Our governing body is made up of volunteers from the local community. It includes people from a wide range of backgrounds who, between them, offer a diverse range of skills and views, bringing a breadth of experience to the team. We work within a statutory framework and are required to have a focus on three core strategic functions:

· Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction

· Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff

· Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Full governing body meetings are held termly. In addition, work is delegated to committees – each committee usually meets twice each term. The core committees are:

· Resources and finance

· Safeguarding and compliance

Categories of governors

· Parent governors are elected by the school parents and carers to provide a parental perspective.

· Local authority governors are appointed by the County Council primarily with a view to their commitment to high quality education and their ability to bring an independent perspective.

· Staff governors include the executive headteacher plus one other member of staff elected by and from the teaching and non-teaching staff at the school.

· Co-opted governors are appointed by the governing body based on the skills and experience that they have.

Associate members may also be appointed by the governing body.

OVERVIEW – the way our governing body carries out its work

Full governing body meetings

The overall purpose of our full governing body meetings is to:

· Work together on strategic matters including – aims, vision, school development planning, and school self-evaluation.

· Have oversight of the work of the committees. The Committees report to the full governing body.

Resources and finance (R and F) committee

The overall purpose of the R and F committee is to monitor the school’s performance and implementation of policies in the areas of:

· Finance

· Premises

· Personnel

Safeguarding and compliance (S and C) committee

The overall purpose of the S and C committee is to monitor the effectiveness of the school’s procedures and implementation of policies in the key areas of:

· Safeguarding

· Child protection

· Health and safety

· Statutory compliance

· Pupils’ behaviour and welfare issues

Pay committee

The pay committee oversees the implementation of the governing body’s policies for pay and performance management, to ensure that they are contributing to improving standards.

Headteacher’s performance management committee

These governors are supported by an external adviser to ensure that good personnel management practices are extended to the executive headteacher. The pay and performance management policies are also applied to the executive headteacher to ensure that they are contributing to improving standards.

Other background information about how we work

Our governors undertake training and development to support them in their specific roles. We also draw on external advisers and work within Hampshire Local Authority frameworks.

Governors visit school to undertake regular monitoring and evaluation activities and some are also able to give time to get more closely involved in the life of the schools. This could include activities such as helping out with school trips, hearing children read, pupil interviews, projects, class activities and events.

We aim to be approachable and are always pleased to hear your feedback – governors can be contacted through the school offices.