Global Schools Association
YHGSA Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday 18th January 2007
1.30 PM at the University of Hull, Meeting Room 2
Notes of the meeting and action points
1. Present:
Sylvia Usher (Chair)
Bob Huey (Vice Chair)
Anne Barker (Secretary)
Bob Hirst (Evaluator)
Charlotte Hunt (Board Member)
Ray Kirtley (Co-ordinator)
Rob Unwin (DECSY)
Apologies:
John Errington (Board Member)
Margot Brown (Board Member)
Clive LaPensee (Treasurer)
2. Minutes of previous meeting, 23 November 2006
Item 9: The minutes stated that Rob and another SG member/leader would attend the meeting on 18th January 2007. We did agree that we would invite a Strategy Group member/leader to all future Board meetings, two would always attend and each person would attend two consecutive meetings with an overlap to ensure continuity.
3. Matters arising
Discussion around the publication of the minutes:
It was agreed that minutes from YHGSA Board meetings will be published on the YHGSA website. Any items considered sensitive or confidential would be dealt with in Part B of the agenda in a similar way to school governing bodies. These agendas and their minutes would not be published.
Additional funding of £65,000 from DFID
Ray issued a work plan to all beneficiaries in late November together with a request that beneficiaries agree with their plan. All beneficiaries with the exception of Leeds DEC have now responded. The next task is to issue contracts with instructions on how the funds will be paid. We have consulted with DFID and received instructions about how to claim. Four of the six grants will go to DECs which have to state which LAs they will be contacting:
DECSY - identified Sheffield and Rotherham
Hull - identified North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire
We have not yet received a response from Leeds or from the Centre for
Global Education.
Sylvia said she had spoken to Mick Bradley regarding the Centre’s work with Local Authorities. She was concerned that work was being done with an authority who had already appointed a person to specifically focus on Global Citizenship and felt it would be better to concentrate on Local Authorities where there was less activity or a greater demand for services. However, Charlotte said that the guidelines did not restrict Centre’s choices of LA and perhaps they should have been more specific. .
Action for Ray. Contact Leeds and CGE regarding which Local Authorities they intend to work with.
4. Planning for the Consultation Event (1st February 2007)
At the last meeting the Board asked for consultation documents to be circulated as follows:
1) Questionnaire with covering letter to Local Authorities and Organisations.
2) Questionnaire with covering letter to YHGSA members.
3) Strategy groups to complete a ‘Health Check’.
The responses were expected back by the 29th December 2006, and the first two sets of information have now been consolidated into single documents. The Board also asked Ray to set up a date for consultation to which members and groups could be invited to attend. An email was also sent on 29th November to Strategy Group leaders with an invite to attend this consultation session.
The consultation meeting will take place on 1st February 2007 at the Friends Meeting House, York, between 2.00 and 4.00pm.
The Board also requested Ray to contract with Bob Hirst to attend this meeting, work with Ray on preparation for the 1st February and facilitate the consultation meeting. Bob Hirst said he saw the purpose of the 2.00 to 4.00 meeting was for people who usually don’t get the chance to voice their opinions to do so. Ray agreed that the purpose of the session was for users of the services and not for the providers. Rob thought this will be the only chance people will have to get together and therefore the expectation amongst all stakeholders is that this meeting is where the next stage of planning will take place.
Sylvia commented that there are lots of changes happening in education and the YHGSA needs to take these on board. The model for 2007 may not be relevant over the next 5 years.
Ray advised that the planning process needed to be completed by 14th February 2007. Charlotte felt that this was too soon and that bad decisions may be made under pressure, we should ask for more time. Ray also mentioned that the original project still has £22,000 to spend in the next financial year. Will this be additional to the £165,000 or subsumed within the new amount?
Action for Ray: Contact DFID to request extension to deadline and clarity over agreed funding.
Bob Hirst suggested that since time was so short we work on proposals prior to the consultation of 1st February and present items for discussion or amendment. He raised the following on strategic approaches:
• How can we improve partnerships?
• Do we need a greater involvement in teacher-led activities?
