St Michael’s CE Junior School (Controlled) Governing Body Newsletter
Change is an inevitable part of all of our lives and indeed is part of what happens in our school. At the beginning of our academic year we welcomed some new members of staff (having said farewell to others at the end of the last academic year) and I am pleased to say that all the new staff have (from my perspective) settled into the school and have very rapidly become valued members of staff. We have recently welcomed a new Parent Governor to our Governing Body – Mrs Mary Webb and that means that we are nearly up to full strength. We are in the process of appointing a new Community Governor and hopefully I will be able to announce that appointment in the not too distant future. Our Headteacher has, for absolute ages, been talking with the Hampshire County Council Property people about getting some of our classrooms enlarged and last year an acceptable proposal was brought to her and it has been decided to go ahead with the project. Four classrooms on the ground floor are to be extended (along with some other associated work) and hopefully the bulk of the work will be done in the summer holidays and disruption to the classes will be kept to a minimum. At last!! The Governing Body have already been working with Mrs Hignett on this project and will continue to support her throughout the build. Another ‘at last’ is the completion of our ‘traffic plan’ on Church Lane East after six years of talking to and nagging the Borough Council. There is still the matter of the ‘lake’ that forms when it rains but that is a matter of discussion between the Borough and County Councils. Central government gives us money (called Pupil Premium) for certain categories of our pupils and we, as Governors, are to make sure that the money is properly spent on those pupils. It is a joy to tell you that we are satisfied that our ‘Pupil Premium’ is being properly and wisely spent. Many people forget that Governors need training to keep them up to date with the changes in the law and to improve our ability to be Critical Friends of the School. We sign up to a Hampshire County Council Governor Services training package and you may be interested to know that your non-teaching Staff Governors have attended 24 courses since the beginning of this academic year.