High Hurstwood Church of England Primary School

What is the role of Governors?

Our role is to help High Hurstwood CE Primary School be the best it can be. Our three core functions are to:

1. Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
2. Hold the executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff.
3. Oversee the financial performance of the school and make sure its money is well spent.

We act as a ‘critical friend’ to the headteacher and the senior leadership team to ensure that the highest standards and best support possible are in place for the children and their families. We do this by monitoring what goes on in the school and ensuring everything that the government requires is in place.

How is our Board of Governors composed?

The Full Governing Board is made up of 11 Governors as follows of:

• the Headteacher (1)
• parent governors - elected by the parents (3)
• a governor nominated by ESCC Local Authority (1)
• co-opted governors - appointed by the Board from the wider community for their specific skills (3)
• foundation governors - nominated by Holy Trinity Church (2)
• staff governor - elected by the staff of High Hurstwood (1)

We do regular skills audits and have carefully considered the balance of interests in composing our board as we want to have the right people around the table.

Vacancies

We currently have 3 vacancies - 1 Parent governor and 2 foundation governors. If you would like to be considered for the vacancies, please contact the clerk at clerk@highhurstwood.e-sussex.sch.uk.

Our Meetings

Each term there is a Full Governing Board Meeting (FGB), alternately focussing on ‘Finance’ and ‘Curriculum and Standards’. Church Ethos is a standing agenda item at each meeting.

Full Governor Board Meeting dates in 2025/26:

• 24th September 2025
• 8th October 2025
• 3rd December 2025
• 28th January 2026
• 18th March 2026
• 6th May 2026
• 20th May 2026
• 8th July 2026

We also have Finance Group  meetings throughout the year to best suits the needs of the school. The minutes of all these meetings are available on request from the School Office. We allocate our ‘link governor’ roles annually to suit the priorities in the School Development Plan.

In addition to the Finance Group, we also form working groups and teams as required to best support the development of the school.

Monitoring and Training

Each term, the governors monitor what is happening in the school by carrying out Governor Visits which are written up and reported back on at the next FGB.

We also undertake regular training and networking sessions, developing close relationships with local schools to share good practice.

For more information about the role of governors within the school, please do contact the Chair of Governors by email (see ‘Contact Us’ page).