Why do we have governors?

Governors are strategic leaders and critical friends. They are there to help our school, our headteacher and staff, and our pupils. The governing body has three areas of focus:

• Ensure the school’s vision, ethos, and direction is clear
• Hold the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school its pupils,  and the performance management of the staff
• Oversee the financial performance of the school make sure it’s money is well spent

For further general information about the role of Governors, please visit the Hampshire Governor Services page  What governors do.

 

What do our governors do?

Our governors do many things, including:

• Attend full governing body and committee meetings every half term
• Read paperwork and prepare questions for meetings
• Attend other events such as staff meetings, student council meetings, parents evenings, and governor school visits
• Support staff recruitment
• Review school policies and strategic proposals
• Review the school budget
• Participate in complaint panels

 

How is the governing body structured?

Our governing body has 20 members:

• The headteacher
• 1 staff governor elected by the staff
• 1 individual appointed by Hampshire County Council, our Local Education Authority (LEA)
• 5 parent governors elected by the parents
• 12 co-opted governors selected by the governing body to suit the needs of the school

The official document specifying this structure is the Instrument of government.

 

We delegate many responsibilities to 3 committees of a subset of our governors:

• Resources: responsible for financial matters such as budget management, major purchases, self-audits, and benchmarking.
• Welfare: responsible for matters related to student wellbeing such as personal development, positive behaviour, attendance, safeguarding and child protection. It also is responsible for monitoring the professional development of the staff and their welfare.
• Curriculum: responsible for educational matters such as what and how students are taught, extracurricular activities, and assessment performance.

We also create temporary committees for on-off projects and shorter activities.