Little Horsted Church of England Primary School

Chair of Governors – Matthew Green

Vice Chair of Governors – Ellie Blackford

Your school Governing Body is key to ensuring the effectiveness of Little Horsted and upholding our School Values and Ethos.

Governors work closely with school staff to provide the strategic leadership of our school with accountability for both the quality of education we provide to all our children, in a happy and stimulating environment, and for the funds allocated to us.

The Governing Body’ Strategic Role

A governing board has three core functions for its school:

• setting the strategic direction

• holding the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school

• ensuring financial health of the school.

Every school needs to have a long‐term strategy, based on a shared vision. It is the job of the governing board, working with the head teacher and senior leaders, to agree a strategic plan for the coming three years. It is then down to the senior leaders to turn the strategic plan into a School Improvement Plan (SIP), updated each year, and to implement this in practice with the support and scrutiny of governors.

Our school governors are drawn from all the stakeholders in our school community, they are appointed for a four year term and all volunteer their time and skills for the benefit of our school. The different categories of governor help to ensure that the Governing Body has sufficient diversity of views, skills and experiences however all governors have equal status and governors act as one single body.

In total we have 12 Governors.

Mrs Causton, our head teacher, represents our school and provides the board with regular and detailed reports on our school.

We have seven Foundation Governors, four of whom represent Isfield and Little Horsted PCC. They are appointed by the diocese and have specific responsibility for overseeing the Christian values we uphold at school.

We have two Parent Governors who can be either parents or carers with responsibility for a child at school. They are nominated by other parents and elected by the current parents at school. Whenever they can, Parent Governors try to represent views of most parents in the school community and inform the Governing Body how matters under discussion may affect parents. We have one governor nominated by the local authority, they are appointed by the Governing Body with a view to the skills they can contribute to promote effective governance and success of our school.

We have a Staff Governor who is selected by all the staff at school. The Staff Governor is well place to understand staff views and remind the Governing Body how matters being discussed affect staff.  They also help the Governing Body communicate effectively with staff through regular feedback at staff meetings.

We meet as a whole four times a year, when we consider the schools direction and our school development plan as well as reflecting on and evaluating our school.

During the academic year we meet in smaller groups and undertake visits to focus in detail on:

Attainment Achievement and Safeguarding- Chair Emma Lindsay

Teaching and learning

Ensuring the curriculum is followed

Measures are in place to personalise learning to allow all children to make good progress whatever their starting point

Ensuring attainment

Staff are trained and supported and objectives and reviews are in place that reflect the school’s aims

Strategic Planning - Chair Ellie Blackford

Spending budgets, staffing and premises are reviewed by a group of governors

Our income is fixed by county and we then have to agree how this is spent

Our expenditure must allow our children to progress and learn in a safe and secure environment

Our staff must be appropriately rewarded and trained

Our premises must be safe and suitable for all those who use it

Christian values are the focus of our Foundation Governors

Continuing to deepen the understanding of our Christian Values within our School Vision

Governors also take on additional roles to support the schools development plan.

Specific Governor roles for the current academic year are detailed in our Link Governor document.

Full Governing Body

We receive and discuss the Head teachers report

Receive visit and meeting reports from all members

Review safeguarding within the school

Discuss amendments and updates to School policies

Any other business arising