WHAT IS A GOVERNING BODY

All schools in England have a Governing Body which is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school. A key role is to act as a ‘critical friend’: to support, to challenge, to ask questions, ultimately to represent the school community.

The Governing Body works in close partnership with the headteacher, staff and the local authority. Whilst the headteacher is, of course, responsible for the day to day running of the school, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings and finance. It ensures the school functions well and maintains the proper range of academic and social objectives.

Message from the Chair of Governors - Lizzy Oddy

I am proud to be the Chair of the Governing Body at Noak Bridge Primary School, as the governors are committed to working with the Headteacher and her staff to ensure that all children are given a high quality education in a caring, supportive learning environment.

The core functions of governance are

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff
• Overseeing financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent

To carry out their responsibilities, the full governing body and the Finance Committee meet at least once each term. One of the tasks completed at these meetings is the  review, monitoring and approval of a range of policies that govern the operation of the school, including Health and Safety, Behaviour, Curriculum and Mental Health and Wellbeing (although the actual list of policies is much longer!).

All governors are members of the National Governance Association and they complete governor training on a range of topics, depending on their background, experience and area of responsibility, at least termly. They also receive safeguarding training annually.

Governors conduct regular monitoring visits to the school and agree a focus for these visits with the Headteacher in advance. The visits may include observing lessons, speaking to pupils and staff or looking at pupils’ work, although the monitoring could also include aspects of school life like the lunchtime provision or the operation of the School Council.

Noak Bridge Primary draws a unique strength from its success in fostering a close knit family atmosphere where staff, pupils, parents and governors work together to ensure that all our pupils have the opportunity to develop to their full potential.

The Governing Body is, therefore, rightly proud of the achievements of the school, not only in terms of high academic results, but also in the solid foundations it provides in preparing all our pupils for the remainder of their formative education.

Join In

All governor's to a school's Governing Body must be elected or appointed.

If you want to be part of Noak Bridge Primary School's Governing Body please enquire about any vacancies.

Definitions:

Co-opted governors are persons who, in the opinion of the governing body, have the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.

Local Authority governors are persons who are nominated by the local authority and appointed by the governing body having, in the opinion of the governing body, met any eligibility criteria that they have set.

Parent governors are persons who are elected by parents of registered pupils at the school and are parents at the time of election.

Associate member is a person who is appointed by the governing body as a member of any committee

established by them but who is not a governor.

For a full list of our governors and information, please follow the link below:

https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/144086#school-governance

The structure and remit of the members, board of trustees, its committees and local governing bodies, and the full names of the chair of each; articles of association; funding agreement; annual audited accounts (at least 2 years' worth of accounts); annual report; register of interests for the accounting officer; financial notice to improve (if issued with one from the ESFA) can be found on our MAT website: 

https://www.crescomat.co.uk/