GOVERNORS ANNUAL REPORT 2015/16
Teachers planting a fruit tree during the outdoor classroom opening ceremony
Our Head Boy and Head Girl ‘cutting the ribbon’ at the outdoor classroom opening ceremony
Chairman’s Report
This is my first report to you as Chairman having taken up
the post in February this year. The Governing Body’s
role is a strategic one, ensuring that there is clarity of
vision, ethos and strategic direction. We hold the
Headteacher to account for the educational performance
of the school and oversee finances making sure money is
well spent.
The mission of St Peter’s is to "Live and Learn as Friends of Jesus" and our
vision is to be an outstanding school in which the unique abilities of our
children are recognised and where each and every child achieves his or her full
potential through excellent teaching, learning and the support of the wider
community.
Love, Respect and Honesty are at the core of our ethos. We are a Catholic
school, but we respect and welcome those of other faiths who share our
values. It is pleasing to continue to get feedback from parents, staff and visitors
alike that St Peter’s is a happy place with a strong sense of sense of family and
community.
Education has long been a political football, and that is truer than ever today.
This year has seen the new national curriculum fully implemented with new
and harder SATs undertaken at the end of KS1 and KS2. My thanks go to all the
staff who have worked hard to implement these changes over the last two
years. I’m pleased to be able to report that our provisional results are above
the national average.
My thanks also have to go to Miss McCluskey, Mrs Sandalls and the Finance
Committee for managing the school Finances and bringing in a small surplus at
the end of the 2015/16 Financial Year. Government funding plans over the
next few years suggests term reductions in per pupil funding is likely. The vast
majority of our income is spent on staff wages, so balancing the budget in
future will be challenging.
I would like to thank the PTA for their support and fundraising for the school as
well as those parents who contribute regularly to our Development Fund.
Without these we simply would not be able to make improvements such as
new windows and the outdoor classroom. We still have other improvement
projects that we would like to progress and would welcome any help in
attracting grants or other sources of funding.
In March this year the Government published a While Paper ‘Education
Excellence Everywhere’ and its agenda on Academies was widely reported in
the press. The Catholic Diocese of Northampton is the owner of our school,
and it believes that the best way forward for its schools is likely to be as
Academies as part of a Multi Academy Trust. The Catholic schools in the South
of Buckinghamshire have started to consider forming such a Trust. We have
made no decision so far and will be considering our position during the next
year. We will of course consult with staff, parents and the wider community if
we decide to go in this direction.
I would like to end by thanking all the Governors who give up their time freely
to serve on the Governing Body, and especially to Lucy Heminsley who is
stepping down at the end of this school year. We are always looking for new
Parent and Foundation Governors, so if you think you could help please let us
know.
Mike Jackson
Chairman of Governors
Headteacher Report
I am delighted to be able to write to you to provide up to date information about
the past school year. This enables me to celebrate success and to ensure you are
aware of what we are presently working on, as we strive towards our vision of
outstanding with new initiatives and developments.
We are again in the fortunate position to be fully staffed for September and
have been able to recruit two new teachers to St. Peter’s for September. One,
Mr Eaves, will be Head of Key Stage 2 and a member of the Senior Leadership
Team. We look forward to welcoming them to our strong team at St. Peter’s,
who are committed to continuing to embrace change, further develop their
practice and contributing to the nurturing environment of our school.
The School Garden has continued to flourish with the planting of several fruit
trees, a wildflower meadow and the installation of the willow arch and arbour.
The Freshen up days throughout the year were great successes. All children in
the school have been involved in the planting and harvesting of various fruits
and vegetables. Alongside the gardening we have been working towards
becoming more eco-friendly and due to the hard work of Mrs Boyle and the Eco
council have become a Silver Eco school. We have also achieved the Bronze
travel plan, thank you to Mrs Nicholson and our Junior Road Safety Officers.
Outdoor learning has been further strengthened with the building of an outdoor
Classroom, funded by the PTA, also providing a quiet place at playtimes for those
children who wish to sit and talk, read etc. Teachers have ensured that the
children have experienced more extra-curricular visits or visitors into school.
These have included Y3 to the Ashmolean Museum, Y1 to Tesco’s, Y5 having a
Greek day
This year we have enjoyed many whole school events and initiatives: The
Christmas Nativity Play which saw the involvement of all children; a
strengthening of the Buddy System, a joy to observe the interaction between
the year groups; Music evening and concerts; Sports Day, School Masses and
more extra-curricular activities such as the Young Enterprise Afternoon
organised by Y6 and the increased number of off-site visits as mentioned above.
