Parent Governor vacancies will be announced to the school community  and applications will be invited. If more than one person applies to the position of Parent Governor an election will take place.  Other members of the community can apply to be a school governor. If you are interested in the role please contact the Clerk to the Governing Body, Emily Daly to check if there are any vacancies. E.Daly@greatbinfields.hants.sch.uk

The Role of a school governor is:-

To contribute to the work of the governing board in ensuring high standards of achievement for all children and young people in the school by:

• setting the school’s vision, ethos and strategic direction heolding  the Headteacher to account
• for the educational performance of the school and it’s pupils
• overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure money is well spent

Activities: As part of the Governing Body team a Governor is expected to

1. Contribute to the strategic discussions at governing board meetings which determine:

• the vision and ethos of the school
• clear and ambitious strategic priorities and targets for the school that all children, including those with special educational needs, have access to a broad and balanced  curriculum
• the school’s budget, including the expenditure of the pupil premium allocation
• the school’s staffing structure and key staffing policies the principles to be used by the school leaders to set other school policies

2.  Hold the senior leaders to account by monitoring the school’s performance, this includes

• agreeing the outcomes from the school’s self-evaluation and ensuring they are used to inform the priorities in the school development plan
• considering all relevant data and feedback provided on request by school leaders and external sources on all aspects of school performance
• asking challenging questions of school leaders
• ensuring senior leaders have arranged for the required audits to be carried out and receiving the results of those audits
• ensuring senior leaders have developed the required policies and procedures and the school is operating effectively according to those policies

3.  Ensure the school staff have the resources and support they require to do their job well, including the necessary  expertise         on business management, external advice where necessary, effective appraisal and CPD (continuing professional development), and suitable premises, and the way in which those resources are used has impact.            

• acting as a link governor on a specific issue, making relevant enquiries of the relevant staff, and reporting to the governing board on the progress on the relevant school priority
• listening to and reporting to the school’s stakeholders; pupils, parents, staff and the wider community, including local employers

4.  When required, serve on panels of governors to

• appoint the Headteacher and other senior leaders
• appraise the Headteacher
• set the Headteacher’s pay and agree the pay recommendations for other staff
• hear the second stage of staff grievances and disciplinary matters
• hear appeals about pupil exclusions

 5.  In order to perform this role well, a governor is expected to

• get to know the school, including visiting the school occasionally during school hours and gaining a good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses
• attend induction training and regular relevant training and development events
• attend meetings (full governing body and committee meetings) and read the papers before the meeting
• act in the best interest of the pupils of the school
• behave in a professional manner, as set down in the governing board’s Handbook/Code of Conduct, including acting in strict confidence.
• To ensure knowledge and use of the Governors Protocol and Action Plan to enable self-evaluation

The role of the Governor is largely a thinking and questioning role not a doing role. 

A Governor does NOT:

• write school policies
• undertake audits of any sort – whether financial or health and safety – even if the Governor has the relevant professional experience
• spend much time with the pupils of the school – if you want to work directly with children, there are many other valuable voluntary roles within the school
• fundraise – this is the role of the PTA, the governing board should consider income streams and potential for income generation but not carry out fundraising tasks
• undertake classroom observations to make judgements on the quality of teaching – the governing board monitors the quality of teaching in the school by requiring data from the senior staff and from external sources
• do the job of the school staff – if there is not enough capacity within the paid staff team to carry out the necessary tasks, the governing board need to consider and rectify this