Our Role
The Governing Body has a strategic role and three core functions:
- ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
- holding the Head Teacher 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.
The Governing Body of Gledhow Primary School is committed to the school’s mission to create the conditions for outstanding teaching to flourish in a warm, inclusive, well-organised and caring atmosphere where every child is able to maximise their potential.
The Governing Body works very closely with the Head Teacher and Leadership Team to set the ethos of the school and ensure that this is at the bedrock of everything the school aims to achieve.
Having responsibility to ensure that the school is constantly evolving and challenging itself, the governors and leadership team ensure that the school's Self Evaluation Form (SEF) and School Improvement Plan (SIP) are central to the planning, challenge, evaluation and accountability of the school - and therefore of the standards that our children achieve in all aspects of their school life.
As well as engaging and responding to external advice and analysis of our school, governors also meet termly with the leadership team to look at the SIP. Current action plans are evaluated and new areas in which we wish to secure improvements are identified.
The Governing Body has recently undertaken an audit of its skill sets and structure to meet the requirements of an effective governing body, especially in view of the on-going challenges of the School’s three form expansion.
The whole Governing Body meets at least termly and also regularly in three Committees:
- Resource Committee
- Teaching and Learning Committee
- Pupil Support Committee
The Governing Body consists of fourteen governors.
|
Name |
Governor seat |
Appointment date |
End of office date |
|
Ben Allchin |
Co-opted |
12/09/2018 |
13/09/2022 |
|
Sarah Parkinson |
Head Teacher | 01/09/2018 | N/A |
|
Sarah Barrass |
Joint Chair -Co-opted | 01/09/2017 | 11/07/2024 |
|
Karen Holder-Benjamin |
Co-opted |
01/09/2017 |
01/09/2021 |
|
Laura Bryne |
Staff | 22/09/2022 | 21/09/2026 |
|
Hilary Iles |
LA governor | 06/12/2018 | 05/12/2022 |
| Surita Sharma-Woodlands | Co-opted | 22/09/2022 |
21/09/2026 |
|
Richard Blount |
Co-opted | 12/12/2019 | 11/12/2023 |
| Ahmed Zaman | Co-opted | 30/04/2020 |
29/04/2024 |
| Rachel Smith | Co-opted | 30/04/2020 |
29/04/2024 |
|
Sian Kennedy |
Parent | 02/04/2020 | 01/04/2022 |
|
Sam Gibbs |
Joint Chair - Parent governor | 29/01/2020 | 28/01/2024 |
Current structure
The governing body is currently set up as follows:
The full governing body meet 4-6 times a year. In addition, each committee meets three times a year. During the year there are also various working parties which take a closer, more in-depth look at specific issues. The focus of these working parties relates to the governor's development plan, school priorities and local/national issues. Governors also meet to train together, e.g. understanding the new Ofsted framework, and attend central training courses, e.g. induction training for new governors. The governing body work in a strategic capacity. They support and challenge leaders to ensure Gledhow remains on a journey of continuous improvement. To achieve this aim, communication with all stakeholders is extremely important, as is having a really good understanding of the school. We work closely with leaders in the school and each governor is linked to various aspect of school life.
| Resources committee | Pupil Support committee | Teaching and Learning committee |
|
Sarah Barrass (committee chair) Ben Allchin Ahmed Zaman Adrian Fleming Richard Blount Sarah Parkinson |
Hilary Iles (committee chair) Rachel Smith Karen Holden-Benjamin Sarah Parkinson
|
Sam Gibbs Sian Kennedy Sarah Parkinson |
Governors meet with a wide range of staff:
To gather information: meetings help provide an opportunity for two-way dialogue and provide a direct conduit between individual members of staff and the governing body.
To monitor: meetings help governors to understand what the current picture is in the school and what progress is being made towards a particular goal
To support: governors bring a wide range of expertise into the school that can be very helpful to members of staff. Professional dialogue can be very helpful to leaders in reflecting on actions and can support forward thinking.
To challenge: governors are responsible for the quality of education being provided and will challenge colleagues to ensure the school is the very best it can be. Governors will help leaders to reflect on any barriers to achieving the goals set out.
The governing body is also responsible for reviewing the performance of the headteacher. This is via performance management, regular headteacher reports to governors, questions and discussion in governing body meetings, review of various monitoring activities, external reviews by school improvement consultants and advisers, and regular meetings with the Chair of Governors, etc.
If you wish to contact the Chair of Governors, you can email us via ChairofGovernors@Gledhowschool.org or send written correspondence to the school.
Governor Code of Conduct
The governors operate in accordance with the terms of the Governor Code of Conduct (see PDF below).