All maintained schools in England have a Governing Board which is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school. A key role is to act as a ‘critical friend’: to support, to challenge, and to ask questions.

Landywood's Governing Board is rightly proud of the achievements of the school.  However, it’s drive is clear: for the school to become increasingly outstanding in more and more areas of its work, giving local children the best possible start in life.

The Governing Board works in close partnership with the Head teacher, staff and the Local Authority.  Whilst the Head teacher is, of course, responsible for the day to day running of the school, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings and finance.  It ensures the school functions well and maintains the proper range of academic and social objectives.

Membership of the Governing Board includes parents, teaching staff and representatives from the local community and the Local Authority.  

The Governing Board has a range of powers and duties laid down by various Education Acts.  In the main, these responsibilities relate to:

• Setting targets and promoting high standards of educational achievement
• Setting the strategic framework within which the school operates
• Management of the school’s budget
• Ensuring that the curriculum for the school is broad and balanced

Governors adopt, review and monitor a range of policies that govern the operation of the school including Health and Safety, Behaviour, Curriculum and Performance Management.

Governors discharge the above responsibilities, together with many others, through a Governing Board meeting each term.  These formal meetings are supplemented by a series of committee-meetings dealing with more specific issues.  Two committees of governors usually meet twice each term:

• Pupils & Achievement Committee
• Resources Committee (focusing on staffing, premises and finance).

Minutes of meetings are agreed and approved by the Board and each committee at its next meeting. Minutes are available on request once they have been approved. Please contact the school administration team.

A number of governors also have responsibilities for specific areas within the school.  The Terms of Reference outline the specific responsibilities of the full governing body and its committees

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As a school we recognise that a diversity of thought, voices and perspectives is essential to good governance and the effective running of any organisation. We regularly collect diversity information from our governors and, depending on current data, can use this to: 

➢ target recruitment to address gaps in experience and diversity 

➢ develop and adapt board practices to ensure full participation 

➢ prioritise training and awareness-raising in identified areas 

➢ address potential ‘blind spots’ through seeking wider advice and perspectives on current and upcoming opportunities, challenges and risks 

However, we are unable to publish this information as it would mean that individual members of our governing body are identifiable.

Skills required of school governors

The National Governance Association (NGA) has published a list of skills required for school governance.  An individual governor  is not expected to have all the skills listed in the audit, but they should be covered across the governing body: