About the Governing Board
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:
- Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
- Hold the executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff.
- 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 2 vacancies - 1 for a Local Authority governor and 1 for a Co-opted Governor. 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 2023/24:
- 27th September 2023
- 15th November 2023
- 24th January 2024
- 20th March 2024
- 1st May 2024
- 22nd May 2024
- 10th July 2024
We also have a Finance Group and Policy 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. At our annual ‘Planning for the Future Day’, held in term 6, we firstly review the effectiveness of our work over the last year. This includes analysing the results of our annual surveys (completed by parents/carers, pupils and staff), meeting with the subject leaders and SENCO and speaking with the School Council. We then use this information to plan for the next academic year, including contributing to the priorities for our School Development Plan (SDP) and setting out our timetable of meetings. We allocate our ‘link governor’ roles annually to suit the priorities in the SDP.
In addition to the Finance and Policy Groups, 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).
