Four new governors have recently been appointed to Morley’s Governing Body.

• Ruth Kershner – Ruth is a university lecturer in primary education and psychology of education at Cambridge University. She supports trainees on the Primary PGCE course, co-coordinates the Primary Masters course and teaches in the areas of primary education, inclusive education, research methods and psychology. Prior to this, Ruth worked as a primary teacher, learning support teacher and educational psychologist.
• Sarah Smalley – Sarah has recently retired. Until very recently she was chief executive of the Religious Education Council, a national education council that promotes inclusive RE teaching, ensuring it is relevant to children of all faiths and none. Sarah has considerable board and HR experience and worked for 30 years in education in teaching and advisory roles.
• Anna Robinson – Anna has a background in drama teaching and before moving to Cambridge was Head of Performing Arts at a secondary school in London. She has experience of OFSTED, performance management in schools, monitoring standard and effective staff-governor relationships. Anna has a son in Year 1.
• Marc Neesam – Marc is the Primary Education Programme Manager for the Royal Society of Chemistry and is responsible for developing their strategic plan for supporting the teaching of science across all primary schools in the UK. He is involved with developing science policy, curriculum and training opportunities for teachers. Marc is also a qualified and experienced primary teacher with particular interests in science, outdoor learning and ICT.

In the last few weeks, governors have taken the following actions to support schools improvement:

• We have approved the following policies: grievance, sex and relationships education, exclusions, collective worship, behaviour principles.
• Governors reviewed recent progress made towards targets identified as priorities in the school’s Raising Achievement Plan. These are: to embed and deliver a consistent curriculum, to establish new assessment procedures, to develop spelling and to further develop teaching. We were particularly pleased to note that the school in considering buying software that will make it easier for staff to track progress of children in their class and that phase and subject leaders are working collaboratively to developing new methods of self-evaluation and planning.
• Governors reviewed data showing progress, attainment and attendance of all children in the school over the Autumn Term.
• Governors have met weekly with Ms Brown as part of her induction.