The Governing Body is responsible for staff appointments, pupil admissions, school budget, running costs, policies, whole school monitoring and development and producing the Annual Report to Parents. The Chair and Vice-Chair are appointed in the first formal meeting of the academic year, and members of each sub-committee are also decided at this time.

According to the rules under which governing bodies operate, there are some governors who cannot sit on certain subcommittees because of their specific roles, e.g. governors employed by the school cannot be members of the staff pay review committee. Bearing this in mind, at St Mary’s, all eligible governors are assigned to all subcommittees so that the broadest possible representation of our stakeholders is achieved. Subcommittee meetings occur as and when required, with the non-statutory committees generally meeting once per term.

In the Autumn term we also assign Link governors to an Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) within the curriculum, other key areas, and objectives within the School Development Plan. Various members of school staff lead on specific AoLEs and the link governors meet with their staff counterparts during the year to discuss progress in each area.

The governing body convenes for a formal meeting once per term. This is known as the Full Governing Body (FGB) meeting, and minutes are taken by an independent clerk. During this meeting, governors receive a report from the Headteacher detailing what has been happening in school since the last meeting, and updates from subcommittees and link governors. These give the governors an insight into and an opportunity to discuss and question the school’s financial situation, any staffing matters, any work needed to maintain or improve the school building or outdoor area, matters relating to school’s links with the Church and Diocese of St Asaph, educational opportunities relating to the curriculum such as trips and visitors, staff and pupil wellbeing, attendance and behaviour, and any issues which could impact health and safety, safeguarding, children looked after and pupils with additional learning needs.

During FGB meetings, the governors also review school policies. St Mary’s School has over 80 policies and documents in total. These can be subdivided into statutory, recommended and school-specific policies. The Governor Support Service guides the governing body on how frequently the policies should be reviewed and updated, and therefore 10-15 policies are looked at each term, in order to keep up with this schedule.

Informal meetings of the full governing body also take place during the year to undertake training and development of the governing body as a whole. Any individuals who attend additional training courses also feed back information from those courses to the remainder of the governors.

Click on the images to find out more about the Full Governing Body meeting each term: