Foxwood Academy Governance
In accordance with the government requirements for all governors’ bodies, the three core strategic functions of Foxwood Academy governing body are as follows:
- Setting the strategic direction - Ensuring the clarity of vision, values and strategic direction. Engaging stakeholders and meeting statutory duties.
- Creating robust accountability - Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the Academy for its pupils and the performance management of staff. This accountability looks at teaching, achievement, behaviour and safety. Maintaining strong Academy leadership and contributing to the Academy self-evaluation.
- Overseeing the financial performance of the Academy - Solvency and effective financial management using Pupil Premium, Covid catch-up, sports funding and other resources to overcome barriers to learning. Governors make sure we receive value for money and money is well spent. Governors have an overview of risk and its impact on the Academy.
At Foxwood Academy our vision is to prepare our children very effectively for life. To foster applied Learning for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) regardless of background and starting points and encouraging greater inclusiveness into a society of independent citizens.
In our Academy, our Nature is to Nurture: Staff, parents and carers collaborate. We work towards the common goal of every student excelling and making academic and personal progress. We assist families to deepen their knowledge regarding ways they can support their child.
Our Values
We aim to develop the skills of every student and equip them for lifelong learning through a broad and balanced education, underpinned by our four key values. These aspects, coupled with dedicated teachers and an enriching, inspiring curriculum, make us confident that every student will achieve their best.
Educate - Our Academy has enthusiastic, dedicated and empathetic staff with a passion for teaching students with additional needs. We provide a supportive and safe environment where every student will make progress academically and emotionally. We ensure that every students’ individual needs are understood by all and met by providing enjoyable learning opportunities that are relevant, accessible and inspirational. We have a strong continued personal development program for staff and a tailored curriculum for our students.
Independence - We encourage our students to become as independent as possible in all areas of life. Students are engaged in all decisions to support their development and enable them to identify, explore and realise their potential. All families are supported to make informed decisions about progression after their time at Foxwood Academy. All our students are treated with dignity and respect, upholding fundamental British Values in order that they can make a successful transition into adult life.
Learning for Life - We aim to prepare our students for adulthood. At Foxwood Academy we provide a safe and nurturing space to support our students and young people throughout their education.
We enable our students to leave us with the necessary skills to be happy, independent citizens and with the ability to continue to make positive contributions to society.
Celebrate - Individuality is valued, diversity is celebrated, and a strong sense of self-worth imparted. We want to create positive memories for our students. School is the best years of your life. Foxwood provides opportunities to celebrate the achievements and talents of all our students, through residential trips, after Academy clubs and the arts- including our annual talent show.
Our Drivers
We have prioritised the key skills and aspirations we want our children and young people to experience and develop during their time with us. We aim to achieve these by our lesson DRIVERS. These drivers focus the classroom learning. Our key drivers are Recalling, Learning, Practising, Applying and Over-learning.
The Governance Structure
Chair of the Governing body: Sarah Morgan.
Parent Governors: Kirsty Hall-Maysmith
Community Governor: Suzanne Cannell
Staff governors: Headteacher James Hutchinson, Lindsey Norton, and Nikki Glover.
All governors are unpaid and give their time freely. Should you wish to contact the chair of governors, please email: chair@foxwood.notts.sch.uk.
Our Committees - The School Improvement Board look at holding the school to account for its overall improvement journey. The Full Board meet to ensure that the statutory strategic functions of governance are maintained. A brief review of what is covered by the boards can be seen below.
Governor attendance - All governing meetings and committees are well attended. We hold information of governor attendance on our website. All minutes of governing body meetings are public documents, and you can ask the Academy office if you would like to see the minutes of our meetings.
We have access to a governor hub with a chat forum and can communicate as often as we wish in addition to the dated meetings. The chair of the governing body is in regular contact with the Headteacher in addition to the meetings.
Strategic Direction and Academy Improvement
Setting the strategic direction of the academy is a vital role for governors. We support and we hold the senior leadership team (SLT) to account. Our support is within setting the Academy’s direction, priorities and goals and this is evidenced in our full governing body minutes as well as our committee meetings. We continually monitor the Academy improvement plan and have created a governor rolling review to rate the actions red, amber, green to demonstrate progress of this and to achieve the targets set out by the Academy improvement plan. Our evidence gathered by governors comes from a wide range of sources including governor meeting minutes, Stakeholder questionnaires, our Management Information System ‘Bromcom’ (MIS), policies, Headteacher reports, financial benchmarking data, Auditors, Health and safety and General Data Protection Regulation professionals (GDPR is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union). We use this evidence to tailor our challenge days, our ongoing monitoring and evaluation, committee agendas, governor training and development and setting the strategic direction of the Academy. We send out termly updates usually in a letter format to feedback to stakeholders, committee agendas and working groups.
