YHGSA
YHGSA Board Meeting Minutes

3rd May 2007

10.00 AM at the Fox Room, Friends Meeting House, York

Notes of the meeting and action points

1. Present:

Sylvia Usher (Chair)
Bob Huey (Vice Chair)
Charlotte Hunt (Board Member)
Ray Kirtley (Co-ordinator)
Margot Brown (Board Member)
Mick Bradley (Strategy Group rep)
Celia Robbins (Strategy Group rep)
Anne Barker (Secretary)

Apologies:

John Errington (Board Member)

2. Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting of 22nd February 2007 had already been approved as a correct record and have been published on the YHGSA website and circulated to Strategy Group leaders.

The outcome of RK’s attendance at the QCA meeting of the International/Global Education task group was discussed. RK hoped that one of the schools involved in the YHGSA’s Global School Award could be used as a case study and would talk to Adam Ranson about this matter. The QCA has set up a further task group: ‘Building a curriculum for the 21st century - Dealing with contested and controversial issues’. MB will attend this group and circulate notes.

The Board expressed thanks for the continued work put into the DFID bid by Ray and Bob Hirst.

3. DFID Bid for 2007-2012

a) Summary of the bid

RK gave a summary of the bid in its final version. This was the document as circulated to Board members following final amendments made at the meeting of 22nd February 2007.

b) An update on DFID’s formal approval of the bid (following the EES co-ordinators meeting on 25th April)

RK reported that there had been no discussions of the new funding or when the first instalment was likely to be received at the EES meeting on 25th April. However he had spoken with Diana Dalton informally and understood that a draft letter of approval was expected to be received shortly which should include claim forms with new budget headings. The letter would be formal approval of the bid by DFID.

c) Planning for implementation (Year 1)

RK referred to two documents for this item:

• YHGSA Implementation Plan (already circulated)
• Promoting Partnerships with Local Authorities (circulated at the meeting)

The strategy group leaders had shared their current activities at a meeting earlier that week and CR and RK updated the Board. It had been suggested that the new groups should be known as “Working Groups” rather than “Focus Groups” and this was accepted. The Board also discussed how existing activities would end, and on what timescales. These matters were discussed in the following item.

It was agreed that the YHGSA planning day mentioned in the document be held on 18th June in either York or Leeds. On implementation in general it was agreed that a group should be set up to begin to plan this event (“YHGSA - The next five years”). Bob Huey and Mick Bradley agreed to form a working group with RK and to meet to plan the June event on 17th May (AM) in York. This group would not only oversee the planning of the event but would also help to put together operational guidelines and the registration form.

It was also agreed that the financial transactions of all three working groups would operate through YHGSA branch accounts in a similar way to the existing N/S group. RK was authorised to open two additional branch accounts with the Unity Trust bank.

The Board then moved on to look at the second document. RK explained that this needed to be approved as soon as possible so DECs could talk to their LA contacts with both parties having a clear idea about what would be expected and what funding was on offer.

Board members felt that this document for new DEC/LA partnerships was generally too complicated and the budget should not appear on the document at this early stage. The board requested that signatures should be added to the form to show a commitment to the work plan by the Local Authorities. They also requested that there should be an agreement at the end signed by both parties to show what they will be providing or committing to. RK agreed to produce a revision to the LA document incorporating the ideas discussed.

Concerns were expressed regarding the newly built relationships with Local Authorities during the pilot period and how relationships with LA contacts might suffer once they appreciated that their LA was not the one selected to work with. Two ideas suggested by the Board were that funds from the MLA project could be used to continue the relationships less intensively and partnership CPD programmes could be offered with that LA.

CR announced that she will continue to participate in the work of the YHGSA until the end of July but will not continue in the new 5-year plan due to increasing work commitments.

d) Transition planning

The SG Leaders had raised some concerns about this issue and RK drew the attention of the Board to three activities which needed to be supported during the transition:

Conference planning: the Board suggested that RK approach Hazel Parker and Richard Borowski who planned the 2006 event and set up a planning group for the 2007 conference. This will be in Leeds.

CPD course proposals for 2007/2008: RK and CR agreed to discuss at the next CPD meeting on 23rd May and to look at how the current group could be involved in commissioning new courses.

Global School Award: RK and Adam Ranson have had a discussion about GSA. They agreed that schools new to the scheme would be supported by central funding (if necessary) until the responsible group was up and running

4. Honorarium to be paid to R Kirtley

Bob Huey line manages RK and drew the group’s attention to the fact that many extra hours had been worked to bring the bid together on time. The Board agreed to pay an honorarium of £500 and SU agreed to contact the University of Hull to enable payment.

5. Structure of the YHGSA Board

Discussions to be carried over to the next meeting

6. A.O.B

7. Date, time and place of the next (but one) Board meeting

The meeting originally planned for 18th June, 10.00 at DEC(SY) was rescheduled to 8th June, 2.00pm at IRC, Hull.

A further meeting date was not agreed.