Community links have been made or strengthened with various organisations
including Sir Aubrey Ward residents, who have joined the children at the
Christmas and Y6 play dress rehearsals, a book club and a Street Party
celebrating the Queen’s 90th birthday.
The PTA have provided fantastic support in many areas; both fundraising and
help in so many other ways. Thank you to them and all parents who help the
school in so many different ways. The School Council continue to make a great
contribution to the running of the school, including comments on the new
behaviour policy, suggestions for playtime equipment and Sports Day. Thank
you.
This year has also seen St. Peter’s continuing to work closely with both Marlow
schools and the schools in the Buckinghamshire Catholic Schools Partnership.
With Marlow schools we have introduced Growth Mindset activities to Years 3
and 5. This will help develop and improve children’s attitudes and confidence
towards their learning. Year 3 have also been trialling a Creative Curriculum
throughout the year; we will be organising an information evening regarding this
next term. Both of these initiatives have been extremely successful, having an
impact on learning attitudes and achievement. The creative curriculum will be
rolled out across the school from September. Growth Mindset will be introduced
to Years 1, 2, 3 and 5 so that all children from Y1 to Y6 will have experienced
these activities once by the end of next year.
Last week, Year 6 SATs results were published. I am pleased to be able to tell
you that preliminary data shows that attainment was above National figures.
Due to changes this year we are unable to compare with last year’s data.
Moving forward we will have a new school website and a tighter behaviour
policy following discussions with staff, children, parents and Governors. We are
also now able to offer a Breakfast and After School Club on-site. Our foci next
year will be to: continue to raise standards across the school with an emphasis
on writing and to continue to improve communication and strengthen
community links.
My thanks to all the class teachers and the children for all their hard work and
effort over the year.
Amanda McCluskey
Headteacher
Finance Committee Report
Through careful financial management we have started
the 2016-17 financial year with a small surplus from the
15-16 budget.
We have completed a self audit (School Financial Value
Standard) of our financial management practices along
with a benchmarking exercise against similar schools
using Department for Education data, which demonstrate we have robust and
transparent procedures.
Our school budget for the financial year 2016-17 is just over £800,000. This is
comprised of our core budget allocation from county, Pupil Premium funding
to raise the attainment of disadvantaged children, Sports grant and Free
School Meals.
We also generate additional income from sources such as;
 casual lettings of the school hall and other rooms for after school and
holiday clubs
 parental contributions to school trips and other educational activities
 our very active and hugely well supported PTA
Income
1%
3% 2%
7%
86%
budget share
other national/county income
other school income
PTA
budget carry forward
The majority of our budget is spent on our staff and premises costs.
Expenditure
3%
8%
4%
85%
staff
premises
other
UFSM
(UFSM = Universal Free School Meals)
We shall continue with necessary maintenance and improvements to the
school. One priority improvement area is to the ICT suite; however we will
most likely need to identify and secure external funding to achieve this.
Elspeth Sharp
Chair Finance Committee
School Development Fund Report
St Peter’s School Development Fund is a charitable trust
set up to provide the school with funds to maintain and
improve the school buildings and facilities. Monies from
the Fund have previously been used to finance the music
room; and more recently on replacing windows
throughout most of the school and installation of new
gates from the playground to the key stage 1 and 2 teaching areas.
For large scale projects such as these, the school applies for capital grants from
the Diocese. When those grants do become available, the school is required to
contribute 10% of the cost from its own funds. In the past, income from
lettings and other sources could normally be relied upon to keep the Fund
topped up. In the current economic climate though, with rising costs and an
expected decrease in funding from central government, we are almost wholly
reliant upon donations from parents to ensure that the Fund is kept at a
healthy level.
Donations for the tax year April 2015 to March 2016 amounted to £1,670. Our
monthly donations have increased significantly during this school year and as
of April 2016 the Fund was receiving regular monthly donations totalling £275
per month. As a fund with charitable status, money donated by tax payers
eligible for Gift Aid can be claimed back from the government. The Fund
received £1,405 from HMRC Charities representing tax which was claimed back
under this scheme and others from previous years.
As of 6 July 2016, the balance of the Fund was £10,442.68. This money is
partly earmarked for the 10% contribution on the windows that have already
been installed throughout the majority of the school. For the future, Miss
McCluskey has applied for monies to replace the remaining windows and for
new fencing at the front of the school. This will also require a 10% deposit. It is
not yet known when a grant might become available from the Diocese for this.
On behalf of all the Governors, I would like to thank all the parents who have
given so generously to the school to make these improvements possible.
