Governing Body

Local Governance at Unity Schools Partnership

The Unity Schools Partnership Trust Board, through the Articles of Association, has committed to Local Governing Bodies to work in partnership with the Executive and Leadership Teams to fulfil the three core responsibilities of Governance.

These are:

• Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

We have married these to our Governance Charter and our Scheme of Delegation. These documents, together with the USP Handbook for Local Governance, clearly set out the role and responsibilities of our Local Governing Bodies (LGBs). You can access these documents from the links below or directly from the Unity Schools Partnership website.

Our Local Governing Body

 Our Governing Board is made up of a range of people who bring different skills and experience to support the strategic running of the school.  Please click here to  find our more about each of our Governors.  Governing Boards organise themselves in a certain way to make sure they work properly.  We have a Code of Conduct, a Constitution  and keep a log of governors and their interests. 

We also attend governor training and keep our skills up to date.

The governors, in co-operation with the headteacher, are concerned with the educational facilities, the maintenance of the school building, the appointment of staff, and the general administration of the school curriculum. The day-to-day details of teaching and management are the responsibility of the headteacher and the teaching staff.

Governors and trustees are one of the largest volunteer forces in the country and have an important part to play in raising school standards. The role of the governing board is absolutely key to the effectiveness of a school. Time and time again Ofsted (the national inspection body for schools) has noted that the most effective schools demonstrate effective leadership and management – including by the governing board.

Regular meetings are held, which coupled with frequent visits to the school, mean that the Governing Body is able to carry out their growing responsibilities.

We do hope that you find this information useful and if you feel inspired to get involved or just want to get in touch, please e-mail me at chairofgov@robertkett.net

Thank you.

Mrs Mary Richards, Chair of Governors

Duties and Responsibilities

Our job is to be a 'critical friend' to the Senior Leadership team, both supporting and challenging them (and each other!) to make sure we are all always doing our best for Robert Kett children and families.

A vital part of what we do is monitoring how our strategic plans (SIDP) are going in practice and that we are delivering our vision and ethos.

We oversee the financial performance of the school ( Pupil Premium, Sports Grant) to ensure that we are getting value for money and that we are spending it where is best supports the children.

We also hold the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school.  This means we ask challenging questions to the Head and the Senior Leaders to ensure children are getting the best education available at our school.

Our statutory responsibilities are very important.  These are the things that the Government says all Governing Boards must do.  These are:

• Safeguarding

• Special Educational Needs

• Pupil Premium

• PE Sports Grant

• Equality

• Curriculum

• Health & Safety Policies

We have a specific responsibility about making sure certain information is always available to people on our website.  We will also become involved, where necessary, in exclusion panel meetings and certain types of complaints.

Monitoring can take many different forms.  It may mean visiting the school, joining lessons, as well as meeting teachers and other staff.  It can mean reading and asking questions about school information, such as children's progress and attainment or our staff teams.

We also talk to children about what they think about school, sometimes by attending school council meetings, asking them what they think in class or by having lunch with them.  We always learn a lot from their opinions and try to include these in our decision making.

Parent and carer views are vital and we try to attend important information evenings, parent/carers voice and FORKS.  We use surveys to understand a range of different perspectives and are currently developing our use of working parties to support continuous school improvement.

We also meet regularly to discuss things happening in school.  There is more information about our meetings available here.

Meetings

We meet half termly as a  Full Governing Board.   Please click here to see the minutes of our meetings.

The point of our meetings is to continually improve our school.  To make sure we have made a difference, we end each meeting by reflecting specifically on how we have positively impacted our children at Robert Kett.