Who are the Governors?

The school’s Governing Body is made up of 2 Governors elected by parents, the Headteacher, 1 Governor elected by staff, 1 Governor appointed by Hertfordshire County Council and 8 Governors co-opted by other Governors.. Appointments are for four years, although vacancies do occasionally occur at other times. If you are interested in becoming a Governor, please talk to the school office. Our Governors work collaboratively as part of the school Leadership Team to promote and develop the school vision. Their role is strategic and responsibilities include: employing staff, managing resources, ensuring a broad and balanced curriculum, maintaining high standards, working effectively with parents and ensuring that the staff and children have a high quality working environment. Our Governors work very hard for the development of successful learning at Goldfield and there are a variety of times during the school year when you can meet them.

What do they do?

The school’s Governing Body is responsible, with the Head teacher for making sure that a high quality of education is provided for all of its pupils. Whilst the Head Teacher leads and manages the school on a day-to-day basis, the Governing Body supports the Head and Senior Leadership Team to agree the school’s aims and ethos and to develop policies to achieve these aims. Within this strategic role, Governors also approve the use of the school’s budget and longer term planning. The Governing Body is accountable to the parents and the wider community for the school’s performance, the use of public resources and for ensuring the school complies with legislation. Governors also have a ‘critical friend’ role, supporting the staff, and celebrating the school’s success but also asking challenging questions about the way school is led and managed. All Governors make a declaration regarding pecuniary interests and if any are declared they are detailed in the individual Governor profiles.

Meetings and Activities

The Governing Body meets as a whole group four or five times a year. There are also three main committees which meet at least termly covering staffing, curriculum, and finance & premises. Governors also become involved in short term working groups to look at specific projects, for example the school travel plan or the healthy schools initiative. A committee has recently been set up to develop sustainable schools policies. Governors also help in various ways in the school, make visits to the school and attend a variety of school events.

A Governor’s time commitment is significant and they have a number of meetings throughout the year. They have six full Governing Body meetings and six committee meetings each year. All Governors belong to one Committee, either:

Resources

The Resources Committee works with the head teacher and senior leadership team to monitor the financial health of the school. We evaluate the school budget and look at premises, health & safety and staffing. We ensure both financial and staff resources are used in a way that maximise benefits for the pupils. The Resources

Committee advises the Full Governor Body on all topics relevant to staff and welfare at the school. We ensure we are supporting best practice, and complying with the legal requirements in the recruitment, deployment, retention, development and welfare for all school staff.

 Goldfield’s Site Manager (Mrs Hale) attends the Health & Safety Review Group Meeting. To ensure consistency, the governing body make decisions as a ‘body’, never as an individual.

Learning Matters

The Learning Matters Committee works with the school leaders on the curriculum intent, implementation and impact. We ensure that the school development plan ambitions are in line with the school’s vision, and they ensure first quality teaching for all of our pupils. We consider, monitor and review the wellbeing initiatives in place for our pupils and staff and ensure that we have processes in place for optimum wellbeing at our school.

Anyone can become a Governor, some of our Governors work full-time, some part-time, and others are not in paid employment, but they all share one thing – a commitment to the children at Goldfield Infants’ & Nursery School today and in the future. We welcome people with skills and expertise in particular fields, but the most important thing is having the time and willingness to work with the school to make it as good as it possibly can be.

Elections are held for new Governors as and when the need arises. Any parent or guardian of a child at our school is eligible to stand for election. You may want to talk to a current Governor if you would like to find out more about joining the Governing Body.