Dennis O’Connor
Trustee St Peter’s Educational Trust
Teaching and Learning Committee Report
The Teaching and Learning Committee is made up of a
number of Governors, the Head and the Deputy Head
Teacher. Its objective is to make sure that the school
has high expectations of both pupils and staff, delivers a
broad and balanced curriculum, and that good progress
is made by our children. To achieve this, the committee
held six meetings this year and Governors with specific
subject responsibilities for Maths and Literacy have met with their respective
subject leaders.
A big focus for the committee this year has been getting to grips with ‘Life
without Levels’. This has been the first year when all classes have been taught
to the new national curriculum, and also the first year that the school has
moved away from ‘Levels’ for the assessment of pupils. It is also the first year
when children have been assessed at the end of KS1 and KS2 with new style
SATS tests.
Without Levels comparison with previous years is difficult, and it will take
some time for the new system to settle in and be fully understood by teachers,
parents and Governors. We are confident, however, that the school’s ‘Target
Tracker’ information system provides teachers and the Leadership Team with
the necessary information to effectively monitor the progress of each child in
our school. As Governors we also need to assure ourselves that good progress
is being made at a whole school level, and we are confident that this is the
case. We have reached this opinion as a result of reviewing whole school data
from ‘Target Tracker’ combined with visits to each class to seek evidence from
books.
We have been pleased to see some changes to the way the curriculum is
taught introduced this year. In the summer term a new ‘Creative Curriculum’
has been trialled by all classes. This allows teachers to use themes that are
interesting to children, and then use these as the basis for learning is several
subject areas. For example year 3 used ‘Disasters’ as their theme. This makes
learning more interesting for children and will be fully adopted next year.
In addition, two ECO weeks have been held with the whole school getting
involved. I have also been pleased to be personally involved with the ECO team
and see them lead the school to achieve a Silver Eco award. I am also pleased
to see how well the school garden has developed and to see the outdoor
classroom being used.
Another important initiative that has been introduced this year is ‘Growth
Mindset’. We are working with other schools in Marlow to introduce this
programme which encourages a positive approach to learning and a ‘can do’
attitude. For example, moving from ‘I can’t do that’ to ‘I can’t do that yet’. It
builds resilience and a love of learning. Two classes have been through the
programme this year, and more will do so next year.
During the year we identified the need for more support in KS2. School
finances are very tight, but we have supported the SLT in the use of additional
teaching assistants this year. We have also supported the appointment of an
additional experienced teacher for next year who will take on the role of KS2
Leader.
One area where we have unfortunately been unable to progress so far due to
lack of funds is ICT provision. We have been able to fund an interactive white
board in the ICT suite which is very useful. But we also wish to radically
improve provision by having enough computers for a whole class to be taught
with one computer per child. We will continue to seek grants and other
funding options to achieve this.
My thanks go to the teaching staff as well as the Governors who have given up
their own time to support this Committee over the year.
Mike Jackson
Chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee.
GOVERNOR IMPACT STATEMENT AND ACTION PLAN 2016
GOVERNING BODY ACTIONS
Strategic financial planning
and tight budgetary control
Pro-active campaign to raise
funds for School Development
Fund
Focus on outdoor learning
including appointment of
Outdoor Learning Governor
Prioritising marketing of
school
Monitoring and support of
teaching and learning
including : appointing
Governors with specific
responsibility for Maths and
Literacy; liaison with teaching
subject heads; close
monitoring of progress data
and Governor learning walks.
IMPACT
 Achieving budget
surplus for 2015/16
 Increasing Teaching
Assistant numbers
 Increasing Qualified
Teacher numbers by
appointing key stage 2
leader for 2016/17
 A more than ten-fold
increase in monthly
donations allowing
fund to grow by more
than £3000 per year
 Bronze and Silver Flag
eco awards
 Development of
garden and outdoor
space
 Increase in out of
school visits
 New website under
development to go live
by Sept 2016
 Regular local news
coverage




Confirmation of
continued
improvements since
last OFSTED inspection
from Bucks Excellence
Advisor
Progress data
significantly above
national average
Early Years and Key
Stage 1 attainment
expected to be above
national average
88% of respondents to
parent survey satisfied
that school teaching
children well and
making good progress
ACTION PLAN 2016/17
Achieve balanced budget
without reduction in staff
levels
Continue increase in donations
Obtain Green Flag status
Further increase in number of
outdoor lessons
Increase local profile of school
both within Catholic
community and outside it
Active publicity campaign
during school applications
period
Continue to improve progress
and attainment throughout
the school