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The School Governors

The House of Commons Education and Employment Committee’s report on the role of the school governors was published last year. The report’s introduction says :

"School governors are a large, usually unsung, army of volunteers whose contribution to the life of our schools has been too little appreciated. There is much to celebrate about the contribution made by our school governors. Effective governing bodies bring benefits to the schools they serve, not only in terms of community involvement and accountability, but also in terms of overall school improvement."

So what do we do ?

The governing body (not any individual governor) is responsible for the overall management of the school and for determining its aims, objectives and policies in accordance with all the relevant legislation. As the legislation is continually being reviewed and changed, we are often swamped in paperwork that we need to understand and action when appropriate. This alone takes significant time. The head, manages the school from day to day and is the governing body’s principal professional adviser who assists it with the formulation and implementation of its aims, objectives, policies and plans.

As a full governing body we meet at least once each half term. Minutes of these meetings can be found on this web site. We also have a number of sub committees with specific responsibilities. These committees meet additionally to the full governing body. Our current sub committees are :

• Admissions : responsible for the admission arrangements in line with our own admissions procedures, the law and LEA requirements. A governor has to represent the school in any appeals for admission.
• Curriculum : responsible for promoting and complying with the statutory aims of the national curriculum.
• Buildings and Maintenance and Health and Safety : responsible for the occupation, use and the upkeep of the school premises. Also responsible for ensuring that the school and all occupants are safe. This includes risk assessments and regular health and safety reviews.
• Finance : responsible for determining the yearly budget and for spending the money as it sees fit.
• Pay and Personnel : responsible for the employment and pay of staff.

As you can see, the governing body has many responsibilities and we make decisions together as a ‘body’ never as individuals. On top of all these we try and come into school on a reasonably regular basis, prepare and distribute the annual report to parents, hold the annual meeting with parents, prepare the school prospectus, and meet with new parents. We also author the Home School Agreement.

Despite all the hard work and lots of bedtime reading, being a governor is very rewarding. If you have any specific questions you would like to ask about the role of a governor, please feel free to send them to the governing body via the school and we will endeavor to answer them as quickly as possible.