“Governors are committed to helping the school improve. They access appropriate training to ensure that they have the skills required to understand and carry out their statutory duties.”
“Governors’ minutes are of a high quality and reflect a strong focus on ensuring that children and pupils are safe and well cared for.” (Ofsted 2018)
The Role of the Governing Body
Who are we?
There are twelve governors who make up the Governing Body.
Five are parents, two are members of staff, one is a Local Authority governor (Hertfordshire County Council) and four are Community governors (co-opted).
What do we do?
The Governing Body is responsible for overseeing the work of the school and ensuring that everything is done properly. We act as a “critical friend” to the Headteacher, reviewing what has been achieved and helping to plan for the future. We investigate complaints against the school.
We take an active role in virtually all appointments of new staff, to ensure that we have the best people possible to work with the pupils.
Together we have identified our expectations regarding behaviour for the school through three principles. They are:
Principle 1: Children should show:
- self confidence
- self control
- sensitivity and consideration for others
- a pride in themselves and their school
- an interest in their activities
- good manners and courtesy in their dealings with others
Principle 2: Children should develop:
- responsibility for their learning and their environment
- an independence of mind
- a sense of fairness
- an understanding of the need for rules
- a respect and tolerance for the lifestyles and opinions of others
- non extremist attitudes
- non sexist attitudes
- non racist attitudes
- non homophobic attitudes
- non discriminatory attitudes
- respect for the decisions made by staff.
Principle 3: All adults in school:
- should treat all children and adults equally and fairly, irrespective of gender, race, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation
- should play an active part in building up a sense of community
- should play an active part in building up a sense of tolerance and respect for others
- should apply consistently the agreed standards of behaviour
- have a responsibility to model the type of behaviour felt to be acceptable.
How are we organised?
We have set up two committees to look in detail at what is happening in the school. They are called the School Improvement Committee and the Resources Committee.
The School Improvement Committee looks in particular at Teaching and Learning. We visit the school to see pupils at work and analyse data to see how well pupils are progressing.
The Resources Committee looks at the building and grounds, the staffing levels and the school’s finances, to ensure that money is well-spent and that pupils have a good learning environment.
Governors meet twice a term, in the evening, usually on a Monday. Each meeting lasts about two hours.
The two committees each meet twice a term too, also in the evening, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
In addition we will ensure that the school has an identified Designated Teacher for child
protection, and a nominated governor for child protection.
The designated member of the governing body with responsibility for child protection is
Mr R Chinn.
How can you become a Governor?
Initially you can respond to an announcement in the school newsletter that there is a vacancy.
The LEA Governor is appointed by the Governing Body, the parents in the schools vote for the Parent Governors and the Governing Body appoint the Community/Co-opted Governors.
The Staff body elect the Staff Governor.
If you are interested in the idea of becoming a governor, you can contact the Headteacher or Chair of Governors to discuss things further.
List of Governors
|Name||Category of Governor||Term of Office||Committee serving on||Attendance at Full Governing Body Meetings
(out of 6)
|Attendance at Committee Meetings
(School Improvement SIC- out of 5)
|Attendance at Committee Meetings
(Resources – out of 6)
|W. Spicer (Chair)||LEA (HCC) Governor||January 2016 – 4 years||Resources & School Improvement||6||5||6|
|R. Chinn (Deputy)||Co-opted||March 2015 – 4 years||Resources||6||4|
|E. Kirwan||Headteacher||Resources & School Improvement||5||5||6|
|N. Radley||Parent||Jan 2019 – 4 years||School Improvement & Child Protection|
|R. Robertson||Parent||Jan 2019 – 4 years||School Improvement||5||3|
|J. Bish||Parent||Jan 2019 – 4 years||Resources|
|N. Dunlop||Co-opted||Jan 2018 – 4 years||Resources||5||5|
|K Kew||Parent||Feb 2018 – 4 years||Resources||6||4|
|S. Dunlop||Co-opted||Jan 2018 – 4 years||School Improvement||6||5|
|T. Bell||Parent||Sept 2018 – 4 years||Resources|
|M. Stone||Co-opted||Jan 2019 – 4 years||School Improvement|
Two of our governors are married to each other and one of these works in the school.
There are no other business interests to declare.