One Page Summary - Academy Improvement Priorities 2024-2025
One Page Summary - Academy Improvement Priorities 2023-2024
One Page Summary - Academy Improvement Priorities 2022-2023
One Page Summary - Academy Improvement Priorities 2021-2022
What do the governors do on a week by week, term by term basis?
The governors meet throughout the year to review the progress and direction of the Academy. It is their job to help hold us to account and be that additional eye and voice that keep us moving in the right direction.
The table review is a quick reference guide to what has been covered in recent meetings and a demonstration of the IMPACT that our governing body have at the Academy.
Health, safety and safeguarding is a standard item at all meetings.
| Date | Committee | Covered/Impact | Challenge and impact |
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October 2023 |
School Improvement Board |
This was the first meeting of this new committee. The board met with the Trust CFO and reviewed our financial position. As a board we agreed what we would cover throughout the year and agreed to chair the committee on a rolling programme. We welcomed a new parent governor to the group.
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December 2023
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Full Governing Body |
This was our first full governing body meeting of the year. We reviewed the autumn term and reviewed the headteacher report. We looked at behaviour, progress, attendance, and projected numbers. The headteacher reminded the body of the school self-evaluation and the governors signed off the development plan. |
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February 2024 |
School Improvement Board |
The group reviewed our curriculum and assessment systems. They reviewed samples of our new key stage end points and looked at how we use these to measure progress and learning. The board looked at feedback from our recent curriculum deep dives and the visit from our school improvement advisor.
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March 2024 |
Full Governing Body |
The board reviewed and agreed to start looking at converting buildings to provide more PFA opportunities for our children and young people. The board reviewed our overall finances, safeguarding and the report from the Headteacher. |
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May 2024 |
School Improvement Board |
The board looked through the school improvement report from our external school advisor, they reviewed our recent parent voice and pupil voice survey. The board had a presentation on our medical tracking software, staffing and reviewed attendance and the budget. |
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July 2024 |
Full Governing Body |
The governors reviewed the school development plan and looked at the self evaluation of this academic year and the development plan for next year. They reviewed the budget and agreed that it is fit for purpose for next academic year. Governors looked at the Headteacher report for the summer term and had feedback on safeguarding and the progress of looked after children. |
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October 2024 |
School Improvement Boards |
The governors reviewed the year ahead and agreed on the role of the SIB. They looked at the school's 'Power BI' system, which provides comparative data for the Academy and allows governors to drill down into specific outcomes where needed. They listened to a report on the progress of the new build and discussed the start of the academic term in general. They also received a financial update from the business manager and reviewed the role of governors and how and where they can assist the Academy. |
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February 2025 |
School improvement Board |
The governors looked at the Academy data overview with a focus on significant groups. The governors had a presentation on how the Academy meets the mental health needs of its children and young people. They were introduced to the new Academy behaviour lead who shared a presentation on restraint in schools and how Foxwood record and report behaviour incidents. |
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March 2025 |
Full Governing Body |
The board had a detailed view of Academy finances and a deep dive into how the academy meets it's e-safety obligations. Governors fed back on recent visits including a visit to a residential for ex-students. |
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Policies
Governor's review all polices at the start of the new year, usually in January. We oversee to check they meet the statutory requirements, and that all guidance is relevant and up to date. Specific attention is made to make sure we follow the department of education’s mandatory policy list and our local authority recommended list.
Training
As a governing body we recognise the need and importance of high-quality training. Our primary source is Nottingham City Council’s ‘Governor Services’ which has a proven track record locally and has proved highly popular amongst the Governors at Foxwood. In addition to this, we buy into the National Governance Association (NGA), School Bus and Confederation of Schools Trust (CST). All governors are expected to keep their training record up-to-date. All new governors complete an induction programme through Nottingham City Council governor services. Governing training is encouraged to build up knowledge and skills and our annual skills audit review highlights areas/solutions to develop these areas. A full list of governor training is held on our Governor Hub and you can request to see this at any time. All governors are expected to attend training relevant to the Academy’s improvement plan as well as mandatory aspects such as safeguarding and prevent strategy. In addition, governors are encouraged to choose training that is important to the Academy.
How to contact us - Suggestions, feedback and ideas from our stakeholders (parent, pupils and staff) as well as the local community are welcomed. Please contact the chair Sarah Morgan on the below email or alternatively contact the academy directly - chair@foxwood.notts.sch.uk.