Background and Purpose
All Governor roles at our school are voluntary positions. The purpose of a Governor is to contribute to the work of the Governing Body in raising standards of achievement for all pupils, whilst working within an allocated budget. This involves providing a strategic view for the school, acting as a challenging friend and ensuring accountability.
Individually, each Governor has a responsibility, working alongside other members of the GB, to the staff and pupils of the school, and the school’s wider community, in delivery of the overall strategy and support to our school.
At this time, the governing body is specifically looking for additional governors with specific skills in finance, human resources and legal experience.
School Vision
- Sevenoaks Primary School is committed to excellence
- We are a forward thinking, innovative, child-centred place of learning and allows all pupils to reach their potential in a safe, supportive and stimulating environment
- We will achieve this by pursuing continued excellence in teaching, by delivering a responsive and evolving curriculum, with financial rigour and by being an educational hub which is integrated in the community.
Our Shared Values – the Heart of Our School
- Team
- Love of learning
- Honesty
- Creativity
- Perseverance
- Kindness
Strategic Aims
To deliver our commitment to excellence across every aspect of the school we are focussing on six strategic aims
- For our pupils
- Meeting the needs of every child: Ensuring every child receives a high quality education, with barriers to learning removed in an environment that has high aspirations for them.
- Forward thinking: Identifying and responding to changes in the external environment to protect the physical and emotional development of our children
- For our school
- Developing our team: Enabling outstanding teaching and learning by providing an innovative framework to develop excellence across our whole staff team
- Becoming a smarter organisation: Delivering operational excellence through consistent application of responsive and effective processes and utilisation of new technologies
- For our community
- Community integration: Leading school partnerships and links with the local and wider community. Being recognised for excellence
- Resource Management: Maintaining a strong financial position by developing new revenue streams and delivering value for money to enable future investment and innovation
Responsibilities
A Governor has many responsibilities and they include to:
- develop the strategic plan for the school
- determine aims, policies and priorities of the school
- set statutory and non-statutory targets
- monitor and evaluate the work of the school
- appoint senior staff and ensure the implementation of a range of personnel procedures
- manage the budget and oversee strong financial control
- ensure high levels of attendance and good standards of pupil behaviour
- ensure that all children in the school have access to a broad and balanced curriculum which is suitable to age, aptitude and ability, and which nurtures the whole child and encourages respect for others
- ensure the health and safety of pupils and staff.
Governors have a variety of skills and knowledge but there are a number of essential qualities required of any Governor and they include:
- an interest in the education of all children
- sound communication skills in listening, speaking and writing
- assimilation skills to help absorb and make use of wide ranges of information and data
- the capacity to develop specific knowledge and understanding of the school and its community
- a sense of fairness
- a commitment to equal opportunities
- a commitment to securing the best educational outcomes for all young people
- tact and diplomacy
- an ability to work as a member of a team
- an ability to respect confidentiality
- a willing, constructive work ethic with a team of Governors who have some or all of these qualities
- a commitment to participate in training and self-evaluation
- ability to work within our code of conduct
The points below summarise what is expected of each Governor as a minimum requirement.
- attend the full GB meetings, usually 4 a year
- become members of one of the two sub-committees which meet at least once a term, or as necessary
- undertake training as required to support the discharge of governor duties
- be able to be a member of other statutory committees convened as required
- be prepared to visit the school at least twice a year within the school day
For more information or to apply contact: manager@sevenoaks.kent.sch.uk or speak to Chamber Member Amanda Sokell