• Staff governors are elected by and from staff at the school.

• Parent governors are elected by and from parents and carers of pupils at the school.

• LEA governors are appointed by the local authority ( Herts County Council).

• Community governors are co-opted by the governing body

 

The Governing Body meets once every half term. Minutes of these meetings are available from the school office.

School policies are available on request from the school office.

The Governor email address is: Governors@ashwell.herts.sch.uk

or they can be contacted through the school office.

Strategic Role

To be strategic, governors need to:

• ensure that the school has clear aims and values that are supported by the whole school community
• ensure that these are evident in the day to day operation of the school
• focus on raising standards of achievement, establishing high expectations and promoting effective teaching and learning, so that pupils achieve to their potential
• decide with the head, staff, pupils and parents the direction of the school through the school development planning process
• ensure that the resources the school receives are directed to the schools priorities as determined in the school development plan
• help to set and keep under review the policies that provide a broad framework within which the head teacher and staff should run the school
• ensure that there are systems in place to check that progress is being made towards targets and that evidence is gathered
• use that evidence to review overall progress against targets, to see whether policies and practice are effective, and to check on their school’s achievements and progress over time and in comparison with similar schools
• take advice on all of this from the head before making their own decisions.

The governing body should be one of the key players in the school development/ improvement planning process. Governors should be involved in the review of the current plan and the drawing up of the priorities for the coming year. Detailed plans are normally drawn up by the headteacher and staff. Committees of the governing body can draw up detailed plans for their area, eg premises development. Through this process the governing body can be clear about the direction of the school, the allocation of resources and the monitoring processes that will help ensure that plans are implemented and effective.

Critical Friend Role

In this role, the governing body

• recognises and celebrates the achievements of the school
• knows where the school is not achieving as well as it could
• provides support and encouragement when strategies to bring about improvement are being explored
• strikes an appropriate balance between support and challenge.

The Critical Friend role involves monitoring and evaluating how the school is progressing. Governors need to build a trusting relationship with the headteacher and staff in order to achieve this.

Monitoring

• gathering evidence to show what progress has been made towards agreed targets
• using the School Development/Improvement Plan to know what actions are to be taken and to know the expected outcome
• asking questions about progress and challenging when necessary to ensure objectives are met

Evaluation

• making judgements about the results of progress;
• ensuring that action is taken when concerns are identified;
• use a searching analysis of the pupils’ achievements to provides a focus for the evaluation of teaching and learning.

Governors’ Visits

• allowing governors the chance to share their observations with teachers, the head and the Governing Body.
• enabling governors to have a deeper understanding of how the school works.
• focusing on particular aspects of school life e.g. a particular subject area, pupil behaviour, styles of teaching;.enabling the Governing Body to amke informed contributions to the process of self evaluation and school improvement.

Accountability Role

 To be accountable governors:

• are required to conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement
• have the right to discuss, question and refine proposals and should respect the professional roles of the head teacher and other staff, and their responsibilities for the management of the school
• must be prepared to account for the school ’s overall performance and to explain its decisions and actions to anyone who has a legitimate interest.

The governing body will need to account to the whole school community for the performance of the school. The governors must ensure that the prospectus is up to date and available to all.