We have a fantastic opportunity for Governors to join our Board in either of the following roles:

‘Co-Opted’ Governor – someone that can join us with knowledge or experience that will support our work. We are keen to talk to people that have experience in Finance or Education, but please do contact us if you are interested in being a Governor but do not have experience within these sectors.

‘Foundation’ Governor – someone with a committed relationship with a local church that can support our Values and Worship within our School.

If you are a parent, carer, grandparent or know of someone outside of our school community that might be interested in joining our Board of Governors, we’d love to hear from you!

See the information below for a little more detail on what we do and if you would like to discuss this further please contact either D. Blanchard, Clerk to Governors or Juliette Webb, Chair of Governors on 01903 234099 or jwebb@westparksch.co.uk

What is a School Governor?

We are sometimes asked what a School Governor is and, more importantly, what we do so we thought it would be helpful to explain a little more around the role of the Governing Board.

Our role and structure

At a high level, our role is to help shape the education our children receive.

Governing bodies include a wide range of people with different skills and backgrounds. Governors come from all sections of the community and we actively encourage diversity. They can be parents, staff at the school or residents from the local area with an interest in education.

We currently operate with a main governing board and two committees – one for education and one for business.

We have three strategic objectives:

· To ensure the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined

· To hold the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils,

and the performance management of staff

· To oversee the financial performance of the school and make sure its money is well spent

What do we do in practice?

· Take part in regular committee meetings

· Undertake regular school monitoring visits as it’s important to get to know staff, children and how the school works

· Actively contribute to decisions made at meetings

· Ask lots of questions

· Agree and prioritise areas of focus for development

· Monitor the achievements and progress of children

· Agree policies and practice

· Agree and monitor financial budgets

· Appoint the head teacher and other senior staff

· Responsible and accountable for all major decisions about the school and its future