Governors
Welcome to our Governors’ section.
Please find below details of how our Governing body is structured, including the names, categories, responsibilities and terms of appointment for each Governor.
Introduction
All governing bodies of maintained schools are required to be constituted under the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 or the School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012, as appropriate, by 1st September 2015.
As of 1st September 2015, The Governing Body of Fairways Primary School consists of:
- Three parent governors - nominated and elected by parents
- One Local Authority governor - recommended by the Local Authority and appointed by the Governing Body
- One staff governor - nominated and elected by staff
- One headteacher
- Four co-opted governors - appointed by the Governing Body
The Governing Body works collectively as a ‘whole team’, meeting at least six times per year, once in each half-term, without any separate committees. An agenda for each meeting will include all the tasks which the Governing Body is required to consider
Responsibilities of the governing body
The role of a Governing Body covers three main areas :
- Providing a strategic view
- Acting as a supportive and challenging friend
- Ensuring accountability
Providing a strategic view
The Governing Body is responsible for:
- Agreeing the aims, ethos and values of the school
- Agreeing policies that will help the school achieve its aims
- Contributing to the school improvement plan
- Overseeing the budget and other resources
- Taking action to ensure that the school’s aims are achieved
In most respects, it is the Headteacher and the other school staff who take day-to-day responsibility and action. In practical terms the Governing Body is likely to take on the role of deciding on overriding principles, discussing and approving documents produced by the professionals and receiving reports.
The Headteacher is responsible for the day to day running of the school and to fulfil his role successfully needs governor’s support and advice. Respecting the need for confidentiality, the governing body as a whole can be a crucial sounding board for new ideas as well as an encouraging – and sometimes critical – friend.
Although providing practical help and skills is not a legal duty, one of the enormous benefits that governors bring to the school is their experience of the world outside. This gives the Governing Body a unique external perspective on the work of the school. Any expertise in such areas as personnel, finance, building or IT is extremely welcome – but common sense, the ability to listen and a willingness to give time during the school day are also invaluable.
Governors working together
Governing bodies are ‘incorporated’ in law. This means that they act as a single person. Provided that they act within laid-down procedures, in good faith and with care and common sense, any liability falls on the whole Governing Body rather than individual governors. This protects against risks to individual’s own assets. Therefore in discussion governing bodies should arrive at a consensus view or reach a decision by a democratic vote. Thereafter each member must abide by the decision and publicly support it, even if they personally disagree.
Governors do not act as individuals unless formally delegated to do so by the Governing Body. Even the chair must understand that he or she acts or speaks not on his or her own behalf but as a representative of the governing body.
Acting as a supportive and challenging friend
The governing body is responsible for
- Monitoring and evaluating outcomes
- Monitoring the implementation and effect of policies
- Supporting and advising the Headteacher
- Providing practical help and skills
Governors are involved in monitoring and evaluating
- Standards of education
- Attainment of pupils
This task is informed by an increasing amount of statistical and comparative data provided by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), the Department for Education (DfE), the Local Authority (LA) and the school. This data will include national curriculum assessment results relating to the core subjects. School staff will analyse this information to establish the current position and to advise governors about targets for the next year so that the school will progress and improve.
Having policies and procedures in place, governors have to monitor the extent to which they are working. For the most part they will do this through reports from the Headteacher and other staff. Governor’s focus shouldn’t be just on whether the policies are being put into practice but also – more importantly – on the impact they are having. Governor’s will want to know, for example, whether the teaching and learning policy is leading to an improvement and whether the budget allocation is helping the school meet its targets. However in all the ‘number crunching’ analysis governor’s mustn’t overlook values that can’t easily be measured but which contribute enormously to the climate of the school and parental perceptions.
An effective Governing Body works as a team, in partnership with the Headteacher to ensure that the school:
- Obeys the law
- Meets its published aims and values
So – it’s a big and important job, and one which can have an enormous effect on the quality of education provided by the school.