The MSA, Manchester Governors’ Association and MCC School Governance Unit Partnership Programme of Events are well underway with four taking place during autumn term.
The ‘Vulnerable Learners’ governors session took place on Monday 12th October and 25 governors attended. The session ran by Jane Johnson, Virtual School Head and Julie Hicklin, MCC SEND Lead, explored governors’ responsibilities for looked after children and pupils with Special Educational Needs and disabilities. Feedback from governors was the session was very relevant and most were leaving with more knowledge of their responsibilities as a governor.
The ‘Prevent Duty & Safeguarding’ session on the 25th November took place at The Barlow RC High School. 64 governors attended. Jenny Patterson, Safeguarding Lead for Schools, talked about safeguarding in general. Jane Murphy then took the governors through the national context of The Prevent Duty before looking in more detail at the role of schools, the new Ofsted framework and building resilience in children. Feedback from the session was that it offered a good overview summarising the role of the governor. Many governors commented on how useful they found the signposting to the other sources of information and other training opportunities.
20 governors attended the ‘Finance for Governors’ session which took place on Monday 7th December at Newall Green High School. Adel White, Senior MCC Finance Officer and Ruth Bradbury, School Governance Lead looked at how school funding is allocated in Manchester and examined the Manchester Schools Financial Regulations for Maintained Schools. Feedback suggested governors left the session with a stronger knowledge of schools financial terminology/ different funding streams and more confident to ask questions and challenge decisions.
The first special school governor meeting also took place on 3rd December 2016 at The Birches