Would you like to be a School Governor?

All Saints’ Church of England VA Primary School has just received a very positive Ofsted Report. Our school’s effectiveness was rated Good overall, with three areas recognised as outstanding: our pupils’ behaviour and attitudes, their personal development, and our early years provision. We are now embarking on the next stage of our school’s development and currently seeking new governors to help facilitate this. All Saints’ Church of England VA Primary School has just received a very positive Ofsted Report. Our school’s effectiveness was rated Good overall, with three areas recognised as outstanding: our pupils’ behaviour and attitudes, their personal development, and our early years provision. We are now embarking on the next stage of our school’s development and currently seeking new governors to help facilitate this.

Our school governors have a varied and important role, in helping our school run effectively. They have 3 core functions:

1. Planning the strategic direction of the school.
2. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well spent.
3. Holding the headteacher and extended leadership team to account.

The governor role is strategic rather than operational. Our governors don’t get involved with the day to day running of the school, instead we support and challenge the school’s leadership team to drive school improvement. We champion the work the school does.

Our board currently consists of eight people, and we meet six times during the academic year. As governors we also have areas of the school that we monitor – the quality of the education being delivered for our pupils, our pupils’ behaviour and attitude, their personal development, our early year provision, and our school’s leadership and management.

As a Church of England school our governors come from both the local church - All Saints’, Dovercourt – as well as the local community. In our role we:

• attend induction training and relevant training events;
• attend six 2-hour full governing board meetings, having read the supporting papers beforehand;
• get to know our school, including undertaking monitoring visits during school hours once each half term, usually lasting 2 to 3 hours, for the area delegated, and gaining a good understanding of our school’s strengths and weaknesses;
• sit on occasional panels if we need to consider a complaint or attendance issue;
• act in the best interests of all the pupils of our school;
• behave in a professional manner, including acting in strict confidence.

Being a school governor at All Saints’ is a commitment and a responsibility but offers the chance to see first-hand the impact individual leaders can make in improving the education for children in our local community.

No special qualifications are needed. The most important thing is to have a keen interest in the children’s education and be prepared to play an active part in the governing body’s work. We are particularly seeking individuals who can strengthen our board with skills in financial management, legal, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement, though this is not a requirement for the role.

To find out more about the role please get in touch via the school office and we will arrange to discuss what the role involves.  Alternatively, please complete the form below and return it to: finance@allsaints-harwich.essex.sch.uk.