Governors

St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School in Sidcup has a team of Governors who take an active role in supporting the School’s efforts to improve and maintain the highest possible educational standards. Working alongside the Head Teacher the Governors oversee the success of the school, agree priorities, monitor and evaluate performance. Between us, we come from varied professional backgrounds so have a good mixture of expertise and skills.

What do we do?

We are responsible for upholding the Catholic ethos of the school, setting the strategic direction of the school, for over-seeing the curriculum taught and approving the budget. 

The Headteacher (who is also a Governor) makes the day to day decisions about the running of the school.

The Government and Ofsted have high expectations of Governing Bodies and Leadership. When inspected, Ofsted will evaluate how effectively governors challenge and hold senior leaders to account for all aspects of the school’s performance and how they ensure financial probity.

Much of our work is conducted at half termly meetings. At each meeting we receive a report from the Head Teacher with supporting documentation so we are kept informed of the progress the school is making over the year.

Our responsibilities include: 

• Having an input into, and reviewing, the School Development Plan and Self Evaluation Form.

• Helping and supporting the Senior Leadership Team with their aims, policies and priorities for the school.

• Assisting with the recruitment of all staff and monitoring levels of staff retention.

• We help our Senior Leadership Team make decisions on our school’s budget.

• Monitoring and evaluating the work of the school and pupil attainment.

• Challenging weaknesses and underperformance.

• Reviewing progress against the school’s School Development Plan.

• Monitoring levels of attendance and good standards of pupil behaviour.

Safeguarding:

This is one of our main responsibilities where we monitor any incidents that are regarded as a Safeguarding issue. The Chair of the LGC, Mrs P Slonecki, is the Safeguarding Governor and has regular contact with the Head Teacher regarding Safeguarding. She meets with the Headteacher once a term to discuss any issues that have arisen.

Additionally, Governors regularly visit the school so that we know and understand what is going on, and the effect of the decisions we make. Governors carry out a learning walk once a term to see first-hand the work that is being done in the school. We have the opportunity on these learning walks to talk to pupils about their work, look at books and monitor the behaviour of children across the school. We feed back to Senior Leaders at the end of their visits.

Governors Special Interest:

Each Governor has an area we have a special interest in. These include: Safeguarding, Special Educational Needs, Catholic Life of the School, Curriculum, Health and Safety, Sustainability and Finance. 

 Minutes of Governor meetings can be viewed on request. Please contact the school office.

Types of Governors explained:

• Foundation Governors: appointed by the Diocese of Southwark.

• Parent Governors: elected onto the governing body by other parents from the school, and are parents of children in attendance at the school.

• Staff Governors: elected onto the governing body by staff at the school.

• Co-opted Governors: A co‑opted governor is someone appointed to a school governing body for the skills and experience they can bring, rather than as a representative of a specific group like parents, staff, or the local authority. They are selected by the existing governors to strengthen the board’s effectiveness and can vote on all matters unless otherwise restricted by the school’s constitution.