At Lord Blyton School, the governing board recognises the importance of identifying and demonstrating the impact of its governance. The governing board considers this impact statement as an effective way to share the strategic work of the governing board and its contribution to and impact on school improvement and development.
Declaration of conflicts of interest
Where there is a conflict of interests Governors declare on the appropriate forms or at the beginning of meetings where there may be a conflict on the agenda items.
Governance attendance
Governors’ attendance is recorded and available on the website under the Governors section.
Governance structure
The governing board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the school, acting within the framework set by national legislation, and with due consideration to governance principles and the policies of the LA which is South Tyneside Council. The governing board meets as a whole board once per term.
The work of the governing board is determined by the Local Authority and is outlined in the scheme of delegation, which can be found on the school website. The scheme of delegation sets out the responsibilities, accountability and decision-making ability of the trust members, trustees, local governors and the senior executive team.
The governing board’s Core strategic functions
The table below explains the governing board’s core strategic functions and details the progress made towards the aims of them this academic year.
- Vision and direction: The governing body sets the school’s vision, aims, and ethos, and oversees the strategic plan to achieve them.
- Financial oversight: Governors are responsible for the school’s financial performance, including approving the budget and ensuring money is spent effectively.
- Accountability: They hold the headteacher accountable for the school’s educational performance, staff performance management, and ensuring high standards are met for all pupils.
- Key appointments: Governors are responsible for appointing and dismissing the head teacher and other staff.
| The governing board’s core strategic function | Progress towards achieving strategic aim | Impact identified so far |
| Finance and revenue | ||
| Governors are responsible for the school’s financial performance, including approving the budget and ensuring money is spent effectively. Web have been trying to maintain a balanced budget. | The school has not successfully achieved a balanced budget this year. Cost savings have been identified through benchmarking activity and the three-year forecast has been planned but due to difficult circumstances we have been unable to avoid any deficit. | All current staffing levels have been maintained as we are unable to make changes without affecting the quality of education. |
| Vision and Direction Teaching, learning and the curriculum | ||
| The governing body sets the school’s vision, aims, and ethos, and oversees the strategic plan to achieve them. This year we have working towards good teaching and learning as a major part of our strategic plan. To ensure that teaching and learning and the curriculum | The school has made significant improvements to the curriculum. Curriculum co-ordinators have uniformed files with standardised paperwork including planning and monitoring. All co-ordinators have met over the past 2 years with Governors to present their work and the improvements made. All subjects are coherently planned and delivered. Progression maps ensure that there is continuity to what is taught and inline with the National Curriculum. The planning runs from the nursery 2s to yr 6.. Head teacher feeds back on monitoring and teaching is now good across the school. | We have a planned, broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of our pupils. Each subject area has a long term plan and the knowledge and skills are planned to ensure there is progression from EYs to year 6, The next year will be spent embedding the curriculum and making any relevant changes following monitoring internally or externally. |
| Accountability | ||
| Governors hold the head teacher accountable for the school’s educational performance, staff performance management, and ensuring high standards are met for all pupils. | The school has performed well in line with national averages and the expected levels at the end of KS 2. There is a challenge at the higher standards and that is where we will focus in year 2025-26 | The SIP 24-25 identified that there was improvement need in the planning, teaching and monitoring of the foundation subjects. This has seen significant improvements and further work will continue throughout 25-26 |
| Staffing | ||
| Governors are responsible for appointing and dismissing the head teacher and other staff. This year we have been working to ensure there is a stable staffing structure that meets the needs of the school and pupils within it. | The school has had some challenging circumstances around staffing due to ill health in both teaching and non-teaching staff. | Children are well supported at Lord Blyton school and their needs are met using the resources we have available to us. Pupil premium allows us to have staff to support our pupils and parents. |
The School Improvement Plan (SIP)
The governing board work in partnership with the head teacher and SLT to set the priorities for the school’s improvement each year. The governing board is responsible for holding the school leaders to account for the progress made towards achieving the objectives and aims of the SIP. This is achieved in a number of different ways. The following table provides an explanation of how the governing board has contributed to and monitored the SIP throughout the academic year 2024-2025.
