Governance

Meet The Governors

What is a Board of Governors?

School governors are volunteers who are committed to making sure that our school provides the best possible education for all its pupils. Governors come from a range of different backgrounds and bring different skills and expertise to the role.

There are different types of governors on the governing board:

• Parent Governors – elected by parents at the school.
• Staff Governors – elected by staff at the school.
• Head Teacher
• Local Authority Governors – recruited from a range of backgrounds and businesses to help communicate local policy.
• Co-opted Governors – appointed by the governing body and are people who they feel have the relevant skills and experience to contribute to effective governance and the success of the school.
• Foundation Governors – representatives of the religious organisation or trust, if any, that supports the school to uphold its ethos and values.

Governors are expected to spend approximately 10-20 days a year on their role. This would include:

• Attending all governing body meetings, usually 3 to 6 per year.
• Attending any subcommittee meetings they are involved in.
• Reading any papers circulated before meetings.
• Undertaking any relevant research required
• Visiting the school as part of a programme of governor visits with a specific focus

What must a school Governor offer to the school?

Governors must have the necessary skills and/or experience to be able to support and challenge the headteacher and need to gain an understanding of the school’s overall performance in order to explain its decisions and actions.

Governors need to be committed, have the inquisitiveness to question and analyse, and the willingness to learn. They need good interpersonal skills, an appropriate level of literacy and be sufficiently numerate to understand basic data.

What do our school Governing Board do?

All governing boards have three core functions:

• ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff
• overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Governors work with the headteacher and senior leadership team to drive the strategic development of the school and raise standards of achievement. Duties include setting the school’s vision, aims and objectives, approving the school budget and appointing the headteacher.

Governors are there to provide oversight and accountability - they don’t get involved in the day-to-day management of the school.

Legally, governing boards are corporate boards, so responsibility and the power to take action and make decisions lies with the board as a whole, not its individual members. Governors work as a team and make collective decisions.

The governing board should have an ethos of high expectations of everyone in the school community, including high expectations for behaviour, progress and attainment of all pupils, and for the conduct and professionalism of both staff and governors.

The Wood Lane Primary Board of Governors