Doubled Up blog

I've managed to raid the car and get my paperwork from the finance training out and I was pleasantly surprised to read my last blog and see that I had remembered most of the training points. One or two I didn't cover are below:

1) Governors SHOULD ask questions about the budget - look in particular at where numbers are very different to previous years. Ask why numbers have gone up or down.

2) This is important, and is difficult to describe without a budget plan in front of you. However, I'll try! In the left hand column of the plan, there is a list of letters and numbers - the important ones are I (Income) and E (Expenses). Now, the key thing to look for is this... Add up I1, I2, I3, I4 and I5 (this is your main income) then divide them by E1+E2+E3+E4+E5+E6+E7 (these are your staffing costs) and you will get a percentage. This is the percentage of your school's money that is being spent on staffing. This percentage should be around 85%. That is healthy. However, if it is 90% or more, then your school is in grave danger of going into deficit. Told you it was complicated, but it will become clear if you have your budget plan in front of you and it is really good advice.

Anyway, that's it. The sum of my knowledge of money (except for the fact that I know I never seem to have enough left at the end of the month!).

It seems rather odd to have come to the end of my blogging here.

I am now in my third year as a governor and feel that I now really understand the school and am able to make a valuable contribution. And my eldest will be moving to a new school next year! I am hoping that I will be able to continue to work as a governor for them and maybe stand again when my term runs out. So far, it has been a great learning experience for me and I would recommend it to anyone who may be considering becoming a governor. If you are - here are things you need to know:

1) Don't be afraid to ask questions - if you aren't sure, chances are at least 10 people will be as confused as you are.

2) Go on training. You won't just pick things up as you go.

3) Commit fully - visit the school. Offer to help (particularly if you are a governor at a small school)

4) Get the most out of it for yourself - go to the performances, the assemblies etc. Get to know the school - that's the best bit - in comparison the meetings are dryness itself!

5) NEVER forget the following: EVERYTHING YOU DO SHOULD BE IN THE INTERESTS OF THE CHILDREN AND THEIR LEARNING AND WELL-BEING. If you remember that, you can't go wrong!

That's all folks!

I went on a governors' finance training course last night. I had asked to go because I always get in a panic about the FGB finance meeting and I find I don't understand the accounts (I find it hard enough keeping on top of my own bank statements!)

Anyway, I was pleased to find myself in a room with other governors who found themselves in the same position as me - always good to know you are not alone!

By the end of the training, I felt much happier and I have bulleted below the key things I found out:

1) The per capita amount schools get is based on the ACTUAL PRESENCE on a particular day (in our LA in January). So, if lots of kids are absent, funding goes down. (Perhaps worth having a 'special day' on that day to get the harder to reach children in?)

2) Primary schools can carry over 5% of their funding to the next year, secondary 8% without it being clawed back.

3) Financial budgets no longer have to be approved by the whole GB - the finance committee can do this with the Chair (who should be on that committee) signing it off.

4) The school's version of the budget is generally much more detailed than the version sent to the LA, and governors need not go into this detail - it is needed on a management, but not strategic level. That said - this is the bit I have wasted hours on trying to understand, and I know that I am not alone. We have decided that we will look into laying out the sub-sections within the same headings as the LA provide, to make this easier to understand in future.

5) FMSiS is now compulsory for primary as well as secondary schools. Most people who have done it found it a nightmare paperchase, but also found one or two things that could be improved upon so deemed it worth doing. However, my understanding is that the whole point of FMSiS is to prevent fraud and that auditors were going to visit every three years to check on schools' financial practises. Apparently (and this is only hear-say, so don't quote me on it!) there are no longer funds to do this and schools probably won't be getting any further auditing visits!

There were a few other points, but I left my notes in the car and my husband has taken them to work. WIll post again tomorrow.

Something has been playing on my mind since last Saturday. It's been niggling away at the back there, despite my efforts to keep it buried and despite the demands of three children during a wet half term holiday.

When I was at the Ofsted celebration, I sat with one of the YR teachers. She is highly committed and experienced. But one thing she said had me sitting up straight in my chair. Outside school, she teaches drama and speech and when she was younger her dream was to go into acting. The Head asked her whether she ever regrets not following that dream and she said, "Only when I'm spending 5 hours recording my anecdotal evidence."

My immediate thought was - if she is spending 5 hours doing that, she is not spending 5 hours on something that will be improving pupils' learning. Nor is she spending 5 hours with her own family or doing something that is relaxing and beneficial to her.

What I don't yet know is what the anecdotal evidence is used for, so it may be that it has its advantages. But I am sure that there must be a way to get someone else to do the recording, while she concentrates on creating great lessons.

My question to you is this;

What do you or your school do to make teachers' lives easier so that they can concentrate on the most important issue which is delivering great lessons and maximising learning?