Governors
Chair of Governors Message
(acting) Chair of Governors
Welcome to our Board of Governors page
Please see our table below:
Our Vision, Values and Long Term Strategic Priorities for our School:
Our Vision
Our shared vision is for St Michael’s to be an inclusive Church of England School, centred on distinctive Christian Values. Where we create and provide a high quality, caring and loving educational environment where children can learn, grow and develop to their full potential.
Our Values
As a proudly Christian School we work to follow the teachings of Jesus to prepare children for their future.
We use a range of key Christian values in helping make decisions and drive our school forward. These include; Courage -Friendship -Trust -Respect -Compassion -Perseverance -Love –
Board of Governors Strategic Priorities
Our strategic priorities are set out in our strategic plan and aim to communicate our continued vision, ethos and long-term direction for the school, so that we are all clear on where we are going and what we are trying to achieve.
- Pupils feels accepted, loved, valued within an inclusive Christian community
- Pupils achieve a good depth and breadth of education and develop skills and enthusiasm for ongoing learning
- Active and reflective learners are equipped to realise their full potential
School Governance
In all schools the Head teacher is responsible for day-to-day running and management of the school. However, Governing Bodies are the key strategic decision-making body of every school. It is their role to set the school’s strategic framework and to ensure all statutory duties are met.
In all types of schools, governing bodies should have strong focus on four core strategic areas:
Four core strategic areas:
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
- Holding the Head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils and the performance management of staff;
- Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.
- Effective Governance Practice
Additional responsibilities for Church of England Aided Schools
Governors of Church Aided schools have a particular responsibility for supporting and developing the Christian character of the school as a Church of England School. These functions are to:
- Uphold the Christian character of the school as a Church of England school
- Undertake the role of employer
- Undertake the role of admissions authority for the school, including setting the admissions policy
- Decide whether the diocesan or locally agreed RE syllabus is followed
- Monitor the contribution of RE and collective worship on the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of pupils
- Ensure a budget contribution of 10% of the costs of any capital works to the school
Governor monitoring
Governors use a monitoring plan to schedule a range of monitoring visits over the course of the year with staff that have the lead responsibility for the area being monitored. Monitoring is focused on our priorities within the School Improvement Plan in addition to a range of Statutory Requirements.
Our Structure
Legislation requires Boards of Governors to meet once each term, however, in practice we meet more often in order to carry out our duties effectively. In addition the Board of Governors termly meetings we also work in smaller committees and have individual monitoring responsibilities.
The Governing Body is drawn from many aspects of the community. At our school there are 4 types of Governor:
Foundation Governor (7)- Foundation Governors have a particular responsibility for supporting and developing and upholding the Christian character of the school as a Church of England School. They are appointed by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) or Diocesan Board of Education and ratified by the Bishop.
Local Authority Governor (1) - These Governors are appointed by the Local Authority
Parent Governor (2) - Parent Governors are elected by parents of children attending the school
Staff Governor (2) - The role of these governors is to represent the staff at the school, the Head teacher is always a member of the Governing Body
"Governors at St Michael's come from all walks of life. We all come together to provide a safe and loving environment for our children to grow and learn. The role of a Governor is incredibly interesting and helps me to fully understand what is involved to give our children the rounded education they enjoy."
"Being able to play an active part in the life of the school is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding."
(Foundation Governor)
Governor recruitment
We follow a skills based approach to recruitment, assessing the skills & experience of the Board of Governors regularly and identify where we require additional expertise. Where this is the case, we actively seek Governors with a diverse skillset and various backgrounds in order to link them to areas of school life that best match their knowledge, skills, interests and understanding when we draw up job descriptions for governor vacancies.
If you would like to find out more about our Board of Governors please contact our Chair
Mrs. katja Purvis (acting Chair) or the Head teacher, Mr. Johnston at: admin@stmichaelsalnwick.northumberland.sch.uk
School Governance at St Michael’s C of E Primary – 2019/2020
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School address: |
Howling Lane, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 1DJ |
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Telephone number: |
01665 602850 |
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Email address: |
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School website - |
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School facebook page: |
The role of the governing body
A school's governing body is a corporate body. This means it has a legal existence separate from that of its individual members. The Governing Body acts collectively as a group. Governors are drawn from the local community and are volunteers who are committed to the school and its community. We are a relatively new Governing Body and we’re working hard to make sure our school improves for our children.
Our role is strategic and we concentrate on matters related to strategy and school improvement. Operational tasks such as drafting policies, making judgements about the quality of teaching and recruiting and deploying staff are delegated to the school leaders. The focus of our work is driven by our strategic planning cycle. We have regular meetings and we come into school to monitor progress against priorities as well as our statutory responsibilities. The role of governor is largely a thinking and questioning role, not a doing role.
The governing body has three core functions:
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Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
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Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the performance management of staff
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Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.
In reviewing our operation and effectiveness over the academic year 2019/20, we decided to meet monthly as a full governing body with the aim of:
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ensuring all governors have a thorough understanding of the full range of Governing Body responsibilities, their role within that and are therefore able to make well informed decisions
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improving skill set and capacity, thus improving sustainability and succession planning
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avoiding repetition and improving the pace of decision making / action.
Sub-committees are formed in line with our Terms of Reference, as required e.g. where an appeals process may be required. A staffing and pay committee will be drawn from the full governing body as required and where appropriate will have delegated powers. Working parties are also formed to progress specific tasks and report back to the full governing body e.g. the School Vision.
In our June 2020 review of this model, it was agreed we had met at least in part, all of our aims and would prefer to continue working on this manner.
Governing board membership
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Role |
Governor |
Allocated responsibilities |
Governors’ attendance at full governing board meetings 2021/22 |
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Parent governors |
Lee Boyling |
Pupil Performance/ Pupil Premium resigned Sept 21 |
8/10 |
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Sharon Wilmore-Greaves |
Safeguarding |
7/10 |
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Foundation Governors PCC = Parochial Church Council DEB = Diocesan Education Board |
Rev Paul Scott – Ex-Officio – DBE |
RE / Collective Worship SIAMs resigned Sept 20 |
8/10 |
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Rosie Buxton PCC |
Improvement Priorities - Maths |
7/10 |
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Katja Purvis - PCC |
Vice Chair – Improvement Priorities - Sports Funding |
9/10 |
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Lisa Muir DEB |
Resigned 7/1/2019 |
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John Cooke PCC |
Health and Safety |
7/10 |
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Gerard Rundell PCC* |
Resigned 1/9/20 |
7/10 |
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Vacancy DEB Mike Samuels |
Joined 19/5/2020 | 2/2 | |
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Staff governor |
Sharan Carr |
RE |
7/10 |
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Local Authority |
Jackie Chevaugeon |
Chair - Improvement Priorities |
9/10 |
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Headteacher |
Gavin Johnston |
Head Teacher |
10/10 |
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Associate members |
Cate Groome MacKay |
Assistant Head Teacher and SENCO |
10/10 |
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Janice Ramezanpour |
School Business Manager |
10/10 |
*joined in summer term