HPP Governors’ Update: Summer 2023
Welcome to Hampton Primary Partnership Governors’ update
As the summer holidays approach, it is a good time to pause and reflect on the last year at HPP. Mary and I have enjoyed our first two terms as co-chair of governors and are inspired by all the fantastic work being done at HPP.
As always it's been busy! In March we welcomed Ofsted to Hampton Junior School for a two day inspection. We are proud of the ongoing commitment of staff, pupils, and our parent and carer community who gave Ofsted invaluable insight into life at HJS. The inspector was overwhelmed by the number of parents who responded to their survey. The judgement and feedback we received from Ofsted is testament to ongoing and collective effort of each and every one of the team at HJS.
At Hampton Infant School we saw the opening of the new nursery building which offers our youngest children a fantastic space to take their first steps into school life.
We look forward to welcoming Ofsted to the Infant School and being able to show them the great things happening there. We recognise the pressure that waiting for an Ofsted inspection brings, but are confident that the senior leadership and staff are more than ready for this.
We understand that you may have experienced some disruption this year as a result of teachers’ strikes. We’re grateful for the efforts of the senior leadership team in navigating this complex situation and continue to support, and respect the decisions of, all of our teachers.
Looking ahead to next year, we cannot lose sight of the wider financial challenges facing all public sector organisations. However we are confident that, thanks to many years of good financial management, the schools remain in a relatively strong financial position. We know that operating as a partnership brings economies of scale that will help us to weather the financial challenges being faced by the sector.
As always, our two committees – Resources and School Improvement – continue to play an important role in supporting effective governance and decision making and we offer you a quick overview of highlights from this year in the sections below.
Thank you again parents and carers, the school staff and everyone from the wider HPP community for everything you do to support our children to 'Be the best they can be'. We wish you a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing everyone again in September.
Jane and Mary
Co-Chairs of Governors – HPP
School Improvement
We are very grateful that in our last two meetings we were joined by members of staff to share insights and updates from subject leaders, based on the School Development Plans. In Spring, we were joined by the Phonics and Reading leaders and in our Summer meeting, both Maths subject leaders presented to us. These have been fascinating and helpful in enabling us, as Governors, to understand more about how these subjects are taught and monitored across HPP, and therefore strengthen our scrutiny of the data and practices in these areas at the school.
Each term the School Improvement Partner (SIP) carries out a monitoring visit at each school which is linked to the priorities detailed in the School Development Plan. The governors attend the debriefing to understand where and how the SIP has seen evidence of good practice and this helps to inform the schools’ commitment to continuous improvement. The schools prepare well for these visits and it is always a pleasure to hear positive feedback as well as useful points to consider moving forward.
The Spring visit to HISN included a focus on History, PE and Art. The SIP met with subject leaders and observed lessons. The SIP commented on how vocabulary is well used and embedded into curriculum topics and there is evidence of progression of learning. The PE scheme has been implemented and pupils were given lots of opportunities to develop their fundamental movement skills in the lessons observed. Pupil engagement, well-planned activities and enrichment opportunities were highlighted as particular positives from the visit.
At HJS the focus was Science. Again the SIP met with the subject leader, observed lessons and completed a ‘book look’ to scrutinise the work carried out by the children. The SIP’s main comments praised the children’s vocabulary use; noted the investigatory style of lessons to bring subjects to life; and recognised the inclusion of visits to places of interest, and by external speakers to support learning. The SIP also praised the strong progress shown in work books and good examples of science enrichment across year groups. Science continues to be a priority area on next year’s School Development Plan.
There has also been work on assessment of the Foundation Subjects to ensure staff are confident the children are learning and remembering more across the curriculum. This is a continuing focus that we look forward to hearing more about in the new academic year.
Resources
We’re looking forward to some exciting building works across both schools, during the summer break. These include more classroom refurbishments, reconfiguration of the office area at HISN, refurbishment of the Nurture Building and refurbishment of the Art Studio windows at HJS. Both playgrounds are also getting new play frames, and we are extremely grateful to the parent bodies at both schools (HISNA and FoHJS) for supporting these projects through their generous fundraising activities.
Turning to the schools’ finances, HPP finds itself in a comparatively healthy position and our closing balances at the end of the last financial year were better than initially forecast. Our budget for 2023-24 is now lodged with the local authority, and the committee will be monitoring it in the new academic year.
At this time of year our focus turns to all things Health and Safety. As in previous years, Governors carried out monitoring visits at both schools and have seen evidence that equipment is kept in good working order and formal maintenance checks have been carried out.
We’re grateful to both Premises Managers for their ongoing work in making sure both the children and staff have a safe environment to work and play in.
More about Governance at HPP
You can find out more about the school governors and their role in HPP by following the links below.