Morpeth All Saints Church of England Aided First School

The Governing Body of the school is made up of 12 members and a list of Governor Interests and attendance at various meetings/visits to school are tabled in the documents below. 

Under our terms of reference a chair is appointed from governors sitting on the

Resources Committee or  Learning, Admissions and Safeguarding Committee. 

All school governors have an Enhanced DBS check and Section 128 check.

Dates of Full Governing Body Meetings 2018 / 2019

Autumn Term:       27 September 2018    

Spring Term:        27 February 2019

Summer Term:     16 May 2019

Copies of Full Governing Body Minutes are held in the main school office.

The Chair of Governors for Full Governing Body Meetings is:            Mr. B. Hedley

The Chair of Governors for the Resources Committee Meetings is:  Mr. B. Hedley

The Chair of Governors for the Learning, Safeguarding and Admissions is elected at each meeting.

At Morpeth All Saints CE Aided First School we have a team of governors that work as volunteers to support the school.   Their role is to support and challenge the Headteacher and to help set the vision and strategic direction of the school ensuring that our school is the very best it can be.  Governors have a wide range of duties and tasks, including:-

• Ensuring that the school meets its legal responsibilities

• Setting the school budget

• Making decisions about the school building and premises

• Setting school policies

• Appointing staff and making decisions about current staffing

• Looking at how well groups of pupils are performing and ensuring action is taken if there are any concerns

We have three Full Governing Body meetings each year held in the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms.  A range of subcommittee meetings also take place at least once per term.  During these meetings we look at a wide range of information to find out how well the school is performing.   Miss Halliday provides a detailed Headteacher’s report at these meetings but governors also look at data and independent reports so that we can make our own decisions about how well things are going. To support the work that goes on, governors also try to visit school as often as possible. We are proud to have a committed Governing Body that is made up of a team individuals with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

Strategic:  The Governing Body sets the general direction of the school, looking at how it should best develop and improve.  This is done by reviewing and agreeing policies, setting targets and priorities and monitoring and reviewing aims and objectives.  Strategic thinking is not always linked with the curriculum and it does not mean just responding to weakness.

Critical Friend:  The Governing Body works with the Headteacher and creates a clear understanding of the challenges faced in managing the school. The governing body is able to question and challenge. A good working relationship is essential as a real critical friendship is only achieved where there is trust and mutual respect.

Accountability:  school is a business and its stakeholders are the learners. The Governing Body has a professional attitude and uses its collective skills to benefit the learners. It gathers views, ask questions and decides what is best for the school and the children. The governing body is answerable to the parents and the wider community.

Pecuniary Interest:

We hold a register of pecuniary interest for all governors.  It is vitally important for the school community that the school makes transparent judgements and decisions as they represent not just the parent and child body but take an oversight of the budget which is ultimately, public money.