About our School Governors

Being a school governor is entirely voluntary, and we give our time willingly to help govern the school. We set the vision and strategic direction to guide the school in achieving and maintaining the highest educational standards. We hold the Headteacher to account for putting the vision and strategy into practice and also ensure the school’s money is well spent and that resources are allocated in line with the strategic priorities.

Individual governors are given special responsibilities and are briefed by senior staff on crucial aspects of the school’s performance. They then report on these to the rest of the governing body. According to their role they may also be delegated with other responsibilities and the ability to decide on behalf of the governing body on certain matters. For information on who does what, see ‘Our Current Governors’.

We have two main sub-committees: the Teaching & Learning committee is responsible for everything to do with student performance and academic standards, safeguarding, inclusion and curriculum: the Resources committee oversees personnel, premises and health & safety issues and also ensures financial probity and value for money. There is a Pay committee to decide the pay policy for the school and to oversee staff performance management.

All governors get together in Local Governing Body meetings each term to oversee the work of the committees and to decide on any issues that cannot be delegated.

The governors regularly review their performance and functions. The current composition of the governing body is: four parent governors, one local authority governor, one staff governor, seven co-opted governors and the headteacher. Due to the growth of the school, the governing body are looking at increasing the number of parent governors from four to five.

Governors of The Bulmershe School are expected to abide by the Seven Principles of Public Life to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life known as the Nolan Principles. These are:

Selflessness    governors should act only the public interest.

Integrity          they should not be under obligation to people or organisations that could influence them in their work: they should not act or take decisions to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.

Objectivity      they must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

Accountability          they are accountable for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

Openness        they should take decisions in an open and transparent manner.

Honesty           they should be truthful.

Leadership      governors should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and should actively promote and support them.

One way we put the principles into practice is to require governors to declare any business or pecuniary interests, governance roles in other educational institutions and any personal relationships that could be seen to compromise the principles.

Their declarations (and other details) are listed in this section of the website, under ‘Governors.’

The Bulmershe School Local Governing Body Details