AGM Report 2019

Archdiocese of Liverpool Primary School Improvement Trust (ALPSIT) Annual General Meeting 27 September 2019

Annual Report and Financial Statement For the year ending 31 August 2019

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The Archdiocese of Liverpool Primary School Improvement Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered at LACE, Croxteth Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool, L17 1AA.

Company Number 10912407.

Contents 1. Company Objectives

Pages 3 - 4

2. Achievements and Performance

Pages 5 - 9

3. Structure, Governance and Management

Pages 10 - 12

Appendix A – Company Accounts

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1. Company Objectives ALPSIT has been established to fulfil a number of objectives in respect of the primary phase schools in the Archdiocese. These are established in the Articles of Association provided to all Members and Directors. In fulfilling the objects of the charity, the Members and Directors shall seek to: •

promote the efficiency and effectiveness of educational institutions providing primary education and the efficient and effective application of resources for such purposes including by promoting and disseminating models of good practice and by the delivery of support services generally to such institutions;

•

advance the education of people who work or volunteer in, or govern, educational institutions in order to assist those persons to deliver a high-quality education to the pupils and communities served by those institutions;

•

establish, maintain, support and sponsor (where appropriate) Catholic Academies under the direction of the Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Trust;

•

promote or assist in the promotion of Catholic education in the Diocese, being education which is conducted in accordance with the principles, practices, tenets and teachings of the Catholic Church and all Canon Law applying thereto;

•

facilitate collaboration between the Catholic primary schools in the Diocese and beyond, in conjunction with the Diocesan Education Service, so that they may better serve their communities and promote the common good;

•

promote or assist in the promotion of religious education and religious worship in schools in the Archdiocese.

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The ALPSIT Membership Rules, provided to all Members and Directors, further set out to: •

maintain, promote and develop a Catholic ethos in each Archdiocesan school;

•

secure a high quality education for all pupils in all Archdiocesan schools;

•

facilitate collaboration between the schools and the sharing of expertise and best practice in respect of teaching and learning;

•

provide and develop strategic leadership and local capacity and accountability, attracting, recruiting and developing the very best teachers and leaders;

•

support governors and parents in fulfilling their roles;

•

develop and maintain strategic partnerships with key national and international organisations who can assist the trust to secure its objectives;

•

provide a strong financial base for Catholic primary education in the Archdiocese, committed to reinvesting any surplus generated from its activities into the trust’s capacity to further these objectives.

There are no proposed changes to the Membership Rules for 2019/20.

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2. Achievements and Performance The Charity’s activities for the period 2018/19, as set out in the Membership Rules, were as follows: •

providing high quality information, support and challenge to schools to improve standards through appointing a primary School Improvement Adviser and working with dedicated School Improvement Partners who are vetted and monitored by the trust;

•

preparing schools for the developing assessment accountability measures through joint standardisation of pupils’ evidence of learning, and shared agreement of expectations of progress across reception and key stages 1 and 2;

•

brokering and quality assuring a school-to-school support, consultancy and professional development offer through consultants based in schools and centrally as noted above;

•

offering professional senior and middle leadership development, provided through the teaching schools in the Archdiocese;

•

offering support for governance and for newly qualified teachers;

•

facilitating learning hubs and research and development networks between schools;

•

capturing, transferring and sharing effective practice across and between schools

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A strategic plan for the period 2018 – 2021 was established, based on five strategic objectives.

These objectives, along with progress over the year, are presented in the table below: Strategic Objective

Identified Outcomes

1. Communication To ensure all our Strategy schools within the Archdiocese of Liverpool feel supported and heard by ALPSIT

Activities

Progress

Create and maintain ALPSIT website

ALPSIT website fully operational and up to date with all opportunities: https://alpsit.org.uk/

ALPSITnews Twitter and Facebook set up and all schools with twitter followed

ALPSIT Twitter account operational: https://twitter.com/ALPSITnews

Half Termly Newsletters

Newsletters shared via email and on the website. Feedback very positive https://alpsit.org.uk/news/2019-0708-july-newsletter

ALPSIT Termly update

ALPSIT Facebook site www.facebook.com/ALPSITnews1

fully

is

Three conducted as part of the Archdiocese Headteacher meetings.

