Welcome from the Chair of Governors
On behalf of The Willows Primary School Governing Body, welcome to our school’s website. You will see that the website provides a mixture of information from what’s currently happening in school, through activities and visits our pupils have taken part in, to administrative details such as the school organisation and policies.
At The Willows we aim to provide a fun yet challenging curriculum which motivates and develops the whole child in a safe environment, nurturing our pupils socially, morally and culturally as well as academically. We provide rich opportunities for learning which enable our children to acquire essential language, numeracy, scientific and technology skills within a creative curriculum; our extra-curricular offerings are many and varied. We build pupils’ confidence, develop independence and their ability to express thoughts and feelings. We encourage our pupils to have high personal ambitions and strive to help them achieve their own personal bests in everything they do. As a governing body, we are proud of our school, our pupils, our PTFA and the very able and dedicated staff – both teaching and non-teaching – that make the school the success that it is.
Parental involvement is crucial to a child’s education and we strongly value parents’ support for the school, it’s ethos and rules. We are keen for parents, grandparents and the wider community to be involved with the school and we have opportunities for them to help in the classrooms, around the school and in the PTFA.
I hope you find our website interesting, informative and easy to use. Whilst the website provides a window into our school life, however, it’s not like seeing the real thing. So, I encourage you to come and visit us and see our pupils as they learn; you will be warmly welcomed and, I’m sure, impressed by what you see.
Finally, if your son or daughter is a pupil or future pupil at the school, may I take this opportunity to wish them a very happy and successful time with us.
Mr John Perry
Chair of Governors
cog@willowsprimary.com
The Willows Primary School Governing Body
The governing board is accountable to the Department for Education for the strategic leadership of the school. It is responsible for both the conduct of the school and for the promotion of high standards. It carries out its role by setting the vision for the school, ensuring that the school works efficiently and effectively towards achieving its vision, and that ultimately the school provides an effective and high quality education for our pupils. This is ensured by having a thorough knowledge of the school, by both supporting and constructively challenging the school, and by ensuring accountability and compliance.
The full governing board meets bi-monthly to consider the reports of the Headteacher, and its link governors. The current governing board works on a no committee structure. Link governors are individual governors assigned to specific curriculum or significant focus areas and they meet their staff counterparts at least termly.
Governors carry out regular visits to the school to meet with staff and pupils, work with members of the Senior Leadership Team and to undertake activities to support their evaluation of the school’s work.
The governing board of our school is made up of parent, staff, local authority and co-opted governors. As this list indicates, the governors are not all education specialists; many are laypeople with careers outside of education. It follows that our governors have a variety of experiences and expertise in business, public service, higher education, education in the early years and primary phases, accountancy, local government, etc.
The usual term of office is four years but many governors stand for re-election and serve for more than one term.
Link governor roles are assigned against priorities for improvement on the School’s Development Plan or against areas where school receives government funding (Pupil Premium and PE Grant) and school is accountable for the impact of the expenditure of this money.
Further details of the different types of governor are:
Parent Governors: are elected by parents/guardians of registered pupils and must be parents/guardians at the time of election. Parent governors do not have to leave if their child leaves during their term of office, but they can if they wish to do so.
Staff Governors: are elected by the staff employed to work at the school. Once they cease to work at the school their term of office will be terminated.
LA Governors: are nominated by the Local Authority and are often political appointments. LA Governors do not have to be Borough Councillors but are sometimes members of a political party in the area and they usually live locally.
Co-opted Governors: are appointed by the governing board based on their skills and experience and currently serves a term of twelve months.