Buckden C.E Primary School
Governors
All schools have a governing body which is a group of people elected from the parent body, the Local Authority, members of the church (if a school is a Church school) and members of staff. In addition the school can also appoint its own community governors. The membership of the governing body uses their combined skills and experience to assist the headteacher run the school efficiently. A governor is a ‘critical friend’ to the school.
The Role of the Governing Body
Over the last several years the responsibilities and work carried out by Governing Bodies have increased dramatically as “control” has shifted from Local Authorities to the individual Schools and being an academy more so.
The governing body is responsible for the conduct of its school, and must promote high standards of educational achievement at the school. It is the school’s accountable body and as such it will:
- Provide a strategic view of the school by establishing a vision and setting the purpose and aims of the school within an agreed policy framework. It appoints and performance manages the headteacher, agrees the school improvement strategy which includes setting statutory targets, offer support when setting yearly budgets and advise on staffing structures.
- Monitor and evaluate the work of the school by reviewing the performance of the headteacher, the effectiveness of the policy framework, progress toward targets, and the effectiveness of the school improvement strategy.
- Sign off the self-evaluation process and respond to advice from the school improvement service and Ofsted reports, as necessary. In addition the Governing Body will hold the headteacher to account for the performance of the school and ensures that parents and all other stakeholders are involved, consulted and informed as appropriate, with information to the community being made available as required.
In order to do this governors need to gain knowledge on how the school operates by attending training, attending regular meetings and getting to know the school community through visiting the school during the day.
Governing bodies are required to meet, in full, a minimum of three times a year. In addition, all governors are required to support an area of the Academy Improvement Plan and make visits to the school three times a year to the link teacher for their area. Governors will arrange to visit the school to address specific issues relating to health and safety, finance, special educational needs, child protection.
Each Governor serves a term of four years.
The Local Governing Body (LGB) meets at least once a term, twice in the Autumn Term and reports back to ACT Academy Trustees each term.
The Governors’ task is to set strategy and policy, to ensure that things are running smoothly, to provide support and encouragement and to offer a sympathetic but critical ear. To learn more about the role of the Governing Body, please read our ‘Governor Code of Conduct’ below.
The governors can be contacted through their email governors@bpa.act-academytrust.org
Information about terms of office, previous governors and attendance at meetings can be found in the “Annual Financial Report – Governors’ Report and Audited Accounts”, an external yearly audit on the Reports and Policies page.
Parent Governor Vacancy
If you have an interest in becoming a parent governor please email your interest to governors@bpa.act-academytrust.org