What Governors Do

Governors play an important part in overseeing the running of the school. We are here to ensure the school meets its statutory obligations and to give direction and focus by performing a vital strategic role. The day-to-day management of the school is the responsibility of the headteacher and the staff.  Our role is to define what the school needs to do to improve, to support it in making these improvements, and to monitor how the improvements are being achieved.

Our responsibilities include doing the following:

• We approve the annual budget and monitor spending throughout the year
• We’re responsible for the approval and revision of a large number of policies, which range from the school Emergency Plan through the Behaviour Policy to the Teachers’ Pay Policy
• We appoint the headteacher and conduct the headteacher’s performance management
• We approve the targets for the children’s academic results and monitor the progress towards those results

All governors are volunteers and are not paid for any of the work we do. All our decisions are made as a collective body and no governor has any individual legal powers. However, most of the governors have responsibility for a particular issue. For example, one governor oversees the training in which each governor has participated and checks for subjects that no one has covered. Another oversees the provision for children with Special Education Needs or Disadvantaged status and meets regularly with Miss Ash.

We have several categories of governors, including:

• Parent governors, who have children at the school and are elected by the other parents
• Foundation governors, who are nominated by St. John’s and appointed by the Church of England Diocese of Chicester
• LA governors, who are appointed by the Local Education Authority
• Co-Opted governors, who are members of the community and are appointed by the Governing Body
• Staff governors

These categories allow us to have governors represent the different groups with an interest in the future of the school.

At the meetings, we may do any or all of the following:

• Discuss and approve new policies or updates to existing policies
• Receive reports on administrative issues such as staff performance management and the staffing structure
• Discuss and challenge progress towards the current school goals
• Discuss the status of our fundraising campaign
• Review recent reports from our County advisor
• Discuss and challenge the current status of the school budget and review the school accounts
• Receive reports on the Special Education Needs provision
• Review the most recent teachers’ assessment of the pupils

We may also have extra meetings about particular issues, such as policy reviews or preparation for the Ofsted inspection.

Governors have activities in addition to the regular meetings.

• We each participate in individual training which is provided by the County, and annually we do a training session together. Recent sessions have included preparation for an Ofsted inspection and establishing a policy for school visits.
• We may attend staff meetings and INSET days to monitor aspects of the school planning
• We have regular discussions through email when issues need to be reviewed before a meeting is scheduled
• We visit the school with a regular program of monitoring activities and may also attend assemblies and special school events