The Work That We Do

The Governing Body (GB) is a key part of the leadership team of the school, working in partnership with the Headteacher and Senior Leadership. In accordance with the Government’s requirement for all governing bodies, the three core strategic functions of the Governing Body of Cupernham Infant School are:

Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its budget is well spent.

Our Governors bring a wide variety of experience and expertise to the school. This helps ensure that the school is continuously moving forward, maintaining and raising standards in a way that is in line with the culture, values and ethos of the school.

Role of the Governors:

Some of the key functions of a school governor:

Working at a strategic level (not operational level) helping formulate and approve school policies providing a broad framework within which the head teacher and staff run the school
Focus on raising standards and promoting effective teaching and learning
Ensure financial and other resources are managed effectively
Ensure school complies with laws and regulations such as Health and Safety

It is important to note that the GB is not there to run the school on a day to day basis, that is the job of the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team who make the necessary decisions. A Governor’s role is to ensure accountability to all parties who have an interest in the school, especially you the parents and your children.

Who appoints the Governing Body?

The Governing Body consists of four different types of Governor. You are probably familiar with parent-elected Governors as you no doubt will have seen requests for nominations and subsequent voting papers going out to you via pupil post.

However in addition to this there are appointed Governors; Co-opted Governors who are appointed by the Governing Body because they have the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school and finally teaching and non teaching Staff Governors.

The period of office is 4 years after which time you are eligible to be elected or appointed for a further 4 year period.

How do Governors get involved with the school and how could I meet or even be one?

Governors do this in a variety of ways which includes:

A programme of school visits/monitoring often to look at specific aspects of the school reporting back to the Governing Body.
Involvement in the School Improvement planning day along with the school staff.
Using our outside knowledge and skills for the benefit of the school.

How does the Governing Body operate?

The full Governing Body meets twice a term after school. A formal record of these meetings in the form of a written agenda and minutes are publicly available and can be requested via the school office. Topics on a typical agenda would include correspondence to the Governing Body from outside organisations, Headteacher’s report, School Improvement Plan, approval of school policies and reports from different committees and working groups. At Cupernham Infant School we have one permanent committee; our Finance and Personnel Committee.

Ad Hoc Working Groups

Ad Hoc Working Groups are set up by the Governing Body to tackle specific issues relevant at the time and report back to the Governing Body. They are not permanent like our other committee and once the objective of the group has been achieved, they will be disbanded