Who are school Governors?
School governors are there to ensure that schools are well run. They are volunteers who help to decide on the direction, focus and ethos of schools. Each school has between 9 and 20 governors who together form 'the governing body', our school has 16 governors. Governors represent people from many walks of life: school staff, parents, the local community and even organisations connected to the school. This means that school decisions are made by people with a wide range of views and experience.
What do school governors do?
They are there to give a long-term strategic direction to how the school is run; to be critical friends to the school and to ensure the school is accountable for its actions.
Governors discuss and have input on:
- school policies, such as discipline, uniform, homework, bullying, etc
- long-term plans and the future of the school
- how the school budget will be spent
- how the school will try to reach performance targets
- drafting the annual report to parents (now replaced by the school profile)
- appointment and dismissal of staff
- complaints
- repair and maintenance of the school building
Our governing body also has sub-committees of governors to look at specific areas such as Buildings & Finance; Curriculum, Students, Personnel and Discipline.
How much time do governors give?
Normally governors serve for four years, but as volunteers they can leave at any time. Previous governors can normally apply to be re-appointed or re-elected if they wish to return. A governor's main task is to attend meetings of the full governing body (normally 2.5 hours once a term). In addition, a governor will be appointed to a sub-committee whose meetings take place once a term and last approximately 2 hours. Governors are also committed to carrying out a school visit to their linked department to observe a lesson and familiarise themselves with this department and how it works. All our meetings take place at 3.30pm.
Our Clerk to the Governors is Ms Jane Scott - all correspondence for the Chair of Governors should be sent to the school address c/o Jane Scott, Clerk. jscott5@oriel.w-sussex.sch.uk
