2022-23
Governing Body Report for 2022-23
In our first full school year after the pandemic and the return of some normality, the governing body has continued to work to provide the strategic direction of the school’s development and to support the school Leadership team.
In the Autumn term, after a delay due to the pandemic, we had an Ofsted inspection resulting in our ‘GOOD’ grading being reconfirmed. This reflects the great work done by the school leadership team and all the staffing team.
Getting the school’s activities back to pre-pandemic levels has been a continued focus – and we have been pleased to see coffee mornings, Parent Do Days, sports days, and the impressive Cross-Country Championships all taking place.
We have also been delighted that FOPJS have been able to hold events again for families to take part in – the Summer BBQ and chocolate bingo.
The school has utilised the funding from the DfE for tutoring to provide a tutoring programme in maths to small groups of children in Years 4 – 6. Phonics catch-up programmes have supported children in Year 3 to enable them to make progress in reading.
Our SATS Results this year show that our reading attainment remains strong, with greater numbers of children reaching greater depth here. We have begun to see improvements to maths outcomes – but will remain focused on this next year.
We continue to support the school leaders – in terms of challenge and agreeing direction through our regular Governing Body meetings. We have been pleased to hear about the developments being made in the curriculum, including the implementation of a new scheme of work for French. We have also spoken with the SENCO regarding developments to SEND provision across the school.
The school has faced the challenges of industrial action during the year, and we have discussed the impact this has had on children and classes, and how this has been managed.
In the current climate, we have found recruitment to have more challenges. However, despite this, we have been able to recruit experienced teachers to our school.
The development of our staff remains a key focus, providing them with good career development opportunities so that they choose to remain with us. As a result of this success, we saw one of our deputy headteachers progress to headship, and another teacher take on a leadership role at another school too.
In the terms of the school finances, we are still in good shape, with a budget plan for the next 3 years that as a Governing Board we regularly monitor performance against but with the general economic climate, increases in costs and a reduction in funding (due to reduced pupil numbers), there is no doubt there will be considerable challenges that lie ahead. To this end, as we move forward into the next school year, we will be looking at ways to increase pupil numbers (which brings more funding) and leverage school facilities to generate more income.
The financial spending and income for the year is set out below:-
|
Teaching Staff |
£881,813 |
|
Education Support Staff |
£307,137 |
|
Other Staff |
£259,590 |
|
Premises and Occupation Costs |
£83,211 |
|
Learning Resources |
£124,862 |
|
Professional Services |
£39,787 |
|
Catering |
£77,067 |
|
Capital |
£63,168 |
|
Other |
£62,767 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL EXPENDITURE |
£1,977,188 |
|
TOTAL INCOME |
£1,946,420 |
|
SURPLUS |
£420,793 |
We continue to focus on improvements to the school environment – with redecoration and recarpeting of classrooms taking place. The school also had one wing of the school electrically re-wired during the last summer holiday.
Since the loss of our school crossing patrol in October 2022, there has been an increasing concern with regards to road safety in the vicinity of the school and Governors are supporting the school leadership in their work to seek improvements to the crossing on Longsands Road.
Finally, as you will know, our school has a Governing Body which is responsible for overseeing the way that our school is run and managed. In September we will be looking to recruit new Governors to our Board and as a parent if would like to get more involved with how the school is run and find out more, please email the Chair of Governors at chair@priory.cambs.sch.uk
Thank you for your continued support of the school and enjoy the summer holidays.
Priory Junior School Governing Board
July 2023