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Participate, excel, take pride!

Enabling children to flourish and succeed

Our role (or job!) as Governors of the School...

There are 12 people, known as the Governing Board, who challenge Mr Jewitt (our Headteacher) to make sure the school continues to improve and provides every pupil with wonderful learning experiences.

We take Mr Jewitt's advice on educational matters because this is his expertise, and constantly work together with him towards improving the School and making sure ALL the pupils at Snarestone are making as much progress as they possibly can and achieve the best they can.

We also discuss with Mr Jewitt (who is also a governor) if the lessons are exciting enough. We ask ourselves: how many children are finding lessons a bit difficult or too easy? What can the school do to change this?

Other questions we ask are: Do we have enough money to buy materials or pay for extra staff to help smaller groups progress? Do we have enough learning space? Are all our children safe and healthy at school so they can learn really well?
Are we helping the teaching staff to develop their own careers so they are enthusiastic about teaching our children?
Have we got the right staffing structure to help our pupils achieve?

This sounds like a lot of discussion and decision-making, but it's not always easy because the money Snarestone receives each year can change so sometimes there is not enough money to tackle everything.

You may think decision-making doesn't sound like doing very much. Well, here are visible activities you may see us doing in School;

  • job interviews for new teachers

  • reviewing Mr Jewitt's progress

  • joining in with school and community events

  • writing reports from classroom visits and school trips

  • meeting with teachers or pupils

  • training

  • studying pupils' progress data

  • checking health and safety around the school

  • speaking to parents and visitors who come into school

  • speaking to Ofsted about current trends in the School during an inspection

​We also look at how good your attendance levels are and deal with parents complaints when needed, if Mr Jewitt cannot resolve the issue.

We all meet together once a half-term, which equates to 6 meetings per year.  At each meeting we focus specifically on an area of the School Improvement Plan and other statutory requirements.   

We have a paid Clerk to Governors, Mr Eydman, who provides us with legal advice on governance, constitutional and procedural matters too. Governors don't get paid for their work, they are volunteers. It would be quite difficult to be an effective Governor unless you had a job that gives you some time because it's important to get into School regularly.

Sometimes governors might not all agree on something and will ask the Senior Leadership Team or teachers to provide more data, before moving ahead. Ultimately we come to an agreement with a majority vote.

Everyone in our School Community hold governors responsible for the direction the school takes but we can conclude that the Governing Board is very supportive of the way the school is run.

A message from one of our Foundation Governors:

"We all take an active role in improving the quality of teaching and leadership within the school to the highest levels and have a strong grasp of the impact of a good education and caring school community on children of all abilities, and are a supporter of small, inclusive, village schools. We are keen to support pupils, parents and staff in their journey through Snarestone School to ensure the best outcome for every child."