Governors
Membership
The governing body consists of four categories of governor, Staff, Parent, Community and Local Education Authority. At Watlington, the composition is as follows:
The Head Teacher
The Head Teacher is automatically a governor.
Staff governors (3)
Two teaching and one non-teaching members of staff are elected by the staff, a ballot being held if there are more nominations than places.
All of these school-based governors remain on the governing body only while they are employed at the school. Should they retire or resign, a new nomination is required.
Parent Governors
Six governors who are parents or carers of children enrolled at the school at the time of their appointment. Vacancies for parent governors must be notified to all parents and nominations requested. A ballot of all parents is held if there are more nominations than posts available.
Community Governors
Four governors can be invited to serve by the governing body as being representative of the interests of the local community. Community governors can be reappointed an indefinite number of times at the end of their four year terms.
Local Authority Governors
Three governors are appointed by the major political parties to represent Local Authority interests. Although appointed by the political parties, they do not have to be party members or take a party whip. These may also be indefinite re-appointments.
Who are the School’s Governors?
| Name | Photos | Governor type | Committees | Special interest |
| John Ward (Chair) |
| LEA | Staffing (Chair) Finance Facilities H&S | Year 5 ICT |
| Brian Creasey (Vice Chair) |
| Community | Facilities (Chair) H&S (Chair) | Year 3 |
| Julian Ansell |
| LEA | Staffing | Year 4 Science |
| Martin Beeton |
| Parent | Staffing Finance | Year 2 |
|
| | | ||
| Mike Cooke |
| Community | Finance (Chair) Staffing Curriculum | Year 1 Numeracy |
| Jenny Dowden |
| Staff | Staffing Finance | |
| Andrew Prior | | Parent |
|
|
| Ann Higgins |
| Staff | Curriculum (Chair) | |
| Fr James Nolan |
| Community | | RE |
| Jonathan Rice |
| Staff | | |
| Richard Rockcliffe |
| LEA | Curriculum | Child protection |
| Helen West |
| Parent | Curriculum | Year 6 Literacy |
| Michelle Secker | | Parent |
What is the Governors’ Role?
- Setting the school’s vision and strategic aims, agreeing plans and policies, making creative use of available resources.
- Monitoring and evaluating performance, and acting as a critical friend to the Head Teacher and her deputy to support them and challenge them in managing the school.
- Ensuring that the school is accountable to the children and parents, to the local community and those who fund and maintain it, as well as to the staff.
- Reports from the headteacher and the chairs of the various committees.
- Consideration of the School Development Plan.
- Discussion arising from correspondence.
- Discussion and acceptance or otherwise of new policies.
- Considering any incidents of anti-racism, disability discrimination and child protection.
- Feedback from courses governors have attended.
The Staffing Committee’s main role is in the appointment of the headteacher, the deputy head and teaching staff. At times it may also be involved in issues concerning the non-teaching staff. It meets as and when necessary to consider various other matters of staffing.
Finance
The Finance Committee is responsible for setting the school’s budget, and monitoring it throughout the financial year which runs from April to March. Budget control reports are produced monthly by the school, and the committee pay close attention to variations from the budgeted figures. Members of the committee are present when the County’s Finance Officer visits the school termly to help update the budgeted figures.
Curriculum
This committee takes a particular interest in all aspects of the curriculum, and has the important function of monitoring the progress of children throughout the school. This is done without governors knowing the identity of the children concerned. Governors have delegated the task of agreeing both new curriculum policies and amendments to existing ones to this committee.
Facilities
The Facilities committee deals with all aspects of the school’s buildings and grounds. It is closely involved with new building works, and agrees the schedule for repairs and decoration. Because of his expertise, the chairman of this committee becomes closely involved when all such work is carried out.
Health & Safety
This committee is not strictly a function of the governors, but as many of its functions are directly related to Facilities, it is mainly staffed by the same people. As its name implies, it is responsible for overseeing all aspects of H&S within the school’s premises.