Meet Our Governors

The Governing Body at Speen C of E School is formed from many different areas of the community. It is made up of Foundation Governors, an Ex-officio Governor, Parent Governors, a Governor nominated by the Local Education Authority, Staff Governors and the Head teacher.  All governors are elected for a four-year term of office.

Governors play a very valuable and important role in the support of our school. They meet regularly together and work closely with the Head teacher and the school staff.  The responsibility for the actions and decisions of the governing body lies with the whole governing body not with individual members.  Individual governors are appointed or elected by specified bodies or groups, as listed below, but they are not delegates and are free to vote according to their own wishes.

Foundation governors are appointed by the church to ensure that the religious character of the school is preserved and developed.  Other parents at the school elect parent governors.  They don’t have to stand down if their child leaves the school before the end of their term of office, though they may choose to do so.  Parents, including carers, of pupils at the school are eligible to stand for election as parent governors whenever such a vacancy arises. Both teaching and support staff paid to work at the school are eligible to stand for election as a staff governor.  The head teacher is a staff governor by virtue of their office; the head teacher may choose not to be a governor but will retain the right to attend all governor meetings.

The clerk to the Board of Governors is Mrs Sarah Penkethman employed by Buckinghamshire Learning Trust.

Note:

Mrs Denise Nayna retired on 31st August 2018.

None of the governors have any business or pecuniary interests relating to their duties as a governor nor do they act as a governor at any other educational establishment, with the exception of Reverend Canon Anthony  Bundock who serves on the board of governors at St Johns C of E School, Lacey Green.

Agendas and minutes of all governor meetings are available for inspection in the school office.
 
The table below sets out the number of Full Governing Body and committee meetings attended by each Governor, during the academic year 2017/18, with the number of such meetings they were eligible to attend in brackets.

* Denotes that the Governor is not a member of that committee

School leadership and Management responsibilities:

The  head teacher is accountable to the Governing body and is responsible for the: –

• Day to day running of the school.
• Implementation of School policies.
• Implementation of the school curriculum.

The three core functions of the Governing Body are to:

• Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
• Hold the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff;
• Oversee the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Strategic

The governing body sets out the aims and overall objectives of the school, looking at how it should  best develop. This is achieved through the agreement of the annual school development plan, which sets out the school’s priorities for the year, school policies and various targets. These are monitored and reviewed on a regular basis against the stated aims and objectives.

Critical Friend

The governing body works with the head teacher so that a clear understanding of the challenges faced in managing the school is used in setting the schools aims and objectives. The governing body shall sensitively question and challenge in a positive manner, and it is the governing body’s intent that these challenges will be accepted as a positive input into school management. The governing body sets out to achieve a trusting and mutually respectful relationship between the governing body and the school leadership team.

Accountability

The school has many stakeholders – the primary ones being the pupils. The governing body shall adopt a professional attitude and ensure that its’ competence and efforts are used collectively to deliver benefit to the school’s pupils and other stakeholders. The governing body is accountable and answerable to the pupils’ parents/carers, the Local Authority, the Diocese of Oxford and the wider community for the way the school is run.

The governing body has numerous statutory responsibilities including being responsible for the conduct of the school. There are various school policies and processes that support the specific responsibilities of the governing body within Speen School. The governing body sets the school’s policies and targets, and regularly monitors and evaluates how the school meets its objectives and targets within the School development plan.

Committees

To enable to governing body to fulfil its responsibilities a number of committees have been established that cover all aspects of school governance. The committee structure ensures that the Full Governing Body (FGB) is made aware of the main issues from each area of the school and is informed in order to make key decisions and policy revisions as a whole when required. The principal committees and the members for 2018/2019 are:

General Purposes Committee

Comprising all governors we meet to discuss anything that we feel is of current importance and requires the input of all governors. For example, our primary focus recently has been to discuss academisation, School strategic development plan, staff levels and future recruitment.

Curriculum Committee

Katherine Matthews, Julie Cooper, Jacquie Coles, Helen Lidington.

The Curriculum Committee meets twice a term and looks at the data available on the progress of pupils and raises challenges as appropriate. The committee ensures that the needs of all pupils and different inclusion groups are being addressed. The utilisation of the schools pupil premium allocation is reviewed by the Curriculum Committee to ensure that it supports any pupil or groups of pupils that are considered to have the most need. The committee also considers completed and planned staff CPD, and the use of ICT and other resources. A main focus of the committee is the planned actions for further improvement during the next term and beyond. On an annual basis, the committee also reviews and updates, where necessary, any of the school policies which are of a curriculum nature.

Admissions Committee

Jacquie Coles, Katherine Matthews, Helen Davies

The Admissions Committee sets the schools admission policy for each academic year and ensures that it is adhered to.  Members of the admissions committee also address any admission appeals.

Finance Committee

Eamonn Barrett, Jacquie Coles, Alistair Blundell.

One of the statutory responsibilities of Governors is to approve and review, on an ongoing basis, the school’s annual budget. Every finance committee meeting therefore includes a review and challenge of the actual spends to date compared to the budget to ensure that the school is being financially responsible. Any non-routine expenditure items are also discussed, which recently has covered new Forest school accreditation for teachers. On an annual basis, the committee also reviews and updates, where necessary, any of the school policies which are of a finance nature.

Pastoral

Julie Cooper, Jacquie Coles, Katherine Matthews, Rev. Anthony Bundock.

This  committee  is  primarily  responsible  for  the  staff  and  pupil  welfare  and  handles  recruitment,  monitors  performance  reviews, attendance and updates various policies when necessary such as Safeguarding, Equality and PSHE.

Premises, Health and Safety

Alistair Blundell, Jacquie Coles, Susan Seward,.

The Governing body set up the Premises and Health & Safety committee to proactively manage the ongoing provision of a safe, healthy and supportive environment for the education of the children and the welfare of staff and visitors. As well as assisting the head teacher with risk assessments the Governors are also trained in safeguarding issues so able to provide additional support and perspective ensuring the security of both children and data. The knowledge and skills that the Governors bring from involvement with in commercial life, ensures that the school benefits from appreciation of the latest technologies and the ability to critically assess proposals by the Local Authority’s approved suppliers. The school is constrained by the budget provided and the Premises and Health & Safety Committee supports the head teacher with prioritisation of the tasks.

Communications and Marketing

Katherine Matthews, Jacquie Coles, Julie Cooper, Helen Davies

Principally works to promote Speen Church of England School positively within the local community and to ensure that the head teacher is fully supported in the task of achieving a full pupil roll. We draft promotional material, which reflects the ethos of the school for approval by the full Governing Body. We explore opportunities to promote Speen School and consider opportunities to raise the profile in the local media and promote links with the village community. Responsible for setting up and maintaining a web-site for the school  and most recently to improve the broadband capabilities within the school and sourcing of IT equipment for classroom use.

Curriculum and classroom links

Governors each have curriculum links and the purpose of link visits is to foster good relationships with the staff and pupils and to fulfill the governing body obligation to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the school and its’ curriculum.  During these visits, which include lunches with the children, we do not, however, make judgments about the quality of teaching or the progress of individual children. Governors have a target to individually visit school a minimum of once per year to meet their curriculum and classroom links and have to prepare written reports on each visit and then provide feedback to the rest of the governing body.

Governor Training

All governors are required to undertake regular training to enable them to exercise their duties effectively. This is a vital part of being a school governor and by doing this we keep up to date with the continual developments that are happening across all areas of education provision. Additionally, each year a whole governor training session is organised on different topics related to governance

SPEEN CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL GOVERNORS 2018/2019