School Governors

Hello and a very warm welcome from the governors at Ellenbrook Primary School.

We are an elected group of people, including staff, parents and members of the local community. We are all volunteers and have varied and diverse backgrounds and we work as a team with the Headteacher and his staff, for the benefit of all the pupils.

Our school is dedicated to nurturing the talents of every one of our children. By inspiring them to learn and teaching them independence, we hope to instill the confidence and skills they need to be successful in every aspect of their lives. Mutual respect is at the heart of all our teaching and we are proud that our pupils show outstanding behaviour throughout the school.

We have an excellent team of staff who are innovative, creative and work tirelessly to ensure that every child enjoys their time at school and are supported to succeed. Outcomes for our pupils are consistently outstanding in all areas and this reflects the hard work of both staff and children.

As parents and carers, you are very much part of the whole school community and your opinions and comments are very valuable to us. You can contact us directly using the email address: S.Charlesworth-gov@ellenbrookprimary.uk

Suzanne Charlesworth
Chair of Governors

The Governing Board

Our Governing Board is made up of 12 individuals and includes different categories of governors:

• Parent Governors x 2 – elected by parents of the pupils
• Community Governors x 7 – elected by the governing body
• Staff Governor x 1 – teachers or other staff employed by the school elected by their colleagues
• LA (Local Authority) Governor x 1 – nominated by the LA and appointed by the governing board
• The Headteacher also attends the meetings and is a governor

Headteachers

Local Authority Governors

*Julie Strang – Vice chair of governors(VGOG) and Chair of School Effectiveness and Premises Committee

Co-opted governors

*Suzanne Charlesworth – Chair of Governors (COG) and Safeguarding governor

*Robert Prill – Chair of Finance & Staffing committee

Parent governors

Staff governors

Note: Associate members have voting rights.

Ellenbrook Governing Board Attendance

• HT – Head teacher
• ASS – Associate member
• COG – Chair of Governors
• VCOG – Vice chair of governors
• OBS – Observer

As well as termly meetings with the full governing board, we also have the following committees:

• School Effectiveness and Premises
• Finance and Staffing
• Head teacher Performance management
• Appeals

With the exception of Appeals and Performance Management, these committees meet termly. The Appeals committee is convened as and when required.

Attendance at our committee meetings can be found here:

School Effectiveness & Premises Committee

Finance & Staffing Committee

Role of the Governing Board

The Governing Board has a strategic role in ensuring the school fulfils its vision and mission. It:

• Thinks and works strategically to help raise standards.
• Plans the school’s future direction
• Monitors and evaluates progress towards the school’s priorities and targets.
• Supports the head and staff and challenges them.
• Oversees the school budget and spending
• Is accountable to all stakeholders for the school’s overall performance and for the decisions they have made.
• Must ensure that systems are in place for the school to deliver a good quality education and keep children safe (but isn’t responsible for the day to day management of the school)
• Act as a ‘critical friend’ – encouraging, supporting and challenging.
• Selects the head teacher
• Makes sure the school provides for all pupils including those with special needs

For more details on the role of the governors, see the job description.

Register of Personal, Pecuniary and Business Interests

All the governors and associate members of Ellenbrook Primary School have signed the register of personal, pecuniary or business interests. This is a declaration of any business interests, any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff (including spouses, partners and close relatives) and any governance of other educational establishments.

If any interest a governor has could be seen to cause a conflict of interest they would be asked to withdraw from any decision making concerned. This is to ensure that our governors can always be seen to be putting the interest of the school first.

The full register for our school can be found here :