The Saints’ Federaon St Peter’s C.E. (A) First School All Saints’ C.E. (C) First School St Augustine’s CE (C) First School Town Head Oak Road Pipe Hay Lane Alton Denstone Draycott in the Clay Stoke on Trent Uttoxeter Ashbourne Staffordshire Staffordshire Derbyshire ST10 4AW ST14 5HT DE6 5BY GOVERNORS’ NEWSLETTER MARCH 2016 School budgets Despite being an unusually short term, the last couple of months have been busy ones for governors. Being the end of the financial year, it is a me to review the expenditure of each school and set a budget for the forthcoming financial year. Although the three schools are now in a Federaon, each sll retains its own separate budget, calculated mainly on pupil numbers, from which its costs for the coming year have to be met. However, being in a Federaon allows schools to share some of those costs and make savings. Some items need only be purchased once for the Federaon instead of for each school and the money saved ploughed back into supporng the children’s educaon. The finance commiee of the governors are delighted to have agreed a balanced budget for each of our schools for the coming year. A big thank you to Tracey Pemberton, Emma Sandbach and Jo Goodwin, the office staff at our schools, who have spent a considerable amount of me preparing data and informaon for this very important exercise. Being a Parent Governor My name is Ben Cunningham. I am the parent governor for All Saints Denstone. Since being elected last summer, I have quickly realised just how much work is involved! I have attended training, visited the schools and sit on various committees which help to ensure that the schools are the best that they can be. I have been impressed by the dedication and wide range of experience and skills which the various governors bring to the federation. It is still very early days for the federation but I am excited by the opportunities that it brings to make all three schools even better for the children. I hope that over my term as governor we will see the benefits of this approach. An ‘Instead’ not ‘Ofsted’ Under the leadership of Sarah Robson and our three Heads of School, we are connually striving to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools. Over the last few weeks, each school has undergone a mini inspecon by an Ofsted Inspector commissioned by the Federaon —a sort of ‘health check’ before a real Ofsted inspecon takes place. Each mini inspecon was rigorous and included not only scruny of pupil achievement but classroom observaon, interview of subject leaders, discussions with pupils and parents and a probing of the effecveness of governors and school leadership. We were pleased and reassured that each school came out well from this exercise, the Inspector being complimentary about what was seen whilst also giving valuable advice and pointers for further, connuing development. Each of our schools is due an Ofsted Inspecon in the foreseeable future and, although in a Federaon, would sll be inspected separately. Currently, All Saints and St Peter’s are graded ‘Good schools’ whilst St Augusne’s is graded an ‘Outstanding school’. We are determined to maintain and further improve these standards.