Chair’s Letter to Parents 2024-2025

Dear Families of Barham

Welcome to a new and exciting year at Barham

As we step into the new academic year, on behalf of the Full Governing Board, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our families, both those returning from the summer break and those who are joining us for the first time. It is a privilege to have you as part of our vibrant school community, and we look forward to working together to support your child’s learning and development.

I am pleased to report that our collaboration with Preston Park Primary School continues to thrive, with both schools working closely together to share best practice and resources to ensure the best possible outcomes for our community. Our recent results have been exceptional, benchmarking our performance significantly above national averages. This is a testament to the hard work of our dedicated staff, the enthusiasm of our children, and the support of our families. Together, we have created an environment where every child has the opportunity to flourish.

As the Governing Board, our role is to provide strategic oversight, ensuring that Barham is well-led and managed, and focused on delivering high-quality education for all pupils. We work closely to support and challenge the Interim Executive Headteacher and senior leadership team to set the direction for the school, monitor progress, and ensure that resources are used most effectively. At Barham we are proud to provide a safe, inclusive, and stimulating environment and as a Board we are committed to ensuring that our school is a place where every child feels safe, valued, respected and supported.

A key element of our Board’s work is to set and define the school’s vision including the school’s culture, values and ethos. With this in mind, following input from a range of stakeholders, we are excited to launch our refreshed vision, of which our children are at the forefront:

• We are safe, happy and kind learners
• We are ambitious and strive to reach the highest goals
• We are curious and use connections to make sense of the world
• We are change makers

This is underpinned by our values which provide a strategic framework for how we develop the whole child: respect, resilient, risk taking, reflective and resourceful. We will continue to focus on maintaining high standards of teaching and learning, supporting staff development, and fostering strong partnerships with parents and the wider community.

This year, we are delighted to be introducing a soft start. This means we will be opening our schools gates to our families from 8:30am.  You will be able to drop your child into school from 8:30am and children will be able to enter the school building and go straight into class and start their learning!  We will also be inviting families in one morning a week to read with your children in the classroom. More information on this will come out from senior leaders this week.

As we look ahead, we also take a moment to reflect on the contributions of those who have helped shape our school community. Many of you will remember our former Headteacher, Karen Giles, who passed away last year. Karen’s dedication, passion, and commitment to education left a lasting legacy, and she is deeply missed by all who knew her. I would like to thank everyone for making Karen’s memorial event so special - it was an honor to celebrate Karen’s life and her incredible impact on our school and beyond.

I would like to thank you for your continued support. We are excited about the year ahead and the many opportunities it will bring.

As a board we value your feedback and look forward to working together to ensure the best possible outcomes for all our children.

Wishing you all a wonderful start back

Yours sincerely

Daksha Thanki

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE BARHAM BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND THEIR WORK

Governors volunteer for the role and are appointed for a variety of reasons. The overall aim is that, across the team, we have an effective range of perspectives, skills and experiences.  Governors do not receive payment for their work but the Department for Education (DfE) makes our duties very clear in their Maintained schools governance guide. 7th March 2024.  

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/governance-in-maintained-schools/1-effective-governance

“The core functions of the governing body…include, but are not limited to ensuring:

• that the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined
• that the headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of the school
• the sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources.”

BARHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL CONSTITUTION

If Spaces are shown in the table below, this indicates places within the constitution which can optionally be filled.  Where Vacancies are shown this indicates places within the constitution which should be filled.

NAME	GOVERNOR TYPE	MEMBERSHIP	APPOINTMENT DATE	APPOINTMENT END
Georgina Nutton	Ex Officio	FGB, F&P, SCHR	01.09.2023	31.08.2025
Stelios Stylianou	Co-opted	FGB, F&P	05/06/2023	04/06/2027
Anjni Danji	Parent	FGB, SCHR	16.03.2020	15.03.2024
Harshal Naik	Co-opted	FGB, F&P	25/03/2024	24/03/2028
Jean Joyce	Co-opted	FGB, SCHR	25/09/2023	24/09/2027
Emilie Juan De Mendoza	Co-opted	FGB, F&P	05.06.2023	02.07.2024
Daksha Thanki	Co-opted	FGB, F&P, SCHR	25/03/2024	24/03/2028
Paulette Williamson	Co-opted	FGB, F&P	25/09/2023	24/09/2027
Vijesh Patel	Co-opted	FGB, F&P, SCHR	25/03/2024	24/03/2028
Elaine Webb	Co-opted	FGB, SCHR	27/03/2023	26/03/2027
Louis Reynolds	Co-opted	FGB, SCHR	27/04/2022	26/04/2026
Dimple Pagarani	Staff	FGB, SCHR	04.03.2020	17.05.2024
Paul Lorber	LA	FGB, SCHR	08/05/2023	07/05/2027
Siobhan Donnellan	Staff	FGB, SCHR	02/05/2024	01/05/2028
Devraj Singh Saberwal	Parent	FGB, F&P, SCHR	22/04/2024	21/04/2028

• Publication of Governors Details and Register of Interests for the last 12 months: Click Click to view document 
   
• Attendance for the last 12 months
  Click to view document

OUR VISION FOR THE SCHOOL AND HOW WE WILL GET THERE
A link to our attendance record and Terms of our Committees are found in About Us/Governors on the Barham website.        

Our overall vision is summarised in this quick “at-a-glance” graphic which we update each Autumn.  The Ethos and School Values designed to make this happen are clear all around the school. Each academic year staff and governors update a detailed Strategic Priorities document which explains how everyone is regularly checking learning and then judging when different actions need to be taken. Progress against the Strategic Priorities is discussed by Governors at our termly meetings.  We routinely have one Main meeting, one Finance Committee meeting and one School, Community and Human Resources committee meeting every term. Other meetings take place when required.  

A Panel of Governors is delegated responsibility for the Performance Management of the Headteacher and for ensuring effective performance management systems for everyone.

We expect the highest possible standards from all staff and, in return, we strive to ensure their wellbeing, professional development opportunities and rewarding roles in the school.

To keep ourselves fully informed, we usually consider three types of reports.  Reports from the Headteacher and senior staff are detailed and rigorous analyses of  the current quality of education and financial prudence.  Individual Governor’s Link Visit Forms give snapshots of particular issues we are interested in at different times.  External reports give us invaluable perspectives from people who may have little detailed knowledge of the school but who can help us to compare ourselves to other similar organisations. These include reports such as the latest OFSTED visit, Challenge Partners scrutiny, Brent Financial Audit recommendations, and many others.

A large number of the Governors duties are connected to compliance with statutory requirements. To keep ourselves up to date nationally we have Gold Membership of the National Governors’ Association.    We all agree to adhere to the NGA Code of Conduct. As a state maintained school, we adopt many of the policies  of the London Borough of Brent. We make full use of the services they offer in relation to Health and Safety regulations, legal requirements, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and employment practices.  We continuously review our school agreed policies to ensure that they are up to date and relevant.  You can find all these Policies on our school website under About Us / Policies.

If you think school governance at one of the Brent schools may be of interest to you, you can find out more information at: https://www-prod.brent.gov.uk/education-schools-and-learning/be-a-brent-school-governor

THE CURRICULUM.

Our curriculum is everything taught to your children at Barham school. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, the National Curriculum for England and Wales and the local Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) guidelines.  Additionally we include local projects and visits which staff believe greatly enrich the curriculum. As parents and carers you get full information from your year groups and the termly school Newsletters. Details of our current curriculum offer can be found on our website under Our Learning.

OUTCOMES FOR PUPILS.

Through our surveys, our face to face meetings, our attendance at year group assemblies, discussions at coffee mornings and our reports from staff, we believe that you value the termly meetings about your children’s progress at school and feel well informed about what they learn, how they learn and how they are able to apply what they have learnt in the future.  Teaching staff continuously observe how children are learning.  They then tweak the activities to challenge and encourage them.

National tests are useful in many ways and they give us the chance to compare how different groups of children in different schools are performing.  Every Autumn senior school leaders and governor representatives look carefully at these comparisons and put in place any additional or altered provision needed as a result. We employ an external consultant to attend our Annual Review of Standards to ensure that we have both external and internal perspectives.

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND/OR DISABILITIES. 

Associate Headteacher Nyasha Brackett-Thomas is responsible for co-ordinating all the extra support and interventions for children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities in the school.  This includes keeping parents informed, holding annual review meetings, liaising with outside agencies involved with your child as well as over-seeing all aspects of this area.  A summary of this work is on the website Our Learning / SEND.

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS.

We know that schools may seem to be places full of lots of rules and, as busy adults, these can sometimes seem frustrating.  However, these rules are essential for many reasons from basic safety to teaching life skills.  Many of the rules are designed by the children themselves – in their classrooms, through the School Council and through the school Cabinet.  Some are legal Safeguarding requirements.  Some are put in place to reduce the risks of an accident or mistake happening again. Thank you for supporting these measures and for immediately reporting anything that you think looks wrong or potentially dangerous.

An orderly, respectful environment is the most powerful aspect of a safe school.  The excellent behaviour of the children at Barham, and the vigilance and care of adults, is commented on by all visitors and external assessors. We are determined to maintain these exemplary standards.    Regular attendance is another key driver and we thank you for following our Attendance Policy.

At times there may be reasons when you need to meet more regularly than usual with school staff in relation to one of your children.  The full staff list is on the website and your child’s class teacher or staff in the Front Office will help you with initial queries.