Governors
The role of the Governing Board is to act collectively in the best interest of the children, ensuring the good conduct of the school and promoting high standards of educational achievement. In practice this means ensuring the school has a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding the executive leaders to account for educational performance and overseeing the school’s financial performance.
Our Lady’s Primary School has a board of 12 governors comprising of one Local Authority governor, seven Foundation governors appointed by the Diocese, two parent governors, a staff representative and the Headteacher. Simon Everitt, who is a Foundation governor, chairs the Governing Board.
The Governing Board meets seven times per year, with a governance business meeting at the start of the academic year and two meetings each term. The Board has adopted the ‘Circle model ‘of governance and operates without any separate committees. In their meeting the full governing board reviews all the required tasks and commissions assignments or activities arising from the business of the meeting, which will be recorded in the minutes as actions.
As part of our ‘Circle model’ of governance, the Full Governing Board delegates monitoring activities to ‘monitoring groups’ in line with the Terms of Reference for those groups which are summarised below. In each case where a function has been delegated there is a statutory duty to report any action or decision to the governing body at the next meeting.
Group members have been chosen because they have a particular interest or some special expertise to contribute.
Peter Griffin - Chair of Governors, Foundation Governor
Elizabeth Burnett Vice Chair of Governors, Foundation Governor
Chris Bracey - Foundation Governor
Ruth Haley -Staff Governor
Elizabeth Burnett Foundation Governor
Rachael Batson - Foundation Governor (Head Teacher)
Jeremy Turner - Foundation Governor
Chris Bartup - Parent Governor
Amy Husband - Parent Governor
David Maceluch - Clerk
Group Structure
While some responsibilities remain the preserve of the Full Governing Board such as the appointment of new governors and certain safeguarding requirements, most responsibilities are delegated to the Headteacher. The governing body then monitors the activities and performance of the school against the priorities in the School Plan and this is done by the following Monitoring Groups who regularly visit the school and report back to the Full Governing Board.
In addition, key priorities identified in the School’s Development Plan are allocated to nominated governors who are responsible for visiting the school to monitor progress and report back regularly to the Governing Board.
Strategy
Members: Chris Bracey; Elizabeth Burnett
Role: To work closely with the senior managers of the school to develop a strategy leading to the improvement of the school.
Budget and Finance
Members: J.Turner; P. Griffin
Role: To oversee the three year budget plan ensuring it shows clear links to the School Development Plan; monitor school finances and that all expenditure offers value for money.
Safeguarding and Behaviour
Members: E. Burnett
Role: To maintain oversight and scrutiny of safeguarding and behaviour policies, procedures and practice within the school.
Staff Pay and Appraisal
Members: Pay Panel TBA
Role: To approve, or otherwise, the Headteacher’s recommendations for pay, progression or additional responsibility for all staff according to the school’s policy.
Headteacher Appraisal
Members: Chris Bracey; Peter Griffin; Jeremy Turner
Role: To jointly, with an independent advisor, determine the Headteacher’s annual objectives and review performance and subsequent recommendation on pay progression.
Staffing
Members: TBA
Role: To monitor the staffing strategy within the school, and to scrutinise the Headteacher’s proposals for significant changes.
Health & Safety, Premises
Members: C. Bracey
Role: To monitor the compliance of the school in meeting both its statutory responsibilities and its own policies, and ensuring the school is maintained to provide a safe environment for all users.
Catholic Life (incl British Values)
Members:
Role: To ensure the distinctiveness and effectiveness of the school as a Catholic school.
Teaching, Learning, Assessment & Curriculum
Members: E. Burnett
Role: To monitor the systems and tools used within the school which have been designed to assess the students learning and the teaching staff’s delivery of those protocols. Also to monitor the implementation of the school’s curriculum is ensuring progress against the National Curriculum and the School Development Plan
Special Educational Needs (SEND) & Inclusion
Members: S. Everitt
Role: To monitor and review the progress of the school’s SEND policy against the School Development Plan and evaluate its impact.
Pupil Progress and Attainment
Members: All Governors – invited to attend termly data meetings
Role: To evaluate the school’s performance data and assess progress against the School Development Plan including Pupil Premium and Sports Premium.
Communications (incl school website)
Members: J. Turner
Role: To ensure the Governing Body’s communications are effective and two-way, to represent the Governors when appropriate and to publicise statutory information.
Governor Training & Development
Members: P. Griffin
Role: To focus on the development needs of Governors and ensure induction arrangements for new Governors.
GDPR
Members: TBA
Pupil Premium/Sport Funding
Members: TBA
Governors' Pen Portraits
Peter Griffin
Peter has been a Foundation Governor since 2015. He has acted as Chair of Resources, ans since the Circle Governance procedure was initiated as Vice Chair of Governors. He is currently acting Chair of Governors.
Peter lives in Princethorpe with his wife Liz and attends Mass at Princethorpe, and is a retired teacher with 37 years of teaching experience at Princethorpe College.
His three children all attended Our Lady's so he were heavily involved in the school from 1988 – 1997. During much of this period his wife, Liz, was a Foundation Governor.
On retirement, he wished to give something back and support the school and staff. As a resident of Princethorpe, and as an active member of the Catholic parish, his particular interests and motivations are to strive to build closer links between the school, the parish and the village. In addition his links to the college regularly provide opportunities for close collaboration between the two schools
Chris Bracey
(Updated September 2019)
Over the last 6 years Chris his 3 children, Eleanor, Samuel & Jacob all attended our Lady’s school. Although Eleanor & Samuel have graduated, Jacob is now in Year 4.
During Chris’ time as a parent at Our Lady’s he has supported the school at various PTA activities.
As a senior manager in Jaguar Land Rover Chris has many years of experience in business and performance management that have helped in his role on the Performance & Standards and Resource sub-committees. Additionally, Chris holds a Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety that supports his role as Health & Safety Governor.
Chris was initially elected as a parent governor and is currently a foundation governor.
Ruth Haley
Elizabeth Burnett
Rachael Batson
Rachael is the Headteacher at Our Lady's. She joined Our Lady's after working in Coventry for 13 years. Rachael has two children William and George and is part of Christ the King Parish in Coventry.
Jeremy Turner
Jeremy Turner attends St Anne's Church, Wappenbury and has one grandson already attending Our Lady's School, and another joining in September 2020. He is originally from Stoke on Trent but has been living in South Warwickshire since 1984, firstly in Kenilworth and since 2003 in Offchurch. He is a Chartered Accountant and currently works for an international express parcels company in Coventry. He has been a member of Kenilworth Catenian Circle since 2002. HIs wife Helen has worked as a Teaching Assistant at St Augustine's RC School, Kenilworth for 30 years.
Chris Bartup
Chris was recently elected Parent Governor, he is also Chair of the PTA.
Amy Husband
Amy was recently elected Parent Governor.
David Maceluch
Dave is a parishioner of St Anne's Wappenbury and is a very experienced Clerk to the Governors.