Governors
The role of the Governing Board is to act collectively in the best interest of the children and our staff, 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 elected parent governors, a staff representative and the Headteacher. Peter Griffin, who is a Foundation governor, chairs the Governing Board. We are actively seeking a new Foundation Governor with relevant experience and a willingness to actively participate in the life of our school. The Governors are supported by a School Governance Professional. contracted through Warwickshire Educational Services (WES). The school also provides a subscription to services from GovernorHub and The Key (to Governance) which assist in the administration and distribution of the documentation and provide important guidance to allow the Governors to perform their statutory duties. All elected and appointed Governors perform their duties on a voluntary basis.
The Governing Board meets seven times per year, with a governance business meeting at the start of the academic year and two further 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 are recorded in the minutes and controlled and monitored through an actions log. Meetings were temporarily mainly on-line during the COVID epidemic but are now again being held in person on the school premises.
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. Several Groups are supported by the School Business Manager, Vicky Palmer.
The Governors also regularly receive updates and presentations from members of staff prior to the commencement of the formal meetings.
Peter Griffin - Chair of Governors, Foundation Governor
Catherine Burch - Head Teacher
Peter Jeremy Turner - Foundation Governor & Vice Chair
Tracey Hester - Foundation Governor
Jessica Delaney- Parent Governor
Sarah Sellars - Local Authority Governor
Maria McBride - Foundation Governor
Cyprian Vella - Foundation Governor
Vacancy - Foundation Governor
Philippa Price - Staff Governor
Vacancy - Parent Governor
Also attending:-
Cassandra Sutcliffe - School Governance Professional
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 and School Improvement Plan (SIP) Priorities
Members: Peter Griffin, Sarah Sellars & Catherine Burch
Role: To work closely with the senior managers of the school to develop a strategy leading to the improvement of the school and to monitor progress in addressing SIP priorities.
Class Link Governors
Members: Reception & Nursery - Sarah Sellars. Yr1/2 - Tracey Hester. Year 3/4 - Jeremy Turner. Yr5/6 - Jessica Delaney
Role: To focus on an individual class and ensure that Governors have a visible presence in the school through Governor Visits to each class throughout the year.
Budget and Finance
Members: Jeremy Turner; Peter Griffin; Jessica Delaney, Catherine Burch (assisted by Vicky Palmer).
Role: To oversee the three year budget plan ensuring it shows clear links to the School Development Plan; monitor school finances and that all expenditures offer value for money.
Marketing
Members: All Governors
Role: All Governors have a key role to play in creating and delivering policies and processes to market the school to the local community and to maintain pupil numbers to deliver a balanced financial position.
Safeguarding and Behaviour
Members: Sarah Sellars
Role: To maintain oversight and scrutiny of safeguarding and behaviour policies, procedures and practice within the school.
Staff Pay and Appraisal
Members: Peter Griffin, Jeremy Turner, Sarah Sellars
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: Peter Griffin; Jeremy Turner with the support of an independent external advisor
Role: To jointly, with an independent advisor, determine the Headteacher’s annual objectives and review performance and subsequent recommendation on pay progression.
Staffing
Members: Peter Griffin, Sarah Sellars
Role: To monitor the staffing strategy within the school, and to scrutinise the Headteacher’s proposals for significant changes.
Health & Safety, Premises
Members: Jeremy Turner
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: Tracey Hester
Role: To ensure the distinctiveness and effectiveness of the school as a Catholic school.
Teaching, Learning, Assessment & Curriculum
Members: Tracey Hester
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: Sarah Sellars
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:
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: Jeremy Turner (assisted by Vicky Palmer)
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: Peter Griffin
Role: To focus on the development needs of Governors and ensure induction arrangements for new Governors.
OFSTED Preparation
Members: All Governors
Role: To focus on preparation for OFSTED inspections and on the Governing Body's role during the inspection process.
GDPR & Staff wellbeing
Members: Tracey Hester
Pupil Premium/Sport Funding Premium
Members: Jeremy Turner (assisted by Vicky Palmer)
Role: To ensure that monies received for these Premiums are used carefully & correctly to deliver the anticipated benefits, within the scheme requirements.
Panels and Hearings
Members: ?? and two available Governors ( not conflicted by the content of the issue under review).
Role: To carry out any reviews resulting from policies and procedures and determine any decisions of fact and communicate the findings and propose any required corrective or preventative actions based on the written and verbal evidence presented to the hearing.
Before and After School Care Club
Peter Griffin, Sarah Sellars
Role: To monitor the service delivery and ensure that children's development and well-being are promoted through the facilities provided and activities on offer. To ensure the aims and objectives are aligned to those of the main school and also to parents intentions when selecting this service for their children.
Governors' Pen Portraits
Peter Griffin
Peter has been a Foundation Governor since 2015. He has acted as Chair of Resources, and 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
Catherine Burch
Catherine is the Headteacher at Our Lady's. She joined Our Lady's after working in Coventry for 12 years. Catherine has four children Sophie, Jessica, Benedict and Thomas and is part of All Souls Parish in Coventry.
Jeremy Turner
Jeremy Turner was last re-appointed a Foundation Governor in October 2020, he has lived in Offchurch just outside the border of Wappenbury Parish since 2003, and attends St Anne's Church, Wappenbury and Princethorpe Chapel. He has a grandson who lives in Princethorpe and attends Our Lady's School and six other grandchildren who all attend or have attended local catholic primary schools. Jeremy is currently working for OFQUAL in Coventry. His main career was initially as a Chartered Accountant and then for thirty years a project and programme manager for Information Systems and Business Process Change Projects, working mainly in the International Automotive and Aerospace industries. He has been a member of Kenilworth Catenian Circle since 2002.
Tracey Hester
Tracey Hester was appointed as a Foundation Governor on 10th December 2020 after joining the FGB as an observer. Tracey has extensive experience in teaching and education. Tracey is currently employed at Princethorpe College. This helps us maintain an excellent relationship with the College which has provided both educational and operational support to Our Lady's over many years..
Jessica Delaney
Jessica Delaney was elected a Parent Governor in November 2022, when her son was in Reception. With a legal background working within financial services, Jessica was keen to lend her skill set to support the school. Jessica is a Girl Guiding leader, assisting in the running Rainbows and Guides in Rugby.
Cyprian Vella
Cyprian has been a teacher at Princethorpe College since September 2011. He is also an inspector with the Archdiocese of Birmingham, conducting inspections of Catholic Schools. Having spent his career in Catholic Education, he was keen to join the team of Governors at Our Lady’s in order to share any insights and experience he might have, particularly in relation to inspections.
Cassandra Sutcliffe
Cassandra Sutcliffe joined as the School Governance Professional in May 2024. Although new to clerking in schools, Cassandra has a number of years' experience from her time acting as clerk to the Coventry Diocesan Board of Education. Cassandra attends the Rugby Christadelphian church, has three school-aged children and spends any spare time down at her allotment.