What do School Governors do?
Governors have a key role in decision-making and are expected to prepare for and attend meetings of the governing body and any committees of which they are a member.
As well as supporting the school, governors need to ask challenging questions to be sure that the school is providing the best possible education. This role is often called ‘being a critical friend’.
The governing body's main role is to help raise standards of achievement.
Governors are at the heart of how a school operates. It is important they get things right. How they do their job affects the interests of pupils, staff morale and how the school is seen by parents and others in the community.
Governors support and challenge heads by gathering views, asking questions and deciding what's best for the school. Governors are responsible for how the school is performing. They are not there to rubber stamp decisions. They have to be prepared to give and take and be loyal to decisions taken by the governing body as a whole.
Governors support and challenge heads by gathering views, asking questions and deciding what's best for the school. Governors are responsible for how the school is performing. They are not there to rubber stamp decisions. They have to be prepared to give and take and be loyal to decisions taken by the governing body as a whole.
There are four types of School Governor on Balfour Junior's governing body:
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Staff Governors who work at the school (at least two but no more than one third of all governors including the Head Teacher);
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LEA governors who are appointed by the Education Authority (one fifth of all governors);
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Parent Governors who are elected by the parents of children at Balfour (at least one third of all governors); and
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Community Governors who are appointed by the governors to represent community interests (at least one fifth of all governors).
The current governing body is made up of:
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4 Staff Governors, including the Head Teacher
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3 Local Authority governors
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5 Parent Governors
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3 Community Governors.
In order to help the Balfour governing body fulfil its obligations, there are a number of subcommittees which meet regularly to discuss specific areas of responsibility – currently these are Teaching and Learning, School Organisation and Communication, Environment and Property.
You can view the minutes of full meetings of the Governors by clicking on the links at the foot of this page.
