What do school governors do?
Governors are responsible for overseeing the management side of a school: strategy, policy, budgeting and staffing. They enable their school to run as effectively as possible, working alongside senior leaders and supporting teachers to provide excellent education to children.
Being a school governor is a commitment to attending governing body meetings which consider issues such as setting the school vision, mitigating financial risk and scrutinising educational outcomes. They are also involved in the school community, acting as critical friends to the headteacher and senior leaders.
Governors bring a wide range of skills and expertise from their professional lives to the governing board and schools benefit greatly from working with skilled volunteers, for example anyone with experience of finance, law, premises management or human resources. A governor with business know-how can transform the running of a school
School governors offer strategic guidance, rather than getting involved in the operational aspects of a school. This involves:
- Working with other board members to plan the school’s strategic direction.
- Overseeing the school’s financial performance, ensuring money is well-spent.
- Holding the headteacher or school leadership to account.
A school governor’s relationship with the school’s leadership team involves challenging existing processes to drive school improvement. School governors usually attend around six meetings per year. Although becoming a school governor requires drive and commitment, it allows many professional and personal rewards, including career development opportunities and the chance to support young people’s futures.
The Full Governing Body meets each term and each Committee also meets termly. The Committees of Governors that meet are as follows:
School Standards Committee
This Committee evaluates our curriculum intent, implementation and impact. It reviews the inclusivity of the curriculum and how it meets the needs of all children, the quality of teaching and learning and how it meets the varied needs of all children by “developing unique gifts and talents and striving for excellence”, the effectiveness of teaching and learning “nurturing the journey of faith and discovery for all” by delivering excellent SMSC outcomes and the effectiveness of interventions in reducing the barriers to children learning and developing. The committee will evaluate the above outcomes for children in particular groups including the Most Able, DSEN, PPI and students who belong to ethnic minority groups and expect gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children to be closing. The Committee’s aim also is to ensure the welfare and safety of the pupils and to ensure their full involvement in their learning throughout their years in our school. It considers pupil voice and the issues highlighted by the School Council in their regular meetings.
Finance & Resources Committee
This group of Governors considers the School Budget and how the different elements of the high school are financed. The School Budget comes to us at the end of March. We plan for the following financial year and ensure that all plans are relayed to the school community via the School Development Plan. Most of the budget is taken up with staffing costs and the Committee is very keen to ensure that we can maintain appropriate levels of staffing in our school. On the buildings side of its remit the Committee considers plans both short and long term to improve the quality of provision we offer to our pupils.
This Committee ensures that plans are in place to replace staff who are leaving. It also evaluates and regulates the staffing structure that the school has and ensures that the finances are in place to maintain acceptable levels of class sizes, whilst ensuring specialist teaching in all areas. The Committee also oversees the welfare of the staff.
Ethos Committee
This group of Governors ensures that the school meets the Bishops’ requirements for Catholic Schools to ensure the strategic direction of school is rooted in Catholic, Christian values embraced in the school’s mission statement and annual improvement plan. The committee offers leadership guidance in ensuring there are rich opportunities for staff, students and families to deepen their faith, pray, worship and celebrate the Eucharist, through engagement with the diocese and local church and ensures there are opportunities for staff, students and families to witness their Faith through service to others. In its work, the committee will monitor and evaluate the impact of decisions and actions on the above three points, through engagement with all members of the school community. It will ensure the mission is reviewed regularly so that it is known, understood and lived through the actions of the members of the school community. By working as a group it will develop and review policies identified within the school’s policy review programme and in accordance with its delegated powers. Central to the committee's work is to maintain the core position of Religious Education as part of the overall goal to develop the whole person through our full curriculum offer to pupils, supported by the Religious Education Curriculum Directory and ensure funding for development of our Catholic Life, Religious Education and Collective Worship is on a par with that other aspects of school life.
Brownedge St Mary's is committed to ensuring its Governing Body is diverse, inclusive and reflective of the community we serve. More information is available on request.
Governor Attendance
New legislation around equalities, transparency and accountability now requires all schools to publish a direct link from their school websites to the Schools Financial Benchmarking dedicated to their school. The school uses the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) Schools Financial Benchmarking website to find similar schools and then compares their per-pupil revenue and expenditure data against spending at Brownedge St Mary's. This allows the school to identify areas where spending is comparatively high or low. It is important to also understand the story behind the data and to consider it in context. Our page can be accessed from the following link:
https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/
Financial transparency of local authority maintained schools and academy trusts
Brownedge St Mary's Catholic High School has one member of staff who earns between £100,000 and £110,000 per annum.
