What do Governors do?

The Governing Body’s main role is to help raise standards of achievement. It:

• plans the school’s future direction
• is accountable for the performance of the school to parents and the wider community
• selects the headteacher
• makes decisions on the school’s budget and staffing
• makes sure the National Curriculum and Religious Education are taught
• decides how the school can encourage pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
• makes sure the school provides for all its pupils, including those with special educational needs.

Most of us are not educational professionals and we do not make judgements ourselves on the quality of teaching in the school. We do however study carefully information about the progress children make at the school and what their levels of achievement are at the end of Key Stage 1 and 2. We get to know the school’s strengths and weaknesses, agree with the staff priorities for its development, and set budgetary priorities. Governors are there to offer a different view and to ask challenging questions to help the school in its own self monitoring. The day-to-day running of the school is the Headteacher’s responsibility and the Governing Body does not become involved except if there is a complaint about the Headteacher’s actions. You can see the issues the Governing Body considers at its meetings and the decisions it makes by looking at the minutes of our meetings.

We have 2 committees through which we consider the detail:

• Resources (which covers finance, premises and personnel)
• Standards (which covers all issues which impact on pupils’ learning)

We each take an interest in particular aspects of school life (“Named or Link Governor” roles) and visit the school to see for ourselves how the strategies and policies we discuss at Governing Body meetings work in the day-to-day life of the school.

Governors work as a team. We are responsible for making sure the school provides a good quality education. Raising educational standards in school is now a key priority. This has the best chance of happening when there are high expectations of what pupils can achieve.

Governors are at the heart of how a school operates. We have to get things right. How  we do their job affects the interests of pupils, staff morale and how the school is seen by parents and others in the community.

Governors support and challenge heads by gathering views, asking questions and deciding what’s best for the school. We are not there to rubber stamp decisions. We have to be prepared to give and take and be loyal to decisions taken by the governing body as a whole.