The way that our school is governed has changed recently. We no longer have a Local Governing Body and governors, instead we now have a School Community Board (SCB) with Representatives. The School Community Board is a Committee of the Board of Trustees of Tarka Learning Partnership and has some delegated decision-making powers in accordance with the Scheme of Delegation. The work of SCBs focuses on ensuring that the Tarka Learning Partnership and school ethos is lived out in the school on a daily basis.

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‘The TLP website https://tarkatrust.org.uk lists the names of the Trustees and Members and their information and duties.’

 

Our current Chair of the School Community Board is Steve Berry

Fremington Primary School

Beechfield Road

Frremington

Barnstaple

EX31 3DD

admin@fps.tarkatrust.org.uk 

 

The key roles of our School Community Board (SCB) will be:

• To advise/act as a critical friend to the Head Teacher

• To advise the Board of Trustees about local issues they need to consider that affect the academy through Chairs group of to a nominated Trustee

• Represent the interest of the school community in the running of the school

• Represent the school in its community

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The main purpose of these roles is to enable SCBs to be able to express and act on local views and issues – views of parents and the community etc. One of the key purposes of an SCB is to ensure that the school is a good expression of what and who TLP and the school is in the local community. Therefore, these roles are about ensuring that the TLP and school ethos is “lived” out in our school on a day-to-day basis.

 

The five roles translate specifically into the following tasks that the SCB undertakes:

• it acts as a key link between the school, parents and local community; (through a termly meeting structure);

• it supports the work of the school in the community;

• it supports the Head Teacher and School Leadership Team in the development and implementation of the School Improvement Plan and other relevant plans, ensuring that the TLP/School ethos remains at the heart of the School community;

• it supports School first committee processes and Trust appeals processes

• it offers challenging but positive and proactive support to the Head Teacher

• it is directly involved in TLP review processes and School Reviews to support the improvement of the school

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The SCBs role will not be to “manage” the school as such. This is already done through the Board of Trustees.

Therefore, the SCB will not required to take decisions on staff or financial matters affecting the school.

The SCB representatives will have an understanding of strategic issues that impact on the school, and be updated on them regularly by the Head Teacher, but will not be required to have direct responsibility for them. Instead, our SCB should be in a position to assess the impact of our school locally; how it is contributing to the local community, how it is relating to local families and how it understands local issues. This in turn, will enable the SCB to contribute effectively to decisions which may require SCB involvement.

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As the Board of Trustees takes responsibility for educational standards, legal compliance and financial viability, our SCB will then have the time to explore how the TLP/School ethos is being understood and expressed in the way the Academy operates. The views of SCB Members, as a parent, member of staff or as part of the community is vital in this discussion.

 

The Constitution of the SCB

The planned constitution of the SCB, will be a minimum of 5 members to a maximum of 9. The Headteacher will be ex-officio.

At least 30% of Members will be staff, 30% parents and 30% from the community.

 

If you have any interest in becoming one of our SCB Members, please contact Kathryn Morris - Clerk

Responsibilities include:
Understanding the performance of the school and the actions being taken by the Head Teacher
Monitoring the school’s performance against the School Improvement Plan
Setting the Academy budget for approval
Working within agreed Trust policies
Meeting statutory requirements
Meeting the agreed performance targets
Managing its finances well
Engaging with stakeholders
Reporting to the Board of Directors, including providing challenge to the Trust

 

Members of the board: 

Name	Type of Representative	Date Appointed	Term of Office	Declared Interest	Attendance records at SCB  Meetings 2023-24
Steve Berry	Chair - Community Representative	01/09/23	01.09.2027	2 Children at Fremington Primary School	Number of possible meetings: 3  Number of meetings attended: 3  Dates meetings attended:  15/03/24; 03/05/24; 05/07/2024
Caroline Gilbert	Acting Headteacher		Indefinite in role as acting Headteacher	None declared	Number of possible meetings: 1  Number of meetings attended: 1  Dates meetings attended:  05/07/2024
Louise Swift	Staff Representative	01/11/23	01.09.27	None declared	Number of possible meetings: 3  Number of meetings attended: 3  Dates meetings attended:  15/03/24; 03/05/24; 05/07/2024
Emily Burns	Staff Representative	05/07/24	01.07.28	Governor at South Molton United   C of E Primary school   (from 2021)	Number of possible meetings: 1  Number of meetings attended: 1  Dates meetings attended:  05/07/2024
Gillian Ashcroft	Community Representative		01.07.28	Brayford Academy (from November 2016)  Wings Charity (from Dec 2019)  North Devon Taiko  CYF Ministry – TTEC (from Sept 2016)	Number of possible meetings: 0  Number of meetings attended: 0  Dates meetings attended:  n/a
Annette Hennessy	Community Representative	15/03/24		SCB Representative / Chair at Landkey Community Primary School   (from September 2000)	Number of possible meetings: 3  Number of meetings attended: 3  Dates meetings attended:  15/03/24; 03/05/24; 05/07/2024

Representatives can be contacted through the School community board clerk:

email: kathryn.morris@tarkatrust.org.uk 

tel: 01271 373979 or in writing to

Fremington Primary School 

Beechfield Road

Fremington

Barnstaple

Devon

EX31 3DD

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