Vision and mission

As governors we are not onlookers who cheer when all is well and bemoan failure and setbacks from a safe distance, we are responsible for overseeing the success and shortcomings of our schools. We need to be in command of our brief, present when required and otherwise keeping a watchful eye scanning the horizon as well as checking on the decks below. If our school is a ship, we need to plot a course and set sail, ensuring the captain and crew are manning the bridge, decks and engine room, looking after the passenger’s safety and wellbeing, and providing them with an enriching experience. Charting the course ahead and occasionally looking back, ensuring the journey we are embarked upon doesn’t need a tweak or correction, piloting choppy waters with an occasional switch to manual. How granular is the level of detail we need to know to ensure all is going well, too much and we get bogged down and too little we lose the ability to affect change or understand what the headwinds will bring. Ensuring we do a full 360 of decisions we make from the perspective of all onboard – the optics of a wrong or ill thought decision can wreak havoc with the direction of travel. Let’s look at some of those headwinds and other things to note for this term.

Short term challenges (hopefully)

With school and academy budgets already set earlier this year there is now a perfect storm of budgetary pressures; cost of living, energy bills and unfunded pay awards to name but three. Taken together they are a material risk to all our careful planning and vision. There will be relief that some help to ‘cap’ energy prices for the next 6 months has been offered but without longer term solutions to support schools with their energy efficiency things will remain challenging. It seems clear that there will be little other support on offer so budgets will need to absorb pay awards over and above those budgeted for and the impact of high inflation rates for the foreseeable future. Boards will also need to be mindful of not only the impact of the cost of living increases for the school but also for staff and pupils. To this end governors need to be aware of the changes on the affordability of school uniforms and how this must be communicated now on your school website. The latest September 2022 DfE guidance for governors update: Gov.UK: School governance

Black History Month (BHM) 

What to do and how to respond to this annual month of importance and reflection? It’s a well-timed month in that it generally coincides with the first board meetings of the new academic year and thus an opportune time to reflect on the progress you have made as a board and school on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Where are you on this journey – have you moved beyond discussion to taking concrete actions to improve EDI or is this a prompt to get those early discussions underway? Boards should not only reflect diversity in their local community but nationally as well, this allows for inclusive discussions, hearing from a range of voices that not only help shape your schools’ strategic aims but also prepare your pupils for life and work in the UK and beyond. Be mindful to not just celebrate it for its own sake but take the opportunity to review practice and policies, curriculum provision, opportunities, community engagement, pupil and staff voice. This may be an annual event but should be regularly monitored by your board and link governors throughout the year. 

Safeguarding 

No matter how farsighted your strategic vision the ever-present focus must be on Safeguarding and the recently updated Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). We will all be aware of the recent tragic case of Molly Russell, the testimonies that continue to mount on the Everyone’s Invited website and the ongoing ramifications of OFSTEDs report on sexual abuse in schools. As boards we need a laser focus on this area, the choice to look the other way, overlook or worse still don’t look at all is frankly not an option. OFSTED will be asking questions about what you have done in response to last year’s report, especially if they observe any such behaviours on their visit. You will need to be able to articulate your board and school’s response; have behaviour, online and social media policies been updated? Have you reviewed your IT protocols? Did your staff receive training on spotting and managing these ‘accepted/ normalised’ behaviours? Are your reporting systems sufficiently robust and sensitive? Is your RSE/ PHSE curriculum fit for purpose? Remember doing nothing is not an option, start with the premise that these behaviours are occurring in your school, put aside fears about lifting the lid on this sensitive subject in order to protect the most vulnerable and create a positive consensual culture in your school. See the latest version of KCSIE: Gov.UK: Keeping Children Safe in Education

Scanning the horizon 

After another changing of the guard in government things have gone a little quiet on the White Paper and the subsequent schools bill remains stalled. Despite this the direction of travel signalled is one that boards of maintained schools should remain mindful of. For now, it’s still about joining, or planning to join, a family of like-minded schools, think of it this way and the destination is less daunting, demystifying and debunking the myths of the MAT world needs to be a priority for boards. How about setting up a small working party and looking at local MATs in your area, invite the trust chair and/ or CEO to come and talk to you, arrange a visit to see their academies in action, suggest a joint board meeting to discuss what their plans are re expansion and understand if their values/ vision/ ethos align with yours. This way you may find you have far more in common than you think, there’s no commitment and at the end of the day even if the decision is still medium or longer term you are better informed if and when you decide to progress things.

Whilst boards need to stay focussed on the vision for their school there needs to be an acceptance that ‘events’ may cause delay, revision and in some cases change in ultimately realising those aspirations for your school. The key thing though is to retain a keen focus on the vision whilst dealing with the expected and unexpected challenges to the progress towards your aims, if we can keep our schools pointing in the right direction during the pandemic then we should be reassured we can do the same whilst facing the current challenges. It may be worth having a couple of governors as custodians of your vision so that no matter what comes your way there are those vested with reminding the board of why you are embarked on a particular direction of travel and who regularly review the progress made towards achieving it, even if this means revising the timelines or elements of the vision.

