St Gregory & St Patrick's Catholic Infant School

Governing Body

Committees

 

What do we do?

The main role of the Governing Body is to help raise the standards and performance of the school by supporting the work of the head teacher and staff.  We work very closely with the senior leadership team and the rest of the staff to provide support, but we also challenge and ask questions to ensure that the best possible decisions are made for the school and its pupils. We do not become involved in the day to day management of the school because this is the Head Teacher’s responsibility but we do hold her to account for the performance of the school.

How do we do this?

We meet as a full Governing Body at least once a term to consider a wide range of issues including school improvement, policies and finances.  We have also established a number of committees which allow us to discuss issues in more depth and report back to the full Governing Body.  Our committees are:

Staffing and Finance

Buildings, Health and Safety (including Premises and safeguarding)

Curriculum and Standards

Committees also meet once a term and all governors sit on at least one committee.  We also carry out monitoring visits to help us understand and appreciate the workings of the school.  Sometimes these are just walks around the building to develop our own knowledge and on other occasions they are focused on a particular aspect of the school's performance and involve discussions with staff and pupils.  We do not make judgements about the quality of teaching or the progress of individual pupils because that is the responsibility of the head teacher.  We also attend training to assist us in carrying out our duties effectively

 Who are we?

Our governors come from many different backgrounds but we all have one thing in common: we are passionate about St Gregory and  St Patrick’s Catholic Infant School and dedicated to ensuring that our pupils have the best education possible.  We all bring different skills and experiences but we work well together in the best interests of the school.  The normal term of office for governors is four years, although sometimes governors are reappointed for further terms if they wish.

Parent Governors:

Parent governors are elected by other parents of pupils registered at the school.  They should be parents of pupils currently at the school but they may serve out their term of office if their child leaves.  Parents who are also members of staff are not eligible to be parent governors.

Local Authority Governors:

Authority governors are appointed by the local authority which maintains the school, in our case this is Cumbria.  Sometimes potential authority governors approach Cumbria LA and ask to be allocated to a particular Governing Body but, in practice, such governors are usually recommended by ourselves and then approved by the LA.

Foundation Governors:

Foundation governors are appointed by the diocese to represent Catholic interests.  They can be people who live or work in the local community or anyone else who is committed to the success of our school. 

Staff Governors:

The head teacher of a school automatically becomes a governor at the time of appointment unless they inform the Governing Body that they do not want to be a member.  Our head teacher is a governor and this ensures a really productive working relationship.  Other staff members are elected by and from the whole teaching and non-teaching staff.  Staff governors may not continue to be governors if they cease to be employed by us.

In addition staff members can be co-opted on to the governing body.