The Governing Body is made up of a combination of appointed, elected Governors representing different elements of the school and the local community which it serves.

Each Governor, other than the Headteacher, normally holds office for an agreed period. In addition, a Clerk to the Governors supports the work of the Governing Body by taking minutes, circulating agendas and documentation. 

Governors are responsible for providing:

• Strong links between the schools and their communities
• A wider experience of the outside world
• An independent view and common sense approach
• A form of accountability for the Headteacher and staff
• Support for the work of the schools and their team.

The Role of the Governing Board

Our primary role to ensure the quality of education provision and to act as the accountable body for the schools.  We take a strategic role by agreeing, monitoring and approving school policies, targets and priorities for the years ahead, putting the children at the heart of all of this.  The board is made up from elected parent governors, staff governors (including the Executive Headteacher) and other governor types who have been nominated by the board (co-opted governor), Church (foundation governor) or Local Authority (LA governor). 

Together, the board is held accountable by the national government for:

• Ensuring the clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of High Halden and Woodchurch Schools
  • Who are we, what are the values of our school and how can we make it better?
• Holding the school leaders to account for the educational performance and progress of the school.
  • How well are the schools doing?  Should/ could it be better?  Are the pupils and staff being given every possible opportunity to develop and learn?
• We oversee the financial management of the schools ensuring that the money is well spent.
  • Do the schools make the most of the money it has?

How we do it:

The full Governing Board meets at least once a term to discuss, challenge and question how the schools are performing against the school plan and its priorities which is agreed with us at the start of each new school year. We receive regular attainment and progress reports, review resourcing and agree policies and procedures.

Our role is not a ‘doing’ role but a ‘thinking’ one and our meetings focus on making sure that the Senior Leadership Teams have what they need for the school to deliver the best possible education for our pupils and to understand and check the progress being made in delivering this throughout the school year.   Day-to-day running of the schools sit with its Senior Leadership Team with the Governing Board providing support and oversight. We are also expected to keep ourselves up to date with the (frequent) changes in government education policy and to regularly attend training courses so that we have all the skills we need to support the school.

To support our strategic role, the governors carry out termly visits to the schools to look at different aspects of school life and to check how the policies we discuss and approve at the board meetings, are being implemented in practice.  This not only gives our governing team valuable practical understanding of how the school is performing but also gives us the opportunity to see how the (sometimes dry) paperwork we approve comes to life as our staff help the children to grow, learn and flourish.  Some governors will work alongside subject leaders to conduct book scrutinies or observe learning environments and how they are used; others will check the safeguarding or leadership aspects of the school. These visits give us first-hand evidence of how the Leadership Teams are implementing the plan for the school and can see how the children are living out our school values which are so important to the ethos of the schools.

Governors act as a corporate group for the best interest of the schools and are responsible for policy making and review on a number of aspects of school government. Hard copies of all school policies are available by request from the school office. 

Following our incorporation meeting on 23rd January, we now have single governing body working across both High Halden and Woodchurch Primary Schools.