The HFL Governance team stand ready to support you through what is already turning into a year of challenges, whether it be through our acclaimed training programme, our supportive Clerking and Chairs service or our fantastic helpdesk – we salute and applaud all that you do for the children in your schools.

To contact us please use the following:

Governance helpdesk – 01438 544487 

Governance training – 01438 544478

Governance clerking - 01438 544487

Or email us at governance@hfleducation.org

As we are all aware, the cost-of-living crisis is having a severe and significant impact on schools and academies across the country. Fuel costs have become unpredictable, the rise in food prices is impacting on our breakfast and afterschool clubs, and the unfunded teachers pay award is untenable for most settings. Those are just a few of the cost pressures that schools are dealing with, and many are finding that their revenue income just doesn’t cover all their expenses.

With staffing costs constituting at least 70% of every school spend and increasing (we regularly see it as high as 86- 90%), now is a good time to consider the use of ICFP (Integrated Curriculum and Financial Planning). This is a tool that can help schools to understand their staffing structures, curriculum plans and associated spend. Whilst it is still important to look at ways to reduce non staff costs, it is equally important for schools and trusts to be looking at the efficient deployment of all staff. ICFP is not about making redundancies, but ensuring staff are fully deployed in an effective way, supporting the best outcomes for pupils.

It sounds more frightening that it is. It’s not complicated, it’s just using easily available data (such as nominal role, school census, ABR) to analyse your expenditure on curriculum. It has been used in secondary schools for a number of years, but it is also relevant to primary schools and can help the school design an affordable relevant curriculum and utilise staffing in the most efficient way.

There are a number of different metrics that can be used to analyse and understand your data, available from the DfE, ISBL ACSL…. all have slightly different calculations. There is no right or wrong – it is about understanding what has gone into the calculation, how you reach your results and what you do with that information. The data will be specific to your school and must always be used within local context. There is no right or wrong answer, but the data should be able to provoke discussion and to enable schools and trusts to better understand how spend is being directed.

Some of the key metrics, amongst others, will show you: 

• the cost of employing a teacher – average teacher cost
• the amount of time a teacher is teaching – teacher contact ratio
• average class size
• pupil teacher ratio
• leadership costs

Key questions that schools and trusts should be asking are:

• why are out staffing costs different from the national data?
• why are our class sizes different? If a school has smaller class sizes, what is the cost implication versus the impact on pupil outcomes?
• are we happy with the structure that we have?
• can we move to a new more cost-effective structure?
  • immediately – think about the repercussions, the impact on staff welfare and workload
  • next year?
  • or work towards it in the future 3–5-year staffing and financial plans are extremely important.

Remember, this is not just for schools in financial difficulty – it is about the best use and deployment of staff to enable schools to plan and deliver the curriculum they need to meet pupil needs, it is about sustainability – thinking ahead and planning for the future.

For further information on ICFP, please visit the DFE website at:

Gov.UK: Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) 

Recognise and remove the unconscious bias in the curriculum

History, for most people, is a collection of stories from the past, constructed for them by the side with greater power and control. We continue to teach a view of Britain, past and present, as a small but mighty civilizing force promoting development, democracy and justice, and sharing our superior lifestyle, values and technologies across the globe. Where fault is acknowledged, it is minimised as an aberration or a stage on the way to something better. Negatives are out-weighed by the overall benefits of the advancement of the world resulting from British influence and ingenuity.

Yes, the curriculum still reflects an overwhelmingly White British experience of our history and literature. That needs to change.

Recognise the need to represent a wider and more diverse context of ‘truth’, ‘relevance’ and ‘value’ across the curriculum.

It is not just in the history curriculum that we find this bias. It is overwhelmingly present across the whole curriculum. Whose literature is worth exploring? Whose natural resources and development will be presented for analysis? Whose technical, artistic and musical heritages are worth attention? What do we recognize as beautiful and valuable? Whose words and experiences do we cite? And on, and on.

Human knowledge is cumulative and is created by people of all ‘races’ and ethnicities, classes, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, ages and abilities. Our curriculum must represent and draw from a wider pool of knowledge; one less constructed by power relations. This is not about deleting or subverting existing knowledge and histories. The process required is to place them in their truest context, acknowledging the influence or exploitation of imperialism and power. This includes considering alternative and marginalized views, and representing the interests, experiences and voices of all parties. Retaining ‘traditional’ curriculum perspectives will hold back our evolution as a diverse nation of free and equal people.

Give all pupils relevance, voice and choice

The curriculum should be relevant to and inspirational for all the diverse pupils in our learning environment. All pupils need to see the contributions and histories of people like themselves being explored and valued. This will certainly include learning about the waves of immigration and invasions that have made us such a diverse nation. Giving opportunities to regularly undertake work in pupils’ own areas of interest can enhance such opportunities.

We also need to listen. The voices and interests of all our pupils must have standing in our classrooms and decision-making processes, so that every pupil learns their own value and can build personal agency.

