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What is the purpose of the governing body? 

 The governing body is responsible for three main areas: 

  • the strategic direction of the school; 

  • creating robust accountability of the school to its stakeholders; 

  • ensuring adequate financial oversight on school budgets and spending. 

In practice this means that the governing body will carry out many tasks in order to fulfil these duties, such as meeting with the headteacher, overseeing the school budget, hold regular meetings, make visits to the school are just some of the ways the governing body carries out its function. 

Find out more by going to the National Governance Association website: www.nga.org.uk 

What types of Governors are there? 

Bevendean Primary School has 14 governors made up of: 

The Headteacher 

1 Staff Governor (Elected by staff) 

1 Local Authority Governor (Appointed by the Local Authority) 

2 Parent Governors (Elected by parents and carers) 

9 Co-opted Governors (Appointed by the Governing Body on the basis of skill) 

Associate Members (Unlike governors associate members contribute to discussion but do not have voting rights.  

Whilst some governors are drawn from a particular group or category, they are not there to represent that group but rather to bring the voice of a member of that group to the governing body. They can still do that whatever “hat” they wear! 

What are Link Governors? 

We have a system of “Link Governors” where an individual governor takes responsibility for a particular area of the curriculum or a priority of the school development plan, meeting with the school lead on a throughout the school year to decide together whether success criteria have been met. In a variety of ways, link governors gain an understanding of what the priority actually looks like in practice.  

How is the governing body structured? 

At Bevendean we have a committee structure. This means that every governor meets three times a year to discuss issues vote on the budget or school policies. However, we also have two committees. The Finance, Personnel & Premises Committee and Curriculum Standards and Welfare Sub-Committees which have their own chair. These committees feed into the governing body and make recommendations to the governing body for this purpose. 

The Terms of Reference for the Governing Body and its Committees are available below. 

 

Eco-Schools Bronze Award
Eco-Schools
Eco-Schools Silver Award
Healthy Schools Cornwall
OFSTED Good