What the Governors do?

 In accordance with the Government’s requirement for all governing bodies, the 3 core strategic functions of the Medstead Primary School Governing Body are:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;

• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

   

That sounds very formal but what it boils down to is everything we do, all the decisions we make, must have the best interests of the all children at the centre.

Governors do not get involved in the day to day running of the school, as that is the responsibility of the Headteacher and her school leadership team. However, Governors do have a vital role in helping to guide the overall strategic direction of the school. Governor duties include helping to set the strategy, policies and objectives for the school. They support and challenge the school leadership team to ensure pupils achieve, make as much progress as possible and are well equipped for the next stage of life. Governors approve the school budget, are responsible for ensuring that the money is spent appropriately and review progress against the budget plan throughout the year. They also agree the staffing structure so that there are sufficient teaching and support staff to meet the needs of the children.

The work of the Governing Body is carried out in either committee or full governing body meetings.

The full Governing Body meets once each half term.

The Finance and General Purposes Committee (F&GP), focuses on finance, personnel matters, premises and Health and Safety.

The Headteachers’ Performance Management Committee sets and monitors progress towards the Headteachers performance targets.

The Pay Committee considers all pay recommendations for staff and ensures that there is consistency in the implementation of performance management.

We also have committees that meet, if required, to consider pupil discipline and staffing matters.

All governors also have an area of the Strategic School Improvement Plan to monitor. To do this governors visit the school, and may talk to staff and pupils. During these visits governors can have a focused conversation about an area of the school Improvement Plan as well as a chance to experience the school in action. The outcomes of visits are shared with the Headteacher and Governing Body and feed into the development of future Strategic School Improvement Plans.

One of the roles for the governors is reviewing, agreeing and monitoring the implementation of school policies.

  
Minutes of Governing Body and Committee meetings are public documents – you can ask at the school office if you would like to see any of the minutes of our meetings.

The governing body are always keen to receive feedback about the school. They will not, however, look into complaints that have not been addressed to the Headteacher in the first instance, see Complaints Procedure in the Policy Section of the website.