Governors
Governors
School Governance
Since September 2014 Bentley Church of England and Copdock Community Schools have worked collaboratively as part of a federation of two small schools. This means our two schools share the leadership of one headteacher and one governing body.
Ofsted consider the role of governing bodies to be an important aspect of the leadership of schools and as such it will be included as part of the regular inspections. In our federation we believe that an effective governing body is at the heart of every successful school.
To be an effective governing body, we endeavour to provide strategic leadership, to ensure accountability through monitoring and self-evaluation, maintaining financial probity by setting and monitoring the budget and by supporting the whole school community to help all children in our schools to become confident individuals, successful learners and responsible citizens. The governing body aims to be reflective and to identify ways in which it can improve.
In our federation, we recognise that the role of a governor is a voluntary one and that all governors’ family and work commitments must take priority. However, we also recognise that the role of a governor is important and that all governors are valued. We have a large governing body and our committee structure is designed to both share responsibilities throughout the whole governing body and to allow individual governors to develop expertise in different aspects of governance. Apart from chairs, governors would not normally be expected to be a member of more than one standing committee. All governors are assigned to one class enabling them to build a relationship with those children and staff.
Chairs of committees meet to co-ordinate and share business each half term and committees report to the whole governing body at each meeting. All meetings are minuted and all agendas, minutes and any relevant documents are available on the school website or from the school offices.
Our governing body is reflective and each year aims to inform monitoring by the use of questionnaires, interviews or open meetings with parents, children, staff and governor self-evaluation. All governors recognise the importance of confidentiality but strive to be honest and open in all discussions amongst ourselves. We agree to abide by our Governor Code of Conduct and review this annually.