School visits Trust advisor has personally visited 103 schools to date.

2. School Improvement

To ensure that all schools have access to high quality school to school support To ensure systematic sharing of good practice and lessons learned within the Trust

Solution satellites Sharing of good practice directory Annual conference

There are currently 13 solution satellites up and running. Model is working well Good practice directory is on the website, people seem to be preferring face to face than the directory model.

2nd Conference is due to take place on 27th September 2019

To ensure schools within ALPSIT are supported to achieve good or better (Ofsted) 6

and can meet national attainment and progress requirements 3. SIP Service

To ensure all schools within the trust have a school improvement partner To ensure, through the development of a SIP service, that all SLPSIT schools that would like an ALPSIT SIP have access to one

High quality training and support for SIPs

76 schools with Archdiocesan SIPs, with other schools accessing SIPs from elsewhere. All schools have access to a SIP

New SIP Training Half termly meetings

20 ALPSIT SIPs have been engaged Regular training for SIPs Development of a SIP handbook

Yearly skills analysis

Data sharing between ALPSIT and all local authorities

Ongoing monitoring of SIP reports

Data analysis service employed to interpret and present data

Access to Free NPQ training Talent management pilot

NPQH, NPQSL, NPQML, and NPQEL scholarship places funded for schools in ALPSIT and ALSSIT

To ensure the role of the SIP is supported, managed and monitored to ensure a highquality service is provided 4. Professional Development

To ensure all ALPSIT schools recruit and retain the highest quality staff To ensure all staff have CPD opportunities provided to help them grow and improve in their role

Talent management steering group Leadership established development at all levels.

Eight schools trailing the matrix this year Requested CPD Funding securing to intensively focus opportunities on embedding one local authority area.

Funding secured to map leadership across the diocese to design new programmes to support all levels 7

To ensure that leadership is strategically mapped across the Trust and succession planning and talent management are key features 5. Financial Sustainability

To ensure that the role of the Trust is financially sustainable

Many additional CPD focused on school improvement requested and conducted this year including SEF, Ofsted and Data training

Develop opportunities for collaborative purchasing agreements across the Trust

To ensure our schools benefit financially due to any economies of scale brokerage and partnerships developed

Agreements brokered with companies including Pearsons, The School Bus, Hope University, Angel solutions, Century tech, School spider, Parentapps, Steam school and Belouga for preferential rates for ALPSIT members ALPSIT working closely with ALSSIT’s Finance Director to explore future procurement opportunities Contract secured via DFE procurement platform for office supplies for schools.

To ensure any additional funding streams are utilised to benefit the work of the Trust

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In addition there are a number of further achievements that highlight the impact to schools of agreements brokered on behalf of the Members. These include: • • • • •

SEF training attended by 185 head teachers/deputy headteachers, delivering an overall saving of £18,500 on the usual cost of training to schools.

Behaviour training attended by 160 ALPSIT members, delivering an overall saving of £12,100 on the usual cost of training to schools.

Ofsted training attended by 71 headteachers, delivering an overall saving of £7,100 on the usual cost of training to schools.

IDSR Training attended by 144 senior leaders and governors, delivering an overall saving £12,280 on the usual cost of training to schools.

Over 200 staff have participated in the Free National Professional Qualification scholarship offer, delivering an overall saving to schools of over £800,000 to date.

In the Archdiocesan Education Department’s strategic plan survey, 100% of School Improvement partners facilitated by ALPSIT were rated good or outstanding, with many other positive comments received about the impact of ALPSIT.

