Our last Ofsted report is available on this website.  I was very encouraged by the judgements that the inspectors made about Devonshire Primary School.  The school had made tremendous progress since the previous inspection and this was recognised by the inspection team.  The inspectors acknowledged the school’s capacity to improve still further on account of our good leadership and management and the shared commitment of governors, staff and parents.  Since then the school's dedicated school improvement partner recently judged the school to be in the 'Good' category.

As chair of governors, I was personally delighted that the report states that, “Governors contribute a good deal to the School. They celebrate its emerging strengths and probe its weaknesses well”.

It was encouraging to see the parents' positive comments about the school's 'happy and open atmosphere', 'many improvements' and 'can-do spirit' and we look forward to developing the relationship between school and parents still further.

As chair of governors I spent a lot of time progressing the new building project which was completed on time in September 2009. Together with Martin Kearsey, Fiona Oastler, our bursar, Sophia Barnes and site manager, Jason Bettis, I attended many meetings discussing the project with representatives from the London Borough of Sutton, the architect (HOCA) and construction contractors Durtnell. New classrooms were built onto the Junior building and a new classroom created in the Infant building.

For more detail, see the School site plan to view drawings of the completed building and view a copy of HOCA's BREEAM Assessment document.

See photos of the preparatory site work, the erection of the steelwork, the roofing and flooring stage and the creation of a new Infant classroom. See also further photos of the fitting out up to June 2009, fitting out from June 2009, the final fixings up to the beginning of August, hut demolition and internal completion.

You can also see a video of the demolition, with sound effects!

The project was funded by the London Borough of Sutton.

In the longer term, the plan is to further improve facilities at the School and I aim to keep Devonshire on the list of schools to be allocated funding for new building projects.

We were fortunate in receiving funding for the installation of new boilers in the school. The new boilers are very efficient compared to the old boilers and as well as reducing the school's fuel bills, will enable heating of selected areas which is of great benefit for after-hours activities held in school. They also have sufficient capacity for the new building project as well as any future expansion.

The main office reception area in the Junior building was extended and refurbished with the aid of funding under the London Borough of Sutton's Extended Services programme.

This has made the area more spacious and welcoming and enables the School to display information on children's services in Sutton.

All the members of the governing body contribute to its work, by attending committees in which they have an interest and by taking on additional responsibilities. The governing body also benefits from having members with special expertise or knowledge.

For example, Joanne Kibbey, Local Authority governor, worked with Fiona Oastler, Deputy Headteacher and Associate governor in the successful bid to become a flagship school under the Food for Life partnership. They have been working towards achieving the Gold Food for Life Partnership Mark for the school and they have both been responsible for providing new experiences and educational opportunities for our children. Fiona Oastler nominated Joanne as a greatest grown up as part of a competition that the Food for Life Partnership were running.  Although Joanne did not win, she has been featured as a case study on the Food for Life website and the article highlights all the excellent work that she and Fiona Oastler undertake.

David Cooper is one of our school community governors who freely gives his time to the School. He assisted the School in obtaining compliance with the new Financial Management Standard, audits the school fund account, assists the A-Z After School Club with their accounts and can also be found helping at School book fairs.

The governing body fully supports the PTA and all the work that the committee does in raising funds which directly benefit the children. I attend most of the events organised by the PTA so that I am available to meet parents and listen to views at these times as well as enjoying these occasions. Please feel free to come and talk to me or contact me via the School.

Joanne Kibbey has been involved in advising on the annual parent/carer survey. The results are collated by David Cooper, the governing body’s financial expert and the results analysed and a report made by Joanne having professional expertise in market research. This report is vital to the work of the governing body in monitoring the views of parents and carers.

A survey of children from Years 6, 4 and 2 is carried out annually. These results are collated and analysed by Felicity Alexander, one of our parent governors. This is a time consuming process but is invaluable because the answers reveal any concerns the children have about their school life as well as the highlights, which are overwhelmingly Golden Time and school trips. The governing body immediately allocated funds to the refurbishment of the Year 5/6 toilets on receiving very strong views on their condition! The monkey bar handles in the Junior playground have been improved after numerous complaints. The children requested additional PE and play equipment and this has been provided.

Our website was initiated by one of the committees of the governing body, the School Development Committee. One of the key objectives for the School was to improve communication and to do that we realised we needed a new website. Felicity Alexander assumed responsibility for the website project and her husband, Adrian Heeler, took on the task of webmaster and has carried out all the technical and development work on the site in his spare time. The content has been co-ordinated by Fiona Oastler and Felicity. Other credits are given in Acknowledgements in 'About this site'. Now that the website has been launched, the responsibility for content and maintenance will be increasingly assumed by the school. If you have any comments or suggestions about this website, please contact the webmaster. If you have any photographs for inclusion in the website or perhaps even an article to be included please send to Martin Kearsey.

One of the responsibilities of the governing body is to draw up policies which define the framework within which the School operates. I have recently co-ordinated a major review of all the policies and a number of these are available on the School policies page. All the policies are approved by the governing body as well as by the headteacher and relevant staff. Assistance by governors in drawing up these policies is essential to ensure they support the School’s key objectives and reflect changing legal requirements. The equality policies are the result of many hours of work by Fiona Oastler, our deputy headteacher, who has tailored these policies to the special nature of our School. She was helped by one of our governors, Felicity Alexander, who has a particular interest in equality issues and has also contributed to the revision of many other policies. Sophia Barnes, the bursar, has developed the School's health and safety policies and a number of other policies relating to finance and premises.

From time to time there are vacancies available on the governing body for local authority appointed governors, parent governors and community governors. Descriptions of these governors are contained on the page describing the Constitution of the governing body. If you are interested in volunteering to become a parent governor or community governor please speak to any member of the governing body who will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Special skills or knowledge are not required to become a parent governor: being a parent or carer gives you sufficient expertise! Training is also available free of charge.