Governor's Statement

Dear Parents/Guardians

The Governing Body of the school writes an annual governance statement which describes how we have fulfilled our responsibilities during the year.

Every year the governors work to fulfil three strategic functions:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
2. Holding the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils.
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

The Governing Body has a full programme of meetings and monitoring visits to the school which are carefully planned to ensure that we fulfil our statutory obligations as well as support and challenge the school to continuously improve.

Governor attendance at all meetings is very good, and we have never had to cancel a meeting because it was not ‘quorate’ (the number of governors required to ensure that decisions can be made).  This has enabled us to maintain our duties of supporting the school staff, approving the budget and considering strategic issues for the future.

Governors review all policies on a rolling programme basis to ensure that all guidance is up to date. Special attention is paid to ensure that the school complies with the Department for Education mandatory policy list and the Local Authority recommendations.

There are a number of key documents that the governors look at regularly including: 

• The School Improvement Plan identifies the key priorities for the staff and governors to work on each year. The key issues for the plan are decided by staff and governors at the end of the school year. Governors monitor progress through regular visits to the school and reports from school leaders to ensure the improvements take place. Some of the improvements as a result of this year’s plan include:

• Successful transition of the school leadership to maintain the school Vision, Values and continued school improvement
• Preparing for a SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican & Methodist Schools) inspection under the new framework
• Embed the Sounds Write programme to ensure that all pupils make good progress in reading
• Precisely identify the knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in RE, Geography, History and Science

Perhaps our most significant responsibility and achievement this year was to oversee the appointment of a permanent headteacher for St Augustine’s. In April, following a rigorous recruitment process and supported by West Sussex County Council and the Diocese of Chichester, Governors were delighted to appoint Ben Cornford as the permanent Headteacher for our school. Governors will continue to work closely with Ben and the whole staff team to lead St Augustine’s through the next exciting chapter in our journey, striving for excellence in all that we do.   

We are very proud that our Year 6 children have achieved above the national standard, once again, in Reading, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS), Maths and Science. It has been wonderful to see this cohort develop and grow across their years with us and we wish them all the very best for the future

Progress in EYFS and Key Stage 1 was also good with recent, in-house assessments showing positive progress, with many children achieving targets, particularly in spelling, reading and phonics.

Governors have continued to monitor attendance levels this year and were very pleased to see that overall attendance is now 96.4% (compared to a national level of 93%). We know that the higher a pupil’s attendance is, the more they are likely to learn and we would like to thank staff, parents and carers for supporting us to keep our attendance levels high.   

As we near the end of this academic year, we are very sad to say goodbye to Rev Beverley and Simon White, both of whom are stepping down from the Governing Body as foundation and staff governors respectively – we thank them for their valuable contributions and wish them both the very best in their retirements.

We were very pleased to welcome Lizzie Cooper to the Board this year as a parent governor.

• The Schools Financial Value Standard document is a tool which helps the governing body to manage the school’s budget wisely and properly. It contains 30 questions which the Resources Committee reviews with senior staff. The school is compliant in this area. Through careful management of the budget, St Augustine’s School remains in a stable financial position and this has enabled us to be able to recruit a new inclusion assistant and an additional teaching assistant to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. This year also saw a number of improvements to the fabric of the school including new sports equipment, replacement windows in the hall and upgrades to IT hardware and software.
• As a Governing Board, we are working with West Sussex County Council to progress a capital building project which will expand the main school building and replace the hut classroom. We hope to receive news of a start date for this project in 2024-25.

We remain extremely proud of the determination and commitment of both staff and parents in the St Augustine’s community to keep our children happy, healthy and learning.

We hope this report gives you an insight into the work of the governing body. We value your support and interest. Please look out for updates from the governors in the school newsletter and feel free to talk to any of us. Contact details are also on the school’s website, or just ask in the school office.

Lynn Hainge, Chair of Governors, July 2024