The Governing Body: roles, responsibilities and organisation

Southbury has a Governing Body who holds the school to account. Governors are made up from various groups; teachers, non-teaching staff, parents, people from the local community and representatives from the local authority. Together they meet every term and discuss raising academic standards, ensuring the school offers good value for money within a safe and secure environment and discuss key issues relating to the school.  These include the implementation of governor initiatives, pupil progress, academic standards and all matters relating to the school's finance premises.

School governors are ordinary people from the local community, who wish to make a positive contribution to children’s education. They are the largest volunteer force in the country.

All maintained schools in England have a Governing Body. It is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school and has an important part to play in raising school standards through acting as a ‘critical friend’ - supporting, challenging and asking questions.

The Governing Body’s three key roles are:

• Setting and ensuring clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction;
• Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its children, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff; and
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Schools need governors with a range of skills and interests, so almost anyone can become a school governor. New governors receive training and support from the school, the Local Authority and other governors. If you are interested in assisting our school in this way, please contact the office for further details.

Organisation of the Governing Body

The Governing Body works in close partnership with the Headteacher, staff and the Local Authority.  Whilst the Headteacher is responsible for the day-to-day running of the school, the governors are involved with strategic matters.

Southbury School has two sub-committees, which meet termly:

• Finance and Premises
• Curriculum and Staffing

Small groups of governors (panels) are involved with matters such as appointing a Headteacher, staff grievances and formal complaints procedures; while some individual governors have responsibilities for specific areas within the school, for example safeguarding, Pupil Premium or GDPR (data protection).  

Governors are required to:

• Act in the best interests of the school.
• Complete a ‘Declaration of Interests’ register annually which is updated with any change in circumstance. They must also declare any conflicts of interest at the start of each meeting.
• Have an Enhanced DBS certificate (criminal record check processed by the Disclosure and Barring Service). New governors must apply for a check within 21 days of their appointment.
• Abide by the seven Nolan principles of public life.
• Attend meetings regularly.

Our current governors are: