Responsibilities of local governors

School governors focus on the quality of the school. They are accountable legally to the Trust Board, and morally and ethically to the children. Their job is to help the school become the best that it can be.

They aren’t operational and they don’t run the school; that is the job of the Headteacher and her team. Governors are more concerned with the strategic direction of the school, its culture, values and ethos and they make strategic direction of the school, its culture, values and ethos and they make strategic decisions about policy and direction.

They are the link between the school and its stakeholders – especially parents and carers and the wider community of employers and local people.  It is particularly important that local governors are well-informed about the views of parents and help to build strong relationships and a sense of trust and shared ownership of the school’s vision, strategy and performance.

It is local governors who hold leadership to account for the educational performance of the school.  They ensure that there are clear lines of accountability and use and develop trust systems to monitor and evaluate quality and act on evaluation.  As part of the non-executive leadership and management of the school, they are part of Ofsted’s judgement of the school.

Each governor takes on a specific area of responsibility. These are:

• Provision for children with Special Educational Needs/Disabilities.
• Ensuring that all the requirements of Keeping Children Safe in Education are in place (Safeguarding).
• Monitoring of Health and Safety, following the plan and priorities, set out by the trust’s independent health and safety advisory service.
• Provision for children who are looked-after.
• Monitoring school data and overall progress against national benchmarks, including the achievement and progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• Provision for pupils’ personal development, including careers education, and advice and guidance.
• The school’s ethos; how as a Christian school it provides for the spiritual development of all young people, whatever their faith (or none).

In an established school, governors meet 4 times a year and commit to spending some time in the school each term to follow up in their area of responsibility, speaking with leadership, wider staff, pupils where appropriate, looking at the learning that pupils have done, and the progress they have made. Seeing the school in action means that they know it at a much deeper level.  At The Brian Clarke CE Academy, the governors will meet 6 times a year in the first 2 years to ensure the school has solid support and challenge from the start.