Governor updates and news for April 2019
24 April 2019
Dear Staff, Parents and Carers
Governors have been working to complete the process of negotiations with the Jubilee Federation as we enter into a Management Partnership to secure Executive Head leadership from Mrs Gray. Mrs Gray has been working with Mr Nelmes and our Heads of Learning, Mrs Milford and Mrs Padbury. Mr Nelmes will continue to support us up until the end of April ensuring that Mrs Gray has a full handover and continues to familiarise herself with our two schools, their staff and pupils. We are grateful for the part that each person has played in this process and look forward to welcoming Mrs Gray as our new Executive Head Teacher at the start of the summer term.
Mr Nelmes and Mrs Gray have worked together to agree staffing adjustments during the Management Partnership to ensure that Mr Nelmes’ additional roles are continued. My thanks to those staff who have been willing to take on these additional roles; governors are delighted that our SEN and Safeguarding team are strengthened by this arrangement and we will continue in our governance role to monitor the effectiveness of these important aspects of our schools.
Into these new roles we welcome Mrs Turner, Class 3 teacher at Woodbury Salterton who will now also take up the post of SEND Intervention teacher to support children with SEN in key stage 2 in our new Learning Hub at Littleham. Also our thanks to Mrs Hooper, Key Stage 1 Leader at Littleham who will take on an additional role as Senior Teacher at Littleham. Mrs Hooper will join the safeguarding team. In addition our Heads of Learning will be increasing their leadership time and Mrs Bradbury, our Assistant SENCO, will be increasing her hours and we thank them all for their willingness and team spirit.
We will be saying farewell to our School Business Manager, Mrs Evans who works across both our schools and leads our team of school administrators. Mrs Evans’ role has been very important in ensuring that the federation model is successful. She has helped Mr Nelmes and governors ensure that as an organisation we are financially well led and we are grateful for her hard work and leadership. Into the role of School Administration Manager we welcome Mrs Deborah Maddocks, who will be taking up her post across the Federation continuing the work of Mrs Evans in our two schools leading our admin team.
Governors continue to support the senior leadership team to ensure that your schools are well led. We will be working closely with Mrs Gray for the duration of the Management Partnership supporting her as we monitor the effectiveness for all our schools and ensure the high standards of teaching and learning continue. We are preparing for forthcoming inspections and will ensure that we are ready to demonstrate our strengths and provision for our pupils.
On behalf of the Governing Body, I want to take an opportunity to say a thank you and farewell to our departing Executive Head, Mr Nelmes. Mr Nelmes has led our two schools and supported us to ensure the benefits of collaboration and partnership. We have been very fortunate to have retained an experienced Executive Head Teacher through federation which has resulted in ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ inspection outcomes in Ofsted and SIAMS (the Church school inspection). Mr Nelmes is a great example of a team player- there has been no job too grand or too small for him, he has taken on each role and task with the commitment of making our schools happy and safe places of learning. He has made a point to get to know each child and to be an approachable face of our leadership team to parents. He leaves us to carry on his work in education specialising in supporting pupils with additional educational needs, a role he enjoys and has shown real commitment to. Governors wish him every success and blessings for the future.
If you want to ask any further questions regarding the work of governors or about the Management Partnership please don’t hesitate to get in touch; email me on crooke@littleham.devon.sch.uk
Mrs Clare Rooke
Chair of Governors
Pebblebed Heath Federation