The purpose of our governing body is to:

• Help the school to set high standards by planning for the school’s future and setting targets for school improvement.
• Keep up the pressure for school improvement.
• Be a critical friend to the school, offering support and advice.
• Help the school respond to the needs of parents and the community.
• Make the school accountable to the public for what it does.
• Work with the school on planning and developing policies and keeping these under review.
• Oversee the financial performance of the school and make sure its money is well spent.
• Exercise its responsibilities and powers in partnership with the Headteacher and Staff.
• Not intervene in the day-to-day management of the school unless there are weaknesses in the school, when it then has a duty to take action.

Some of these purposes are set in law.

A School’s governing body is a corporate body. This means it has a legal existence separate from that of it’s individual members. As long as governors have acted honestly, without ulterior motive, and reasonably, within the law and regulations, the governing body cannot be held to account as individuals for any liabilities incurred by the governing body.

 

We exercise our duties in a number of ways:

• We usually have seven full governing body meetings each year. In between these meetings we have working party meetings that deal with the detail that underpins the reports the full governing body receives.
• Governors are encouraged to attend school activities and events to take encouragement from the achievements of the pupils and the staff that teach and inspire them.
• Our function at meetings is to review, question and challenge the Head teacher and staff to ensure that we deliver the highest standards and most effective use of resources.
• Many of us take a particular interest in a specific area of the curriculum, e.g. Maths, English or the provision for children with Special Educational Needs or Disability. Others focus on wider issues such as Health & Safety or Finance. Governors also have responsibility for monitoring the school’s progress against plans and use of the Pupil Premium and Sports Premium funding.
• We seek and welcome the help and support of the Local Authority and receive reports and advice from them.
• We do not deal with individual worries about the day to day running of the school as that is the job of the school’s leadership team. If they cannot successfully resolve concerns then these may later come before the governors through the application of appropriate policies, for example the complaints procedure.

We maintain email communication with each other, and the Chair and Clerk seek to keep Governors as well informed as possible between meetings.

The minutes of Governing Body meetings are available for Parents to view in school, on request. Confidential matters involving, for example, named staff or pupils will not be included in these minutes.