Are you our next governor?

Are you our next governor?

Stockham School is proud to have a group of supportive governors working alongside us. We currently have vacancies for a Parent Governor and Co-Opted Governor. We would like to hear from someone who has finance, accounting, or legal experience but more important is that you are an enthusiastic person committed to joining our team.

If you think you have the passion and time to work with our school, please provide a brief description of yourself and why you would like to join the Governing Body and return this to the Chair of Governors via the school office.

What do we do?

Governors act as a supportive ‘critical friend’ to the Head Teacher, and their team to ensure that the school offers the absolute best opportunities for all children who attend Stockham. Governors are part of the school's strategic leadership and are not involved in its daily running. 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 varied skills across our Governing Body, which allows us to effectively monitor the school's working. Some of us are experienced in finance and data analysis, others in broader areas of business or education. Whilst additional expertise in finance or accountancy, legal matters and data analysis 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 do not 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, either at school or via Teams 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 the headteacher 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. In general, you would need to be free 6-9 evenings during the school year and have a few hours each month to prepare for meetings, read key documents and carry out the monitoring in line with your role. Governors are also encouraged to undertake training in different areas of focus. Each governor's term of office is 4 years.