Overview of Governing Body

The current members are pro-active in evaluating their own effectiveness and seek regular guidance and training to support their roles in schools. This ensures good strong relationships with the school and staff teams are developed.

The team have been involved in many major projects over the years to support our vision for school and long-term development plan.

The Governing Body works voluntarily for the good of the school and is responsible for overseeing all strategic matters relating to school life. The Governors are responsible for deciding and agreeing school policies and for ensuring that the school is run effectively so that it is able to meet its aims.

Governor’s core strategic functions are:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
2. Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Governor’s core responsibilities at Newfield are:

• Ensuring accountability
• Acting as a ‘critical friend’ to the Head Teacher
• Monitoring and evaluating the school’s progress
• Budgetary allocation and control
• Planning for the long -term future of the school
• Setting the school’s aims and values
• Appointing senior members of staff including the Head Teacher

The Governors never lose sight of the fact that every decision they make ultimately affects the children and young adults who attend our school.

The Governors have 3 subcommittees; School Effectiveness, Finance and Resources and Health and Safety. Meetings take place at least once a term to discuss policy, finance, buildings, appointments, school improvements and safety, health and well-being. These committees report to the full Governing body with recommendations.

Each governor holds a designated responsibility, and act on behalf of the full governing bodywhere appropriate. An important role for governors is ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the children and we have a nominated governor for safeguarding, who reports to the wider board on safeguarding matters.

Governance arrangements

Our governors follow all NGA Guidance and regularly keep up to date with any changes, reviews, and updates.

Governor Visit Protocol

Planned Visits Linked to School Improvement and Development:

As part of their monitoring and support and challenge role governors attend school across the year with a defined focus linked to their role.

This ranges from termly health and safety walk-about to regular visits from the Chair to speak with staff.

These visits to support the strategic decision making of the governing body and help support the working relationships between staff and governors.

To support these visits we have in place an annual monitoring schedule agreed at the start of each year and linked to each area of focus. Governors then report on visits and findings at termly full governors meetings, to support information sharing and enhance accountability.

Other Visits:

Each governor is assigned a class to visit and support. The contact and frequency of visits is decided in agreement with the class team

In addition governors attend training events, school events and special occasions. Governors’ visits help to develop their knowledge of the school and deepen their understanding of the impact of their decisions on the provision.

The key questions and points for discussion for governors to consider in committees will be informed following such visits and through subsequent discussions with school leaders.

Key Issues to Address to ensure Consistency of approach:

Each planned visit undertaken requires an agreed focus and monitoring format linked to governor role. A pro -forma is in place for each visit report that is available for staff to see.

There are also clear guidelines for staff and governors in relation to the visits.

Key questions to consider could include:

• What are the key issues for action in this area?
• How does this relate to the school improvement priorities?
• How well is the action plan going?
• Do governors have the support/resource needed to carry it out?
• What may be seen in relation to impact at this point?
• What needs to be done next?

Supporting Effective Visits to maximise impact:

For visits we:

• Identify a designated member of staff to meet with the governor (Head teacher/Deputy/Head of Department/ Middle leader of curriculum area )
• Provide opportunity for Q & A session - either during/after the scheduled visit has taken place.
• Share information of governors completed proforma with staff
• Appoint staff governor for dissemination of information.
• Keep records of visits for monitoring purposes

Equality and Fairness:

Governors should take care to note that their visit is always only a ‘snapshot’ of the school at a particular point in time.

The Governing Body is committed to an equitable and fair approach to these visits through:

• Reinforcement of clarity of purpose.
• Understanding that as governors they are not in a position to not make written observations/comments about the quality of the teaching and learning as it is beyond their remit.
• Any concerns following the visit are raised with the Head teacher immediately.
• Identification of individual staff or pupils by name is not permitted on any visit
• The monitoring reports will be available for inspection