Our Governors

The Governing Board of Benthal Primary School is made up of co-opted governors, elected parent governors, an elected school representative, a local authority appointed governor and the Head teacher. All governors have specific skill sets that match the needs of Benthal Primary School. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each board member ensure accountability of an aspect of educational or financial performance and the management of risk.

The role of the Governing Board

Governing boards play a crucial role in supporting and challenging the school improvement journey which reaches far beyond assurances of compliance with regulations.

This is recognised through OFSTED inspection which includes consideration of the skilfulness and impact of governance in forming judgements about the leadership capacity of the school.

The role of the Governor

The role of the governors is a simple one- maintaining a strategic overview of what the school should be aiming to achieve.

It is to seek to ensure that the school operates in a way that provides the best possible educational experience for all of its children in a safe and stimulating environment where the aspirations of all are high. Including, holding the senior leadership team to account for the performance of the school.
In addition to this core purpose there is a number of significant statutory roles to perform concerned with ensuring that the school operates in a fair and efficient way achieving best value for money.
Governors have no role to play in the day-to-day running of the school. This is the responsibility of the Head teacher and senior leadership team.

Benthal Primary School and the governors seek to work with purposeful interactions with school leaders in taking the most secure path for Benthal’s school improvement journey. The governors at the school also regard it as fundamentally important that the school operates in as transparent a manner as possible in all that it does.

Benthal’s Governing Board also issues a termly newsletter for parents/carers of the school to share information on the role of board members and any link governor visits and any other updates.

All governors must adhere to Governors' Code of Conduct.

Governor Meetings

Full Governor’s meetings are held termly. Additional full meetings are occasionally called where it is decided that this would be of benefit.

In addition there are three formal sub committees – Curriculum & Standards Committee, the Finance & Premise Committee and the Personnel Committee to focus on particular areas in more detail. It is a statutory requirement that these meet three times a year.

The Governors may also convene working groups or task and finish groups to address a particular issue and report back to the full governing board. Governors may co-opt specialist advisors to support the work of such groups and to give advice on specific issues.

The minutes of full governor’s meetings will be made available on the website as soon as they are agreed, in addition to being available in the school office.

List of Governors

Ms Louise Drew

Headteacher

Ms Stella Sandford

Chair- Co-opted Governor (Leadership & Management)

governors@benthal.hackney.sch.uk

Mr Alex Godfrey

Parent Governor (Stakeholder Voice for Pupils and Parents)

Mrs Samara Shahzad

Parent Governor (Stakeholder Voice for Parents and Pupils)

Mr William Howard

Co-opted Governor (Finance, Property and MIS)

VACANT

Co-opted Governor (Safeguarding, Pupil Welfare and Wellbeing)

Mr David Jones

LA Governor (Teaching and Learning)

Ms Mandy Ayres

Co-opted Governor (School Marketing)

Mr Rob Briggs

Vice-Chair (Co-opted Governor) (Pupil Outcomes)

Ms Nicola Grant-Stevenson

Co-opted Governor (Inclusion)

Ms Abeo Ward

Staff Governor (Health and Safety)

(Elected by the school staff)

The Governing Body can also Co-opt Associate Members, who are appointed to committees but are not governors. They can vote on any issue within the remit of the committee they have been appointed to. The committee may still exclude associate members from any discussion which concerns an individual member of staff or pupil. Associate members are entitled to attend full governing body meetings but have no voting rights at full governing body meetings and as with committee meetings they can be excluded if the discussion is about an individual member of staff or pupil.

Full Governing Board Meeting Minutes:

Please see below the minutes of the Governors Meetings:

Full Governing Board Minutes

Termly Newsletters:

Other documents:

GB Newsletter - Spring 2020

GB Newsletter - Winter 2019

GB Newsletter - Summer 2019

GB Newsletter - Autumn 2018

Benthal School Governors' Code of Conduct 2023.pdf

Roles and responsibilities of Maintained Schools and Governing Bodies

Qualification and disqualification to serve as a school governor

Governors’ Update May 20

Roles of the Effective Governing Body

National Governors Association Skills Audit