We have worked in cooperation with the Head teacher in the monitoring of the School Improvement Plan. The SIP for 24-25 was set out with clear aims, the key tasks which were to be completed in order to achieve these aims and the success criteria in order to measure outcomes. The current SIP 25-26 is based on priorities identified from the following sources; progress and attainment data, school self-evaluation, teaching and learning scrutinise and external Local Authority reviews and the Ofsted in November 2023. The SIP is monitored and reviewed termly with governors. After Ofsted the targets set in the SIP are precise and measurable, so that we as governors can undertake regular and careful checks on the impact of leaders’ work to improve the school.
| Governing board contribution to developing the SIP | Members of the governing board collaborated with the head teacher and SLT to review the SIP against existing Ofsted priority areas and pupil outcomes. |
| Governing board activity undertaken to monitor the progress of the SIP | The governing board has supported and challenged the head teacher monitoring the School Improvement Plan through the termly meetings and the Curriculum and Standards Committee. Governors complete a report after every monitoring activity and report back to the full governing board. They have worked with external partners to support the school monitoring and delivering improvement. |
Committees
Delegating aspects of our governance responsibilities to committees enables the governing board to remain strategically focussed on the agreed key areas of school development and work in an efficient way. It is decided which governors will join each committee by analysing governors’ skills and experiences through a skills audit and assigning committee membership accordingly. Committee membership and the committee structure is reviewed at the beginning of each academic year.
We currently have the following committees in place and the table below provides an overview of the focus and work of each committee during the academic year 24-25. These will continue to work through the academic year 25-26
| Committee | Overview of work this year | Impact of the committee |
| Curriculum Standards Committee | The Curriculum and Standards Committee has undertaken work to support the school following our RI judgement. 2/10/24 Enid Fairbrother- SIA update on schools position. Headteacher and Governors look at SIP and the priorities for 24-25. Updated SEF and SIP were shared and discussed Learning Walk by Governors through the school. 25/3/25– Enid Fairbrother reporting on the schools progress since OFSTED 7/8 th November 2023. Using the Supportive Review evidence gathered over the past reviews. Also presented SIA visit report. Governors questioned and presented their views. 31/03/25 Joanne Burnet carried out a SEND/EY visit and reported findings to Governors 8/5/25 Joanne Burnet carried out further visit /5/25 Vikki Waller carried out a English visit. 5/25 Report presented by Michael Gilmore- PE and Sport All subject co-ordinators have engaged and presented to the Governors on their subject and the | The Governors are well informed around the curriculum and the changes that we have made to it. We have supported the Head teacher in making decisions related to changes made. |
| Finance and premises | Overseeing the Financial Performance of the School: Governors have worked with the school to ensure continued achievement of the Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS). We utilise regular budget monitoring reports to enable us to challenge how spending is aligned with the school budget thus ensuring solvency and probity, and ensuring financial resources were used effectively. Governors also monitored how the Pupil Premium and Sports funding was being used. 8/5/24 23/5/25 | Impact: The budget is managed effectively and financial resources are used appropriately. |
External evaluation of governing boards
Engaging with external professional expertise supports the governing board to hold school leaders to account and to triangulate all of the sources of information and evidence it receives and is supplied with, as well as ensuring it fulfils its statutory responsibilities and maintains compliance.
