Annual Governance Statement

We have a fantastic Governing Body who keep a watchful eye over all that we do. They are in place to be a 'critical friend'. This means that they have the tricky job of constantly asking challenging questions about every aspect of school. 

Our Role:

In accordance with statutory requirements,  the main functions of Homefield Church of England Primary School's Governing Body are;

• To ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• To hold the headteacher and senior leaders to account for performance of the school;

• To ensure effective and efficient use of school funds.

Our Governing Body:

Headteacher: Mrs. Elaine Glendinning

Interim Chair of Governors - Co-Opted Governor: Mrs. Joanna Jones (Curriculum Link - Literacy - Safeguarding - Finance)

Local Authority Governor: Mrs. Sarah Burgess

Staff Governor: Mrs. Karen Newman (Curriculum Link - Finance - Life Skills)

Foundation Governor: Mr. Ivan Lees (Curriculum Link - Religious Education - Life Skills)

Parent Governor: Mrs. Hannah Willis (SEND - Curriculum Link - Health and Understanding)

Clerk to Governors: Mrs. Justine Petersen (Administration)

Governance Arrangements:

The Governing Board has 12 positions; 5 are filled and there are currently 7 vacancies:

Co-opted Governors – Jo Jones (Interim-Chair) + 2 vacancies

Foundation Governors – Ivan Lees + 2 vacancies

Headteacher – Elaine Glendinning

Local Authority Governor – Sarah Burgess

Parent Governors – Hannah Willis + 3 vacancies

Staff Governor – Karen Newman

To discharge the duties of governance, the governors have delegated responsibilities through committees: 

Finance Committee – Jo Jones, Karen Newman, Elaine Glendinning

Learning & Achievement Committee – Ivan Lees

Personnel & Resources Committee – Jo Jones, Hannah Willis

Steering Committee – Elaine Glendinning, Jo Jones, Ivan Lees

In addition to the committees above, governors will meet as a panel to hear Appeals, undertake Headteacher Performance Review, and consider pupil discipline issues.

Governors make decisions collectively, but have individual responsibilities in relation to statutory requirements and curriculum subjects.

SEND (Special Educational Needs) Governor – Hannah Willis

Safeguarding Governor – Karen Newman

Finance – Jo Jones and Karen Newman

Governor Curriculum Teams are aligned to Staff Curriculum Teams.

Expressive Arts – Jo Jones

Life Skills – Karen Newman and Ivan Lees

Health & Understanding – Hannah Willis 

Core Subjects – Ivan Lees (Religious Education); Jo Jones (English) 

Attendance of Governors:

All of our meetings this year have been quorate. Committees meet at least termly, with the Full Governing Board meeting half-termly. 

Our Work This Year:

Our work this year has really focussed on supporting our Headteacher, school leaders and children to achieve our SIDP vision and achievement targets; to become an "Outstanding” school. We have concentrated on supporting our school leaders to prepare for a COVID-Secure school environment and in making sure that we as a Governing Body are ready to support in any way we can as the "critical friend."

Each Governor has a role and leads the accountability for a topic / policy area for e.g. Safeguarding or SEND. Governors come into school at least once a term to see staff about their policy area and their link role. Governors also visit for Challenge Days looking at many different areas of the school. Governors are asked to write a brief report about their visit to inform the Governing Body of any issues. This might include the need for further resources or a change to policy. We think that this approach supports and strengthens our ability to challenge school leaders and ensure good use of resources.

This has included;

• Refining data and bringing together data to show pupil progress.

• Ensuring Governors understand the different data that is presented to us and the main trends and stories for our school. We have shared and analysed data in many different ways and have levelled challenge regarding it towards our school leaders.

• Supported the external validation of our school leading up to Ofsted/SIAMS. 

• We have supported the Headteacher in decisions to ensure the quality of teaching at our school is of the highest standard; investing in single form entry classes; interventions and re-organisation of staff members during the year to ensure that skills and experience were placed where they are most needed.

• We have recently approved of the manner in which our Sports' Premium and Pupil Premium monies are being spent and challenged the legacy of the spend.

• We agreed to redesign the way our school taught Guided Reading and Writing and implemented new initiatives to enhance the learning provision in these areas for our pupils. 

• In terms of budget and resources, our priority is to redesign the changing room facilities to increase the number of lavatories and hand sinks the school has available.  

• Safeguarding and making sure that our safeguarding procedures continue to be robust and to the highest standard has been another regular key area of focus for the governing body.

Future Plans for the Governing Body:

We will continue to challenge and support the school in their drive towards becoming “Outstanding,"in particular to support the Headteacher in their role as a local leader and to develop a succession plan within the senior leadership team. We are keen to evolve the manner in which we conduct Challenge Days and have liaised with the Headteacher to combine improvement targets from our School Improvement and Development Plan and our Religious Aspects Improvement Plan. This will enable us to have an even stronger understanding of improvement across the school. 

As a Governing Body, we will recruit members to fill our vacancies. We will also explore how we can better our committees and consider having all Governors together, instead of being in committees (due to being so small in number).

Please feel free to come and speak to the Governors at any time about any concerns you may have.

If you wish to contact the Chair of Governors, please write an email addressed to office@homefield.norfolk.sch.uk marking in the subject reference, "CONFIDENTIAL CHAIR."

For further detailed information regarding the responsibilities and interests of our Governors, please see the attached document and table below.

Full Name	Category	Date of Appointment	End of Term Office	Pecuniary & Material  Interests	Roles & Responsibilities	Roles on other Governing Bodies	Attendance Record 2020-2021
Jonathan Earle	Former Chair Co-Opted	23.09.2020	05.07.2021	Director of Go Geronimo & Back to Basics	Expressive Arts Safeguarding	None	100%
Joanna Jones	Interim- Chair Co-Opted Governor	26.11.2019	26.11.2023	None	English Finance	None	100%
Hannah Willis	Parent Governor	23.01.2018	22.01.2022	None	SEN Health & Understanding	None	100%
Ivan Lees	Foundation Governor	23.01.2018	22.01.2022	None	RE Life Skills	None	100%
Sharon Pettigrew	Former Joint Vice-Chair Former Parent Governor	16.06.2017	15.06.2021	None	Pupil Premium EYFS Expressive Arts	None	80%
Karen Newman	Staff Governor	26.11.2018	25.11.2022	None	Life Skills Finance	None	100%
Daniel Morris	Parent Governor	26.11.2019	26.11.2023	ICT Support Technician at Ormiston Denes Academy	Health & Understanding  (Computing)	None	100%
Bradley Young	Headteacher	01.09.2016	31.08.2021	None	Headteacher	Academy Advisory Committee ENSFC	100%