Governing Body - Introduction

The Governing Body of Ashover Primary School comprises 3 Parent Governors, 4 Co-opted Governors, 1 Authority Governor, 1 Staff Governor and the Head Teacher Governor, a total of 10 governors. We are constituted under this Instrument of Government.

The 3 core responsibilities of the Governing Body are ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils and for the performance management of staff; and overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent. These 3 principal responsibilities have been sub-divided by our Governing Body into 15 detailed responsibilities.

Our Governing Body has 4 committees: Ashover Governors Extended Services (AGES) Committee, Education & School Performance Committee, Resources Committee and the Head Teacher Performance Management Committee. At the start of each academic year the Governing Body implements a Scheme of Delegation and approves Terms of Reference for each Committee, ensuring that each Committee clearly understands their own areas of responsibility. At the same time the Governing Body appoints members to each committee and appoints the Chair of each committee. Our experience is that this is the most efficient and effective way of carrying out our responsibilities. The Governing Body remains responsible for all decisions and the Committee Chairs report to each meeting of the Governing Body.

Through having several different governors holding positions of responsibility (the Chair and Vice Chair of the Governing Body plus Chairs of Committees) the workload is shared, which we believe leads to more effective and focused governance.

At the start of each academic year the Governing Body appoints individual governors to be responsible for liaising with the teachers who co-ordinate each subject, Subject Governors. Subject Governors gain an understanding of how each subject is taught across school or an understanding of one aspect of school life.

Each meeting of the Governing Body is held in a different class room, with an opportunity at the start of each meeting for governors to learn about teaching in that class, helping improve governors’ understanding as to how the learning environment changes across the year groups.