Governance at Whimple
Our Vision
Whimple Primary School provides a safe environment at the heart of the community where everyone is valued, and which encourages all the children to achieve their potential whilst being caring and aware of the wider world around them. Through a knowledge based curriculum and extra curricular activities we encourage and promote discovery and inspire our children to become positive members of society.
We shall achieve this through:
- Providing a broad and balanced curriculum which inspires and motivates children to learn.
- Offering a wide range of extra curricular activities including sport and music.
- Delivering high quality, inspirational and innovative teaching.
- Promoting the 6Rs – Responsibility, Respect, Resourcefulness, Reasoning, Reflection, Resilience.
- Creating a nurturing working environment where children feel safe and supported in taking risks within their learning.
- Developing core skills in reading, writing and maths.
- Involvement with local community events such as carol services, wassailing, and the Civic Award, as well as supporting charities.
- Encouraging children to take responsibility for themselves and others, and their environment.
- Ensuring an interest in physical and mental well being.
- Communicating effectively with stakeholders.
Governors support the school vision by:
- Ensuring the school has a sound financial footing.
- Overseeing the wider curriculum, ensuring it is effective and relevant.
- Monitoring, evaluating and challenging progress and attainment, and benchmarking performance against other schools locally and nationally.
- Monitoring, evaluating and challenging policies, audits, appraisals and safeguarding practices through visits and reports.
- Ensuring continuous improvement by all.
- Employing the best staff and retaining them.
Whimple, like almost all other schools in the country, has a team of governors who oversee the running of the school. The governing body at Whimple is constituted as follows: -
4 Co-opted Governors
3 Parent Governors
1 Local Authority Governor
2 Staff governors (headteacher and a teacher).
This ensures that there is a diverse mix of people who bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise.
The governing body oversees the running of the school by setting aims and objectives for the school, creating policies and agreeing targets. Governors are not involved in the day-to-day management of the school; instead, the governing body acts as a “critical friend” to the headteacher by providing advice and support. Any questions or issues relating to a particular lesson, subject, pupil, or class should be referred to the relevant teacher or the headteacher.
The governors come from a wide variety of backgrounds and do not have to have experience in education. Governors volunteer their time, and the main requirement for the role is the desire to see the school and its pupils succeed in their education and achieve their individual potential.
The full governing body meets seven times a year to discuss and review any current issues at the school and to look forward to the year ahead.
Each governor is also a member of one of the two sub-committees; Finance & Resources and Teaching & Learning (a full list of governor committee roles is below).
- The Finance & Resources Committee reviews the school’s finances to ensure that the school is spending its money wisely and that the school premises and facilities are safe, secure and fit for purpose.
- The Teaching and Learning Committee checks that pupils are making sufficient academic progress whilst still receiving a balanced education that will set them up for life in a wider community.
The kind of issues investigated by governors include:
- How much money does the school have to spend?
How is the money being spent?
Is the school getting good value for money? - Are the premises safe and fit for purpose?
- What burden is being placed on teachers?
Do they have appropriate time, training and resources to do their job? - How are children developing academically?
Are they making appropriate progress?
Are all pupils, regardless of age, background or ability, given the appropriate support and opportunity to succeed?
Whilst most issues and concerns should be referred to the headteacher, governors can provide further information or advice on their role where appropriate. Governors often attend school events so can be approached there, or they can be contacted via the school administrator.
The dates of this year’s meetings are as follows:
|
Date |
Meeting |
|---|---|
|
Full Governors' Meeting - AGM |
Monday 26th September 2022 |
|
Teaching and Learning |
Monday 17th October 2022 |
|
Full Governors' Meeting |
Thursday 17th November 2022 |
|
Finance and Resources |
Monday 5th December 2022 |
|
Full Governors' Meeting |
Monday 23rd January 2023 |
|
Teaching and Learning |
Monday 6th February 2023 |
|
Full Governors' Meeting/Finance and Resources |
Monday 20th March 2023 |
|
Full Governors' Meeting/Finance and Resources |
Monday 24th April 2023 |
|
Teaching and Learning |
Monday 22nd May 2023 |
|
Finance and Resources |
Thursday 22nd June 2023 |
|
Full Governor's Meeting |
Monday 3rd July 2023 |
|
|
NB FULL governors meetings are open to all.
If you have any issues to be brought to any of the meetings, please speak to the Chair or any other Governor. If possible please do this a fortnight before the meeting so that the item can be added to the agenda if appropriate.