Who are we?
There are 17 of us:
Six parent governors (elected by the parents)
Three LEA governors (nominated by the LEA)
Three staff governors (elected by the staff, to include teaching and non-teaching staff)
Four community governors (appointed by the governors from the local community)
The headteacher is also a governor
We also have :
One Associate Governor ( a representative of the local community but who has no voting powers)
The deputy and assistant heads can also attend meetings on an advisory capacity
You can contact the Chair of Governors Amanda Edwards here.
What do we do?
Our job is to work with the school on the school’s strategy and vision, planning, developing policies and keeping the school under review so that all our children achieve their full potential.
Our key objectives are:
To set high standards for all children and clear targets for improvement
To be a critical friend in this process
To help the school be responsive to the needs of parents and the community
We are here to ask questions, which are probing but hopefully not too confrontational, and to work with the head and the staff. Governors shouldn’t be involved in the day to day running of the school (or try to) and should respect the professionalism of the head and staff.
We all sign up to a Chorlton Park Governors’ Code of Conduct
How do we achieve our objectives?
The blueprint for school improvement is the School Development Plan. The SDP is the mechanism by which we can monitor how well the school is doing its job. A good plan will have clear goals and clearly identified success criteria, which the governors can then monitor and review, at regular intervals. Governors at Chorlton Park set their own targets as part of the plan.
Although raising standards is our key objective, governors also monitor many other aspects of school life – the achievement of different ethnic groups, lateness, behaviour and how our school performs in comparison with schools with similar intakes.
We do this in a number of ways:
1) Meetings and committees
The governing body meets twice a term but in our case most of the work (and reviewing the SDP) is done in three committees, all of which contribute to the overall objective of raising standards. The second meeting of the term concentrates on curriculum matters and monitors the delivery of the national curriculum, standards and quality of teaching and learning. The second meeting of the term also receives a detailed report from the head teacher to helps us with the monitoring of key areas in school, such as behaviour, keeping safe and attendance.
The Personnel Committee deals with matters of pay, staff recruitment, discipline and grievances and any other issues relating to staff.
The Finance and Premises Committee deals with the built and outside environment, building works and maintenance. It also oversees the budget and tries to link the curriculum, staffing and premises key objectives to the amount of money we have to spend.
The Partnership Committee deals with matters relating to the wider community and establishing strong links with all our partners.
2) Policies
Governing bodies must have policies, which cover:
SEN
Sex and Relationship Education
Equal Opportunities
Health and Safety
Pay
Teaching and Learning
Homework
Behaviour
Curriculum
All these should be reviewed regularly.
3) Named governors
We also have key areas in the school that have individual governors assigned to them. The areas are:
· SEN and Looked After Children
· School Improvement
· Health Schools
· Diversity and Inclusion
Governors can also be a useful link between the staff and parents.
