I am not going to repeat the excellent CV which appeared in the August 2007 Parish Magazine, but the answer to her question was “at least two” besides Anne.
If every school governor was a governor in one school only in and all school governor positions were filled there would be about 350,000 school governors – the largest active adult volunteer service in he country. As Chairman of Governors at Leckhampton, and a Governor at Pate’s Grammar School, Anne is part of this service.
As Anne quoted: “it is about the children. EVERY CHILD MATTERS. It is about supporting the head teacher, the senior leadership team and the teachers in their vision for the school.”
Governors have legal responsibilities and are subject to OFSTED inspections.
The constitution of each school can differ from others: here, Leckhampton Primary School is a Church of England School while Pate’s is part of the Pate’s foundation and is a voluntary aided school. This affects the make up of each Board of Governors. At Leckhampton there are Foundation, Parent, Staff, Community and Local Authority members in a 17 strong board, whereas at Pate’s Grammar School there are Foundation, Parent, Staff and Local Authority members in a 20 strong board.
The Governors are responsible for oversight, ethos, staffing, finance, premises (including health and safety and security), behaviour and attendance, admissions, curriculum, special educational needs and child protection, charging (e.g. letting premises and charging for activities), providing information and self evaluation.
For Leckhampton Primary School , the Foundation Governors have the additional duty of ensuring that the Christian ethos of the school is upheld; they provide oversight of collective worship; they ensure that parents are clear that the school is a Church of England school and that this fact is clear in the school and in school documentation. All this is without discriminating against pupils of other faiths or denominations.
Don’t forget the links between Leckhampton Primary School and St Peter’s. For instance, children come to the church for their own services and the church is used in the curriculum, and Paul and Anne lead worship in school visit classes and have pastoral care for the children and staff, and much more.
One thing is likely and this is that the role of governors will change; for instance trust schools and academies have constitutions which involve less local involvement, while new financial standards require an audit of financial expertise, which may put people off, and also increase one’s time commitment.
Anne clearly loves the involvement with the children and the community and we hope that she will continue to enjoy her role at both school for many years to come.
With many thanks to Anne for this fascinating talk and for the loan of her notes to help me write this.
David Long