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3. Structure, Governance, and Management In accordance with the Articles of Association and the Membership Rules, the Board of Directors is made up of at least the following: (a)

The Episcopal Vicar for Schools and Colleges (ex officio);

(b)

the Director of Schools and Colleges (ex officio);

(c)

the Diocesan Schools Officers (Primary) (ex officio);

(d)

Up to eleven persons elected by those Member Educational Institutions who are primary schools or academies (including “all-through� schools) entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting with three being voted by and elected as a representatives of those schools who are Teaching Schools and eight being headteachers of a primary school or academy and each being a representative of either the local authority areas of Halton, Knowsley, Lancashire, Liverpool, Sefton , St Helens, Warrington and Wigan, and;

(e) one person as a representative of the governors from educational institutions offering primary education within Liverpool Archdiocese, jointly nominated by the governors of those institutions.

Directors who are elected shall hold office for a period of two years from the date of that election, without prejudice to their re-election.

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The Board of Directors for 2019/20 Position

Director

Date of Appointment

Episcopal Vicar for Education (ex officio)

Fr Michael Fitzsimons 01/09/2019

Director of Schools and Colleges (ex Tim Warren officio)

11/08/2017

Diocesan Schools Officer (Primary) (ex Bernie Shiels officio)

01/09/2019

Diocesan Schools Officer (Primary) (ex Kathy Hall officio)

01/09/2019

Diocesan Schools Officer (Primary) (ex Paula Jacobs officio)

13/11/2017

Diocesan Schools Officer (Primary) (ex Maria McGarry officio)

13/11/2017

Diocesan Schools Officer (Primary) (ex Gary Senior officio)

13/11/2017

Teaching School Representative

Deborah Bostock

13/11/2017

Teaching School Representative

Janette Cook-Hannah

13/11/2017

Teaching School Representative

Pat Speed

13/11/2017

School Representative (Halton)

Faith Tiernan

13/11/2017

School Representative (Knowsley)

Jude Ryan

13/11/2017

School Representative (Lancashire)

Cecilia Rigby

13/11/2017

School Representative (Liverpool)

Andrea Connearn

13/11/2017

School Representative (St Helens)

Sara Johnson

01/09/2019

School Representative (Sefton)

Pete Chapman

01/09/2019

School Representative (Warrington)

Dominic Vernon

13/11/2017

School Representative (Wigan)

Joanne Farrimond

01/09/2019

Governor Representative

Tony Hegarty

25/11/2017

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Retirements During the year a Rebecca Flynn, Elizabeth Somers, Kathryn Monaghan have provided written notification of their wish to retire from the Board of Directors. To ensure that all places on the Board are filled appropriately, new nominations were sought to fill those vacancies. It has therefore been determined by the Board that the following directors are proposed for 2019/20:

School Representative (St Helens)

Sara Johnson

School Representative (Wigan)

Joanne Farrimond

School Representative (Sefton)

Pete Chapman

Fr Michael O’Dowd retired from his role as the Episcopal Vicar for Education on 31 August 2019. The Archbishop’s appointment to that role is Fr Michael Fitzsimons and he will take up the associated ex officio place on the Board.

Similarly, Ian Beck retired from his post of Diocesan Schools Officer on 31 August 2019; the new appointments to the posts of Diocesan Schools Officer, Bernie Shiels and Kathy Hall, will take up the associated ex officio places on the Board.

It is proposed that all other elected representatives are re-appointed for a second term of office.

Management and Staffing Rhiain Jones was appointed as the ALPSIT Coordinator, as of 1 September 2019, to support with the development, administration and evaluation of projects and workstreams of ALPSIT. This part-time post has been created on a fixed term basis and is subject to further review.

Accountants and Auditors BDO UK have been appointed as accountants and auditors to ALPSIT.

Company Accounts The most recent Company Accounts are provided at Appendix A. The next submission of accounts to Companies House is due in May 2020 and will be presented at the AGM in 2020.

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