Alison Woodward

A New Year’s Resolution in Governance

I love governance, deeply, the difference that it can make to children’s lives, both negative and positive is certainly a heady responsibility, particularly for Chairs. We now look forward to the spring term, hoping that our school’s children and staff had a safe and restful Christmas and holiday break but knowing that for some this … Read more

Education Spending & Financial Challenges

Norfolk Governance Network’s Alison Woodward and Mike Grimble joined two end of year overviews of the financial picture in schools. National Governance Association – Financial Oversight in Challenging Times NGN Vice Chair – Mike Grimble I attended the NGA webinar Financial Oversight in Challenging Times which was a useful update on recent developments including the … Read more

2022 Online Safety Index – Norfolk

The Online Safety Index for 2022 was published in November 2022, it uses the self-review information from the 13,500 schools in England which are signed up to 360 degree safe from SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning), the tool is free for all schools to use. ‘’The online safety landscape is once again showing us … Read more

The importance of an inclusive strategy for Pupil Premium

As you will all be aware, the Pupil Premium strategy must be updated before the end of December and published on the school website. Schools must use the template on the DfE Pupil Premium site, the templates and ‘menu items’ have been recently updated. As governors we must also support our school leaders to ensure … Read more

Online Safety, RSHE & Data Protection event

Governance Conversation on Online Safety, RSHE and Data Protection with an introduction about the Norfolk Flourish Outcomes 2nd February 2023 Thank you for joining our first Governance Conversation of 2023, it was as ever great to see so many governors and we hope that those that attended enjoyed the event and have taken something back … Read more

Why we need a Governance Conversation on attendance, safeguarding and SEND in Norfolk

On 17th November NGN is holding a Governance Conversation, these events are online, free and relevant for all in governance in Norfolk. We are looking at these three important areas through a national picture but Norfolk context lens, within the understanding of the important overlaps. For each we have worked on governance information pages, supported by our … Read more

Attendance, then and now by NGN’s Alison Woodward

Years before I became a governor, on my daughter’s third birthday, I made the decision that her older brother, then ten should have the day off from his Primary School, so that we could have a family day. About fifteen minutes after leaving my message on the school answerphone, I got a phone call from … Read more

NGN CONFERENCE 2023

Cancellation of NGN annual conference NGN have with regret decided not to proceed with the NGN annual conference scheduled for Saturday 4 March 2023. This has been a difficult decision but has been taken in recognition of continuing delegate concerns about attending a large event at this time. NGN remains committed to bringing school governors … Read more

Postponement of NGN Annual Conference 2022

By NGN Chair – Anne Gibson The NGN annual conference scheduled for 5 November 2022 is postponed until Saturday 4 March 2023. This decision has been taken in the light of delegate concerns about attending a large event at this time and uncertainty about the legislative agenda affecting schools. All current bookings will be automatically … Read more