Meet the Governors!

We’re delighted that you’ve come to find more about the work of the Governing Body.

Role of the Governing Body

The role of a school governing body is to fulfil three key strategic functions:

(a) Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

(b) Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils; and

(c) Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

All three are carried out through a balance of “support and challenge”.

Structure of the Local Governing Body (LGB)

Our Governing Body is made up of 12 Governors as follows:

1x Headteacher

1x Staff Governor (elected by the staff of the school)

2x Parent Governors (elected by the parent body, if necessary)

3x Foundation Governors (proposed by the PCC of St Saviour’s Church and agreed by the Diocese of Bath and Wells)

5x MAT Appointed Governors (invited by the Governing Body and agreed by the BWMAT)

We also have a paid Clerk who attends all meetings to take minutes and be our reference and sounding board for all legal matters.

Committees:

The LGB is further broken down into committees, where much of the detailed work, challenge and scrutiny takes place. Each school can have quite different structures but essentially we all look at the same elements.

Our committees are:

Ethos

Progress and Attainment

Staff and Finance, including School Environment

Ethos is a committee that looks primarily at the well-being of the pupils within the school and also within the community, in particular the SEND school offer, Collective Worship, Learning Promise, Questionnaires to parents, Extended School Offer etc.

The Progress and Attainment Committee (PAC), as the name implies, scrutinise the progress that children are making and the methods being used to improve that progress.

Staff and Finance (SFC) look in detail at the current budget and how it is progressing and also propose the budget for the next year. They will consider any spending over a certain amount.  The committee meets as a Pay Panel.  The committee monitors school environment matters including Health and Safety, maintenance and compliance.     

A Governor will be a member of at least one committee, and most are on two.

Group and Curriculum Links

As well as being a committee member, governors (who are not also members of staff) will have a curriculum link for English or Maths, or a group link. The groups are Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which is nursery and reception, or Key Stage 1 (KS1) which is Year 1 and Year 2.

The governors meet with the relevant subject leader or teachers from that group. The Governor brings their own expertise and can encourage and support the teaching staff as well as challenging where appropriate.

In addition there are nominate governors who support particular areas of importance including Safeguarding, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Health and Safety, Pupil Premium, Admissions and School Council.

In addition to the above a Governor may also be asked to serve on a panel (sometimes solely Governors, sometimes with other staff members) for any of the following reasons:

Appoint senior leaders;

Interview new members of staff with HT;

Hear of staff grievances and disciplinary matters;

Hear appeals about pupil exclusions.

Meetings

All meeting dates and times are set in the previous academic year. Our Meeting Schedule is available in this section.

The LGB meets once a term, usually on the Thursday in week 5.

The Committees also meet once a term:-

Ethos usually on Tuesday in week 2

SFC usually on Thursday in week 3

PAC usually on Wednesday in week 4

Hopefully this will have helped you understand a bit more about the Governing Body.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the School Office.