Oxfordshire Governors' Association

OGA Spring Meeting: Sustainable Schools – Postponed

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Regrettably we have decided to postpone our Spring meeting which was due to take place on Saturday 14th March.

Despite the excellent speaker with an international reputation relatively few people signed up to attend. We are not sure if this was because too many Governors were not aware that the meeting was planned or the current concern around the coronavirus. So it would be very helpful if you could advise us via our contact page if you did not know about the meeting.

We are hoping to rearrange the meeting in the second half of the Summer term.

Funding Announcement

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On 3rd September the Secretary of State for Education announced additional funding for education. Whilst a three year settlement is to be welcomed the absence of additional money in the current year is not! A PDF of the statement as recorded in Hansard may be found here  Funding Statement 3.09.2019. On 9th September Nick Gibb added some more detail in a written statement.  Of course in the current political climate there remains uncertainty around the future funding for our schools.

OGA Autumn Meeting

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The next OGA Open Meeting will be held on Saturday 19th October 2019. The main speaker will be Paul Aber from the National Governance Association leading a session about Vision, Culture and Strategy. Please hold the date

MP’s write about School Funding to the Chancellor of the Exchequer

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More than 80 Members of Parliament from lower funded areas including Oxfordshire have written a letter from MPs to the Chancellor. Only one Oxfordshire MP did not sign the letter and we understand that is because he was away at the time, he is supportive of local schools and has presented two petitions to parliament from local residents about school funding.

F40 issued a press release  with more information about the issues.

Important Consultations from the DfE and OCC

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Funding for SEND and those who need AP: Call for evidence This important consultation from the DfE is open until July 31st. We would encourage all those in Special and Mainstream schools who are facing the challenge of trying to keep our schools fully inclusive on totally inadequate funding to respond.

Other consultations may be found on the Current Consultations page of this website this site.

Oxfordshire County Council have launched the School Lunch Survey for Primary School Pupil and Parents/Guardians 2019. Closing date is July 24th.

Governors may also be interested in The costs of education in an age of austerity: a local study from the point of view of parents.

F40 Brief Members of Parliament

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The F40 group have been working constructively and cross-party to achieve a National Fair Funding Formula for schools since 1995. There is a single page summary of their work now available. They are the only group presenting a methodology for the calculation of the Schools Block of the DSG based on the actual cost of running a school, more detail can be found in the Updated Proposal for a National Funding Formula for Schools – April 2019 and the other associated documents. They also address the other funding blocks including Early Years Funding Formula and the High Needs Block, the source of funding for Special and Hospital Schools, Alternative Provision  and top-up funding for SEND in our mainstream schools. They do not cover Post 16 Funding which is not part of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).

On 14th May 2019 all F40 MPs were invited to a meeting in Parliament at which the  presentation for MP’s and the latest F40 Funding Briefing paper (April 2019) were presented. There was also an opportunity for questions. A copy of the briefing was sent to all MP’s of the lowest funded authorities, including those unable to attend the briefing session.

Report on the NGA Summer Conference

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A report about the    NGA Summer Conference June 2019  has been written by the OGA secretary. There is interesting information about the speech by Amanda Spielman Ofsted’s Chief Inspector and Professor Dame Alison Peacock the Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching. Did you know Governors can join the Chartered College as Professional Affiliates  for £3.75 per month, and among other things gain access to an education and research database; the world’s largest and most complete collection of full-text education journals?

Dame Alison also suggested that paying for College membership as a school would be one way to show that we value our staff.