Community Governor

Hayesdown is a first school, with children from 4-9 years old (Frome has a 3 tier school system - first, middle, college). It has two classes per year group, 60 children per year, with a max capacity of 300 children - one of the largest in Frome. It is part of a multi academy trust, The Partnership Trust, which consists of 18 other primary and secondary schools in the Bath area.

Hayesdown’s local governing body (LGB) consists of seven volunteer governors, of whom two are parents of children currently at the school, and the others are community appointments. Our role is:

• Developing a vision and strategy for the school;
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent;
• Holding the school leadership to account to ensure that every pupil has the best possible education; and
• Engaging with pupils, staff, parents and the school community to understand their views of the school.

We work closely with the Headteacher, leadership team, and The Partnership Trust. Between us we have a range of skills and experience which we exploit in support of school management and development, but we are not directly involved in managing the school. In terms of time commitment, we meet as a governing body once per half-term on a Wednesday evening (5.30-7.30) so six times a year. In addition, we ask each governor to undertake a school visit at least three times a year, to talk to staff and monitor one or more areas of interest (e.g. safeguarding, SEN, literacy or a school development plan initiative). Including report writing, this may take a couple of hours for each visit. Some governors are also involved in one or more sub-committees (e.g. finance, health and safety) which meet a couple of times a year. Including meetings, on average a governor is likely to commit around 20-30 hours over the course of the school year, and some do rather more if they have time available.

Governors will ideally commit to a four year term.

In an ideal world, the governing board will have a good mix of the following skills and knowledge: business strategy, leadership, education, data analysis, financial planning, governance, health and safety, HR, ICT, legal, mktg/PR, procurement, project management.