A safe environment

Pupils need to see for themselves that their school is not blind to the challenges that minorities face in our unequal society. Anti-racist schools are open to recognising and resolving any reports of prejudice, discrimination, structural inequality and bias, and they reject defensive responses that refuse to consider alternative perspectives. All pupils are taught the importance of ‘respect for all’ and how to recognize and challenge prejudice.

Conclusion

Anti-racism has its detractors, who are either offended at the inherent presumption that racism is present at all or who want to maintain the status quo. So, every individual school must decide how to provide an inclusive curriculum that will achieve race equity. 

An anti-racist curriculum will represent diverse perspectives of all British peoples: rich and poor, White, Black and Brown. It requires a commitment to challenge the implicit assumptions in each subject. It needs to be informed by a wider range of voices, perspectives and experiences. It will thrive in a spirit of collaboration, aiming to create a better future for all our pupils and all our staff.

I hope you won’t hesitate.

We are very aware of the financial issues facing schools currently, with the rising costs of salaries, energy, catering and consumables costs.  This all comes on the back of schools trying to recover from the impact of COVID on staff, pupils and schools’ finances.  Schools are facing an unprecedented time in managing their budgets with the Government stating there will be no additional funds being made available to schools.  We hope to give you some advice and tips on managing budget pressures and areas to look at to tackle rising costs.

What we do know:

• Institute of Fiscal Studies estimate school costs in 2022/23 will increase by 6%
• teachers pay final offer higher than initial recommendations to STRB, at around 5%
• non-teaching staff costs anticipated at 9% based on current LG Employers Offer – not yet agreed
• utility costs – electricity estimate 61% increase, gas – initial estimate up to 135% increase, now likely to be higher for some schools 150% - 200%

There is some good news, with the government having released today that energy bills will benefit from a new government Energy Bill Relief Scheme.  This will cap prices paid per megawatt hour (MWh) for both electricity and gas for those on non-domestic contracts who are on existing fixed prices contracts agreed on or after 1 April, singing new fixed price contracts, on deemed/ out of contract or variable tariff or on flexible purchase or similar contracts. Whilst this news is welcome, it remains that schools will still be facing ongoing cost challenges.

When looking at your overall cost base, it is important to be aware of your fixed costs – these are essentials that you have limited control over – although you can go to market for competitive pricing for these. 

Fixed costs:

• insurance
• utilities
• salaries
• procured contracts
• premises

It is equally important to be aware of your variable costs are those that are impacted by the volume of activity for example the number of pupils, which will determine the  number of staff required, as well as the repair and maintenance and general upkeep of your premises.

Variable costs:

• general supplies
• curriculum resources
• software licences
• repairs and maintenance

Actions to manage your costs

• review your staffing structure, does it meet the essential needs of your current and future pupils – compare an essential staffing structure against your current structure – why are there variances?  Are you aware of any changes i.e. retirements, parental leave or recruitment and retention issues?
• consider running the metrics based on the national medians, are your costs in line with the medians or above – if so, why?
• can you meet your staffing and operating costs from within your in-year income or are you relying on carry forward to achieve a balanced budget?
• be aware of good v bad expenditure – is your expenditure going to have a positive impact on the children’s outcome – if not is it needed? 
• can the project you have set aside funds be delayed for 12-18 months?
• scrutinise your budget line by line – don’t just roll over from last year – can savings be made – cancel contracts/licences no longer utilised or required.
• undertake regular reconciliations – wrap around care, school trips – is the income covering the expenditure?

In 2012 the Government released a paper on top tips for sustainability in schools.  Whilst this paper is outdated the tips are still as relevant today:

• reduce energy use in your school, this includes energy efficient lighting, upgrade of heating controls, seal draughty windows and doors – don’t prop open external doors allowing the heat out.  Understand your bills and how much energy is used.  Turn off lights, computers, monitors when not being used. Turn down your heating by 1º this could save you 5% - 10% on your heating bills
• check for and repair water leaks including dripping taps.  Underground leaks, take a meter reading at night as everyone leaves, check again in the morning if there is movement is there a leak?
• work towards becoming paperless, utilise the technology around you – don’t print worksheets use interactive whiteboards and visualisers.  Send letters electronically or publish on the school website or via social media
• use sustainable purchasing – don’t buy unless you need to, plan ahead so you don’t incur additional delivery costs.  Don’t spend hours saving a pound.  Improve you buying power, work collaboratively and get the best deal for your money.
• work on reducing your carbon footprint – recycle, re-use what you’ve got – don’t just throw it away. Install a print management system on the centralised printers/photocopiers. If you don’t need it consider donating to a local nursery.
• for in house catering, align your menus with seasonal production and purchase local – sometimes the supermarket is cheaper than the big catering firms and they deliver.

Difficult choices

We all recognise that difficult decisions are going to have to be made and for those schools already facing financial difficulties, these increased costs are adding additional pressure.  Schools also need to be aware of the ‘tipping point’ – the impact on pupil outcomes your savings might make – if it is negative then try and find a different way of making savings.

If you are still struggling with your budget or you require any further help or guidance, then please do contact HCC at csf.sfu@hertfordshire.gov.uk