Governors Message

Governance at High View School: Our Local Governing Body

Welcome to High View School’s Local Governing Body section of our school website.

We would like to take this opportunity to tell you about our who we are, along with providing you with an overview of our core aims and responsibilities.

Who are we?

Governors are volunteers who give their time and commitment to what is a very rewarding role and experience.  

Our Local Governing Body comprises of ten governors, all of whom bring different skills to High View School, consisting of parent governors, staff governors (including our Head Teacher), co-opted governors and associate governors.

The Governing Body is an integral part of the school’s OFSTED inspection processes.

Governors are appointed by the Local Governing Body, except for Parent Governors (who are elected by parents), and Staff Governors (who are elected by the staff).

What is our core aim, and what are our  main roles and responsibilities in order to achieve this?

Our Local Governing Body aims to be an effective governing body through meeting our statutory responsibilities around challenging and supporting the school,
so that strengths are further developed and weaknesses tackled decisively. 

We endeavour to achieve this through:

• Holding six meetings each year (one each half term).
• Advising all parents of any parent governor vacancies, all staff of any staff governor vacancies and looking to appoint members of the community as co-opted governors. 
• Appointing a clerk to record our work.
• Electing a Chair and a Vice Chair.
• Inducting new governors.
• Organising support and training for governors.  
• Annually maintaining and updating a file of pecuniary interest declarations.
• Reviewing, approving and monitoring the School Improvement Plan.
• Receiving the School Evaluation Form.
• Annually appointing our governors to the following core responsibilities: English, Mathematics, SEN (Special Educational Needs), Looked After Children, Child Protection, Health & Safety and the Early Years.  
• Noting term dates for the academic year and agreeing the non-pupil “occasional” days.
• Regularly visiting the school, to engage with pupils, staff and parents in order to support and/or challenge how strategies are impacting.
• Receiving Headteacher reports three times a year.
• Reviewing the progress of pupils across the school, including the outcomes of national examination tests.
• Reviewing the level of exclusions.
• Reviewing the attendance of pupils and staff.
• Adopting and reviewing a range of school policies and curriculum plans.
• Adopting and reviewing the procedures for dealing with complaints from parents/carers.

What else do we do?

Beyond these core roles for all members of the Local Governing Body, there are also several committees, but these only meet when required. For example: for performance management of the Headteacher, or for supporting with exclusions, complaints or disciplinary purposes.  

Furthermore, where possible, we join in with a range of other school events which take place throughout the year, such as Christmas time events, class assemblies and school performances and sports days.

And finally, we think that the most important thing to mention is that we have a very committed governing body, who all give varying degrees of time, due to varying work and family commitments. But, working as a team, with everyone taking extra responsibility where they can, makes us effective.

For more information about becoming a school governor, please contact the Chair of Governors via the school office to see if there are any vacancies.