Governors

Governors

Thank you for visiting the Governors’ section of our website, which aims to briefly explain who the Foxton Primary School Governing Body is, and what it does.

Why have Governing Bodies?

Governors help schools provide the best possible education for their pupils by: thinking and working strategically to help to raise standards, monitoring and evaluating progress towards the school’s priorities and targets, supporting the Headteacher and staff, as well as challenging their expectations.

Objectivity and impartiality: At each meeting the Governors declare if they have any pecuniary interests linked to the matters to be discussed. None of the Governors are linked to any businesses that would profit from the school but on occasion may declare a more direct personal interest in some matters. None of our Governors have governance roles in other schools.

The Role of Governors

The Role of Governors

The main aim of the school is to raise the educational achievements of all its pupils, and to this end, the governing body has the following core strategic functions:

Establishing the strategic direction, by:

• Setting the vision, values and objectives for the school
• Agreeing the school improvement strategy with priorities and targets
• Meeting statutory duties

Ensuring accountability, by:

• Appointing the Headteacher
• Monitoring progress towards targets
• Performance managing the Headteacher
• Engaging with stakeholders
• Contributing to school self-evaluation

Ensuring financial probity, by:

• Setting the budget
• Monitoring spending against the budget
• Ensuring value for money is obtained
• Ensuring risks to the organisation are managed

Governors have responsibility for determining, monitoring and keeping under review the policies, plans and procedures within which the school operates. 

The Headteacher is responsible for the implementation of policy, day-to-day management of the school and operation of the curriculum.

The Governing Body acts as a critical friend to the school and is made up of a group of ten individuals (including the Headteacher) from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the governors are parents or members of staff, and some come from the wider community or the local authority. This mix provides a wealth of experience and views. The Full Governing Body meets once every half term. In addition, our Governors also form two sub committees, which again meet at least once every half term, and in some instances several more times:

• Business Committee: responsible for Finance (primarily overseeing the school budget), Personnel, Premises and Health and Safety
• Strategy Committee: responsible for Strategic Planning (including monitoring the curriculum), Safeguarding, SEND and Inclusion

The minutes of the Full Governors’ meetings and the Business and Strategy meetings are available to all parents.

Our Governing Body

If you would like to contact the Governing Body, you can do so via the school or you can contact the Chair directly on the email address above. Please note that many issues should normally be raised with the school staff in the first instance, but if you are not sure how to proceed we will be pleased to advise and look forward to hearing from you.

You can read the full Governing Body Code of Conduct and Communication Policy here

Below as one of the attached documents you will find 2019 The Year Ahead.

Please find here the slides and accompanying notes/questions from the two Open Meetings for Parents that were run by Staff and Governors in September 2019 ‘The Year Ahead: Strategy and Development Information’.  We hope you find it useful. If you have any further questions or comments, or would be interested in joining the Governing Body, please contact us at office@foxton.cambs.sch.uk