The Governing Body
Our Chair of Governors is Mr M Lee.
You can contact the Chair of Governors via the school office on 01922 721368 or by emailing clerk@kingcharlesprimaryschool.co.uk
The governing board is the school’s legally accountable body. It is accountable for the individual school to the local authority. It has a strategic oversight role.
As set out in the Governance Handbook, all boards have three core functions:
Ensuring clarity of the vision, ethos and strategic direction.
Holding the leadership of the school to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils and the effective and efficient performance management of staff.
Overseeing the financial performance of the school(s) and making sure that its money is well spent.
The board may delegate functions to individual governors, the Headteacher (in certain circumstances) and committees of the board, but it remains accountable and is responsible for all decisions made. It is responsible for the general control and management of the administration of the school with headteachers operating within the autonomy, powers and functions delegated to them by the board. The board must act with integrity, objectivity and honesty and in the best interests of the school and should avoid conflicts of interest.
The board should make sure it does not get involved in the day-to-day running of the school (operational), which is the responsibility of the Headteacher. It must operate and make decisions in the best interests of the school and in line with its strategic priorities, including in relation to school finances. As the strategic lead for the school, it is vital that the board understands, and engages with the communities it serves.
The board, with advice from its Clerk, is also responsible for ensuring legal and regulatory compliance across a range of areas, including:
education and equalities laws;
safeguarding;
responsibilities as operators of an educational institution, such as health and safety, information management and employment law;
conditions and obligations imposed by funding or regulatory bodies.
In a maintained school the board must be made up of a minimum of seven governors including:
at least two parent governors, elected where possible
the Headteacher, unless the Headteacher resigns the office
a staff governor, elected
a local authority governor, nominated by the local authority and appointed by the board
governors from the local community
Governors are elected every four years.
What our Governors do:
Our Governors meet at least once a term to make decisions on how our schools are run - this involves:
Deciding what is taught, setting standards of conduct, interviewing and selecting staff, deciding how the school budget is spent, ensuring the school complies with all its legal obligations, monitoring and evaluating the work of the school
Our Governing body also has committees which consider specific areas, for instance Health and Safety, finance and personnel. Our governing body makes its decisions based on the advice of these committees.
Copies of Minutes of Governor Board Meetings are available on request.
