Governors Impact Report

Academic Year: 2024-2025

Introduction

The Governing Board at Redlands Primary School plays a vital role in supporting and challenging school leaders to ensure the best possible outcomes for pupils.

Our core responsibilities are to:

Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Hold school leaders to account for educational performance
Oversee the financial performance of the school and ensure resources are effectively used

During the 2024-2025 academic year, governors worked closely with school leaders to support improvement across all areas to ensure the school continues to provide a high‑quality, safe and inclusive education/provision for all pupils.

Some of our key areas of impact and focus during this year were:

Supporting School Improvement

Governors monitored the progress of the School Improvement Plan, ensuring leaders remained focused on the priorities that make the greatest difference to pupils. This included:

Reviewing progress towards key improvements across the curriculum, focusing in particular on reading, writing, mathematics and assessment.
Link governors meeting with subject leaders and carrying out learning walks to observe and understand how improvements were being implemented in the classroom.
Foundation subject leaders attending committee meetings to provide an overview of improvements made in their subject areas. This has given staff a platform to promote the work that they are doing and further supports the information provided by the Headteacher.
Using pupil progress information and reports from the Headteacher to challenge and support school leaders.

Holding Leaders to Account

The governing board provided constructive challenge to school leaders through meetings, monitoring visits and data analysis. This included:

Asking probing questions about pupil outcomes, attendance and behaviour.
Monitoring the progress of vulnerable groups, including pupils eligible for Free School Meals, SEND pupils and disadvantaged learners. This included appointing an Inclusion & Pupil Premium Link Governor. The priority being ensuring that the school provides appropriate support for all pupils.
Ensuring that additional funding such as Pupil Premium and Sports Premium was being used effectively.

Safeguarding and Pupil Welfare

Safeguarding remained one of the governing board’s highest priorities and governors (including safeguarding link governors) continued to:

Review safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure they remained robust and up to date.
Work closely with school leaders to monitor and audit safeguarding practices.
Undertake safeguarding training to ensure that governors understand their responsibilities.
Gain insight on the wellbeing of staff and pupils through informal conversations, surveys and questioning, ensuring that wellbeing is always a central focus and consideration.

Financial Oversight and Value for Money

Governors carefully monitored the school’s finances to ensure resources are used effectively to support pupils’ learning. This included:

Reviewing and questioning the school budget and financial planning using comprehensive information and insight provided by the Headteacher and school Bursar.
Ensuring funding was directed towards priorities in the School Improvement Plan.
Considering how the allocation of staffing, resources and interventions delivered the greatest impact for pupils.

Engaging with the School Community

Governors aimed to understand the experiences of pupils, staff and parents/carers by:

Visiting the school to see learning and day to day school life in action.
Attending parents’ evenings, school council meetings and inset days (in addition to taking advantage of other opportunities to engage with the school community) and considering feedback collected from parents, staff and pupils.
Supporting school events and maintaining a visible presence in the school community

Our focus has been on strengthening the links we have with staff, pupils and parents/carers, ensuring that they know we are actively engaging with the school, that we are eager to learn and listen and that we act on any feedback received.

Looking Ahead

The governing board remains committed to supporting and having an impact on the continued success of Redlands Primary School.

Dan Reeves (Chair of Governors)