Below is a summary of the external support the governing board has accessed during this academic year and the impact of that support:
| External expertise | Reason for external expertise | Impact of external expertise |
| Enid Fairbrother | School Improvement Partner Enid is supporting the school as a School Improvement Advisors | Further evidence to support the school in their drive to improvement following the RI judgement. |
| Margret Armstrong | Support the school through Local Authority Reviews | Along with SIP there reports have evidence the improvements in identified areas and next steps. |
| Debra Walker CEO IRIS TRUST through TSIO Programme | TSI DFE Funded to support the school since receiving it’s RI judgement. Supported the Head teacher and Governors ensuring that strategic systems are in place to monitor the curriculum and make required improvements. Met with the Chair of Governors | Debra has supported the Head teacher and systems have been implemented to support Leaders at senor and subject levels to ensure consistency.. Visits by staff to partners schools have had a positive impact on strategies to further support improvements in teaching and learning. |
| St Michael’s English Hub | Headteacher has in her reports kept Governors up to date with the progress being made. | Governors have external validation that phonics is well taught at Lord Blyton Primary school. |
Governor training
The governing board takes their responsibility to stay up-to-date seriously and places high importance on this, including undergoing any necessary training. The table below shows all of the various training and CPD the governors and governing board has undertaken during 2024-2025
| Governor | Training or CPD undertaken | Impact of the training or CPD |
| Shelia Hussain 10/8/24 | HT Performance Management | Member of the HT Performance Management Committee |
| Vicki Waller Ed Malcolm Joanne Burnett 25/3/25 | Ofsted Framework- Expectations of Governors | Governors up to date with the Framework and where the school stands and expectations for Inspections on the current framework. |
| Cllr Judith Taylor 4/3/25 | SEND in Mainstream Education | Governors have current knowledge of legislation and expectations of pupils with SEND in mainstream |
| Joanne Burnett 5/6/25 | SEND in Mainstream Education | Governors have current knowledge of legislation and expectations of pupils with SEND in mainstream |
| Wendy Stead 4/3/25 | SEND in Mainstream Education | Governors have current knowledge of legislation and expectations of pupils with SEND in mainstream |
| Cllr Judith Taylor Joanne Burnett Ed Malcolm Vicki Waller | New OFSTED Framework | Governors up to date with the new Toolkit and expectations for Inspections after 10th November 2025 |
Governing board priority areas for this academic year
To remain in line with the development of the school, and to continue to drive improvement through our strategic work, the governing board has identified the following areas to be focussed
| OVERVIEW OF IDEINTIFIED SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES AND SUCCESS CRITERIA 2025-2026 | ||
| SIP Priorities linked to new Ofsted areas | Success Criteria | |
| Leadership and Governance | Strategic Leadership | Accurate self – evaluation underpins a focussed school improvement plan (AfI 4) System for managing and supporting subject coordinators is effective and results in consistency of approach (AfI 4)Subject coordinators add capacity to the leadership of the curriculum Rigorous monitoring and feedback to teachers results in all teaching being of a consistently high standard (AfI 4) Appraisal objectives link to SIP and Ofsted areas for improvement Professional learning programme directly impacts the quality of teaching and learning New system for recording assessment contributes to raising standards across the school |
| Governance | Governors’ support and challenge and are assured of the quality and impact of leaders’ work (AfI 4)Governors monitor the implementation of the plan and hold the leadership to account (AfI 4)School Compliant with additional funding streams. PP and Sports fundingGovernor monitoring informs the boards’ view of the school’s effectiveness | |
| Curriculum and Teaching | Teaching and Learning | Foundation subject curriculums are focused on the most important knowledge (AfI1)Leaders and staff deliver the whole curriculum effectively (AfI1)Teaching and learning in all subjects are at a consistently high standardImplementation of the Foundation subjects is embedded consistently and secures high standards of teaching and learning (AfI2)Curriculums in the foundations subjects align with the context of the school (AfI2)Teaching of foundations subjects aligns with pupils’ starting points based on accurate assessment (AfI1)Pupil Voice contributes to accurate evaluation of the implementation of subjects and impact of lessons on pupil progress All pupil particularly those with SEND or from disadvantaged groups articulate the knowledge associated with a specific subject and know more and remember more Assessment is used effectively in lessons, across units and throughout the yearModeration of assessment information secures accurate data that supports better pupil progress for all groups |
| Achievement | Outcomes | Increased number of pupils achieve at both expected and greater depth in reading, writing and maths and in the combined By the end of Year 6 more pupils achieve the higher standard in reading, writing and GPSWork books demonstrate high quality work and reflect the ambition of the school |
| Personal Development | Personal Development | Children’s understanding of healthy relationships is clear (AfI 3)Pupils can articulate and describe Fundamental British Values (AfI3)Children understand and are prepared for life in modern Britain (AfI3) |
| Attendance and Behaviour | Attendance | Reduce the number of pupils who are deemed persistently absent |
| Safeguarding | Safeguarding | Compliance with new Early Years Safeguarding requirements |