank McFarlane:  Proposed by Dave Owens, seconded by Pauline Warrington
Honorary Secretary - D Blythe: Proposed by Kathy Desmond, seconded Maureen McDaid

Other member’s currently serving on the committee have agreed to put their names forward, apart from Sharon Cody and Henry Mooney who both intend to stand down and will become associate members.  

Michael Morris and John Thornhill have agreed to put their names forward as full committee members.

 The above arrangements will be presented to the AGM for formal approval. 
          
     NOVEMBER CONFERENCE:
LGF Conference is to be held on 18.11.18 at 9:30 –12:30 at Partnership for Learning Venue.
Barbara Murray will deliver a session on her vision for future of education in Liverpool and 
Ruth Agnew will deliver a session on ‘Governing Board Self Assessment’.

4.0 OTHER ITEMS: 

        In view of GDPR advice was sought regarding the appropriate way in which school governors 
        should receive information, some of which could potentially be very sensitive.  It was noted that 
        in some schools Governors now have a school email address that is used for all school based 
        correspondence.  
    
     Concern was expressed by some governors that information stored online, even if password 
     protected, could potentially be under threat of being hacked.  

Governors shared the best practice employed at their respective schools, which included sensitive information only being printed (not ever online) and then securely stored. Although information may be shared as appropriate at meetings no copies were allowed to leave the room or go off site.  

It was agreed that confidentially was paramount and given the details of some discussions it may on occasions be necessary to ask certain members of school’s board of governors to withdraw from the meetings for the duration of the discussion. MM is to seek advice from 
Dave Cadwallader and share this information. 

The next LGF meeting will be held at 10:00 on Tuesday 16 October 2018, Archbishop Blanch CE High School, 80 Earle Rd, Liverpool L7 6HQ.

         The meeting concluded at 11:41 

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS FROM TODAY’S MEETING	
No	TOPIC	ACTION BY	
1	Anthony McVerry to be approached regarding representing LGF at the LLP / LWNM meetings 	DB	
2	Information to be shared regarding progress with Nebula	BM	
3	Mark Rea to be approached re non-attendance at LSF meetings	KD	
4	Advice to be sought from Dave Cadwallader re appropriate school information sharing	MM	

Annex A

Key Note / Guest Speaker: 

Elaine Anderson Head of Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare of Pupils, Hope School delivered a session on ‘The Thrive Approach’, sharing a power point on the subject.

EA explained that previously the school had employed a rewards and sanctions approach to managing pupil behaviour but this was not dealing with the cause of the pupil’s issues.  As a result the school began its journey towards becoming an attachment friendly school, working closely with Dr Jenny Nock.  At this time the Local Authority agreed to fund THRIVE training.  This meant a commitment to ten days training for two members of Hope staff who eventually become THRIVE practitioners. It was noted that anyone can train to become a THRIVE practitioner at a cost of approximately £1600 and a commitment of one CPD event each subsequent year to maintain the qualification.

At Hope School the focus shifted from ‘fixing’ pupils to guiding them to make better decisions.  This ‘no blame’ approach required the committed support of all staff, some of whom initially felt that pupils were ‘getting way’ with poor behaviour. 

THRIVE enables staff to identify the emotional age of the pupil and highlights the impact of emotional events in the pupils life as far back as the last trimester of their mother’s pregnancy.
Thrive provides an enormous amount of assessments, strategies, interventions etc. to support the staff and pupils on their journey to feeling emotionally safe.  
It was noted that for staff to support the pupils they must also be aware of the impact of previous events in their own lives.  

Pupils undergo regular assessment from the THRIVE practitioners, supported by the classroom staff, that allows targeted interventions to be put in place, ultimately resulting in emotional and academic progress.

Anonymised information was shared regarding the progress made by Hope pupils once they had been assessed and emotional age related interventions had been put in place.  It was noted that a positive action may need to be reinforced up to 500 times for it to be embedded with the pupil.  This underlined that staff commitment and a whole school approach is essential for progress to be made.

EA suggested that a reciprocal arrangement could be made whereby Hope School pupils, who had expressed a desire to experience a mainstream school setting, could spend some time in another school and if that school had pupils that they believed would benefit from some time at Hope School this could be arranged.

A copy of the power point is to be shared electronically with LGF.

It was suggested that THRIVE could be a future item for LGF Conference.