• Are we serving the whole region or are areas being left out?
• We need to look carefully at one of the LA responses and make
sure our objectives fit closely with those of LAs
The following points were raised from Bob Hirst’s questions:
Rob Unwin:
• It is important to work with subject areas
• ITE doesn’t appear
• The Early Years strategy must be considered
• Should we be working more closely with school improvement areas
such as numeracy or literacy?
• Should we continue with the Strategy Groups?
• Should there be more local delivery?
Bob Huey:
• We should also consider the movement towards ‘sustainable
schools’ around the region
• There is also a regional ITE initiative working on sustainable
schools
• Governor level - should we be involved?
• Greater teacher involvement is needed
• Partnership organisations*
*In response Ray said he does approach organisations however, there is not enough time to work with them. What does ‘working with’ mean in the YHGSA context? Clearer definitions are needed and not much money has been put into partnership work with organisations apart from via CPD and this is proving to be oversubscribed. There are also areas that are not served well by DECs. The East Midlands has used EES money to appoint two global education support teachers for Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire where there is minimal DEC activity.
Anne Barker:
Anne suggested that the following should not be overlooked:
• Inclusion
• SEAL
• The extended school - money to work on global education
• Links with Surestart
• Sustainable schools
• Behaviour/conflict resolution
• Embedding, developing and sustaining North South linking
Charlotte Hunt:
• How can we maintain a balance between valuing the knowledge and
expertise of the DECs in the region and working with new partners?
• How can we make the co-ordinator’s role more strategic when
we don’t pay for centralised administration support?
• When can we do an analysis of the money YHGSA spends on admin/meeting
time compared to the money spent on delivery?
Sylvia Usher:
• The Association needs to be more in touch with teachers
• We also need to be more aware of educational changes
• Working practices should be amended so that there is a clearer
management structure
Bob Huey commented that he was struck by how little money is put into the administration of the organisation.
Bob Hirst agreed to go away and work on some strategy ideas to share between 1.00 -2.00 PM with DECs and Strategy Groups and with the wider audience between 2.00 - 4.00pm. He also agreed to give some thought to some of the strategic discussions YHGSA may have to have in order to submit its proposal.
Action for Rob Unwin: Rob to email all strategy groups and DECs informing them of this process and inviting them to confirm to Ray that individuals would be attending.
Structure of the day:
• Context of the YHGSA - quick reference to successes
• Introduction
• Strategies/proposals displayed on wall with sticky dots for individuals
to add own ideas after discussions. (Requirements: black pens to add ideas,
coloured pens to develop ideas)
• Feedback from whole room (maximum number could be 25)
It was agreed to pay additional funds to Bob to work with Ray on the proposal.
Action for Ray: To work with Bob between 1st February and 8th February.
5. Formalising links between the Strategy Groups and the YHGSA Board
Rob (representing a DEC and a member of a SG) was generally unhappy with the current structure. Ray proposed that the two people here at future meetings should be paid for half a day. He will discuss this idea with the Strategy Group leaders.
6. AoB
Working with partner organisations:
Action for Ray: Invite Tanya Mowbray, Peace Child International and James Pitt, ITE Sustainable Development Forum to the Consultation on 1st February
Lynette Aitken from Fairtrade Schools has a £8000 - £10000 grant for the region to get schools involved in certification scheme.
Action for Ray: Contact Lynette to accept this offer
Decision: Mick Bradley can attend ITE Sustainable Development Forum and be paid for representing the YHGSA. He will have to make a report to the Board at the following meeting.
The World Classroom:
This is a new DFID publication about North South linking. DFID has offered up to £1,500 to support a regional launch. Ray proposed that this be combined with a forthcoming British Council dissemination conference on 14th June. This would mean that the region is just offered a single event rather than 2 related events in the same term.
Action for Ray: Ask Chrissie Dell to help with this part of the event then go ahead and seek DFID approval.
Other Board members:
Rob suggested the National Chair of UKOWLA, a retired adviser.
7. Date, time and location of next meeting
Monday 5th February
York St John University
1.30 PM (Holgate 9)
