Governance

The Governing Board is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school. A key role is to act as a ‘critical friend’: to support, to challenge, to ask questions, ultimately to represent the school community.  Most particularly, the Governing Board ensures that the school is fulfilling its responsibilities and delivering a good standard of education for our children.

To do this, the Governing Board works in close partnership with the head teacher, staff and Croydon local authority.  Whilst the head teacher is, of course, responsible for the day to day running of the school, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings and finance.  The Governing Board has a range of powers and duties laid down by various Education Acts. In the main, these responsibilities relate to:

• Setting targets and promoting high standards of educational achievement
• Setting the strategic framework within which the school operates
• Management of the school’s delegated budget
• Ensuring that the curriculum for the school is balanced and broadly based

Governors carry out these responsibilities, together with many others, through at least one meeting of the full Governing Board each term.  All members of the governing Board are expected to arrange with the head teacher to visit the school during the school day and, depending on their particular skills and interests, to have responsibility for specific issues within the school such as Special Educational Needs, finance and safeguarding.

Governors adopt, review and monitor a range of policies that govern the operation of the school including Child Protection, Health and Safety, Behaviour, Curriculum and Performance Management.

Our Governing Board is rightly proud of the achievements of our school, particularly in the foundations it provides for all our pupils at the start of their formal education career.

It is important that the Governing Board of a school brings together people with a range of viewpoints, to encourage open debate which leads to good decisions being made in the interests of the whole school community. The standard term of office for a governor is generally four years. The chair and vice-chair are elected to these roles for a period of three years.

As from June 2024:

• 2 Parent Governors
• The Head Teacher
• 1 Staff Governor
• 1 Local Authority Governor
• 8 Co-opted Governors

LA Governor - Janet Nelms
Head Teacher - Melissa Hendry
Parent Governor - Sophie Mummery
Staff Governor - Julie Muir

Co-opted governors

Jennifer Adamson
Margaret Bailey
Katie Goodwin
Lewis Humphries
Colleen May
Beverley Montgomery
Julie Goksal
Stephen Weekes

Parent governors are elected by other parents at the school.  They bring an important parental viewpoint to the governing Board.  They are elected to promote the interests of all children (not just of their own child), listening to the views and opinions of all parents and taking account of them while working cooperatively with the other members of the Governing Board.

How do I raise any concerns with the Governing Body?

The Governing Board welcomes communication from all of the school stakeholders.  If you wish to raise a concern or share an idea or opinion then please do so by either emailing the Clerk to the Governors at Elaine.Cooper@croydon.gov.uk or alternatively you can write a letter and give it to the Office to pass onto us.

We make a concerted effort to ensure that there is always at least one Governor in attendance at school functions, such as performances, coffee mornings or parents’ evenings so this is another way that you can speak to us face to face.  However, if you have something of a more important or sensitive nature to discuss then please use one of the more formal routes mentioned above.

If an individual wishes to raise a concern on behalf of a group of parents/stakeholders, it is necessary that all such parties put their name to the communication so the Governing Board can be informed of all the individuals involved.

We will always do our best to respond to you in the first instance within 24 hours of your communication, however we ask that you please bear in mind that we also have working and family life to juggle alongside our voluntary Governor responsibilities.

See also the Complaints Policy