Governors – Questions and Answers.

Q. What is a Governing Body?

A. The Governing body consists of a group of interested people, some of which are employed by the school and others are volunteers. The head teacher and the management team run the school on a day-to-day basis, the strategic direction of the school is shared with the governors.

Strategic responsibilities (which are defined in law) include:

• Being accountable for the performance of the school
• Planning the future direction of the school
• Promoting high standards of educational achievement
• Setting targets for pupil achievement
• Taking general responsibility for the conduct of the school
• Managing the schools budget, including key staffing decisions
• Making sure the curriculum is balanced, broadly based and complies with legal requirements
• Making sure that the school provides for all its pupils, including those with special educational needs
• Drawing up and action plan after inspection by OFSTED (the Office for Standards in Education

In March 2016, following a consultation process, the Board of Governors of Norton St Philip First School and the Board of Governors of Rode Methodist First School hard federated under a single governing body. Federation is the name given to a way of bringing schools closer together. It means that a single leadership and administration team, working with one governing body, manage both schools.

The Federation between Norton St Philip VA Church of England and Rode Methodist VC First Schools will ensure the provision of strong leadership, together with continued and sustained high quality learning and development opportunities for current and future pupils at both of our rural village schools. The Federation will allow each school to retain its own individual identity and character formed over the last 150 years within the context of their individual communities.

View our Instrument of Government

Q. What do the Governors do?

A. The formal work and decision making of the governing body is undertaken at meetings once a month. There is are also working parties and statutory committees who undertake specific tasks e.g. Pay Committee.

Governors have specific interests e.g. SEN, Safeguarding, Health & Safety

Governors visit the school during the school day and make sure that there is evidence of the school making progress on its School Development Plan (SDP), In addition, Governors audit processes and procedures regarding key issues such as, finance and safeguarding. These visits are reported to the full board of governors at the next meeting.

The governing board has the following core functions:

Establishing the strategic direction, by:

• Setting the vision, values, and objectives for the school
• Agreeing the school improvement strategy with priorities and targets
• Meeting statutory duties

Ensuring accountability, by:

• Appointing the headteacher
• Monitoring progress towards targets
• Performance managing the headteacher
• Engaging with stakeholders
• Contributing to school self-evaluation

Ensuring financial probity, by:

• Setting the budget
• Monitoring spending against the budget
• Ensuring value for money is obtained
• Ensuring risks to the organisation are managed

Q. Who are our Governors?

A. Rode and Norton St Philip school Governor information

To contact the Governing Board:
All correspondence should be sent to Mrs Jessica Robinson, Clerk to the Governors at the school or by email: J.Robinson@rnsf.co.uk