Are you our next governor?

Stockham School is proud to have a group of supportive governors working alongside us. We often have  vacancies for governors from the community. If you think you have the passion and time to work with our school please look at the governor pages and contact the school office.
 
What do we do?
Governors act as a supportive ‘critical friend’ to Mrs Burbank, the Head Teacher, and her team to ensure that the school offers the very best opportunities for all children who attend Stockham. Governors are part of the strategic leadership of the school and are not involved in day-to-day running of the school. We focus on the strategic direction of the school and look at standards of education, finances and policies. Using supportive and challenging means, we aim to critically appraise decisions made and promote engagement with pupils, staff, parents and the community.
 
What skills do I need?
We have a varied set of skills across our Governing Body which allows us to effectively monitor the working of the school. Some of us are experienced in finance and data analysis, others in broader areas of business or education. Whilst additional expertise in finance, data analysis, music and health and safety would be beneficial to our team, we welcome anybody who is enthusiastic and supportive who can help us make positive decisions to benefit the whole school community. Each governor is fully involved in choosing the areas that they feel most comfortable working on, so you don’t need to be an expert in everything, we are a team. It is important to us that our Governing Body is representative of the diversity of our school and wider community and applications from under-represented groups are welcome.
 
What commitment would I need to make?
We meet 6 times a year as a full Governing Body – in the evening from 6:30-8:30 pm, usually at school (COVID permitting) and all members are also a member of a sub-committee on either Quality of Education, Leadership and Management or Finance which usually meet 3-6 times a year. These can be during the school day, or afternoon. We have a Pay committee which meets once a year. Members have monitoring visits with Mrs Burbank and school staff to review approaches taken for teaching in each subject area and how these impact on learning, or other specific areas such as safeguarding, health and safety or data protection. One of the most rewarding parts of being a governor at Stockham is our ‘Big Friendly Governor’ role where we follow a year group throughout their journey at Stockham school and at times can help out within the school. In general, you would need to be free 6-9 evenings during a school year, and have a few hours each month to prepare for meetings, reading key documents and carry out the monitoring in line with your role. Governors are also encouraged to undertake training on different areas of focus. Each governor term of office is 4 years.