Governance Statement
The Governing Body of St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School is made up of a number of different groups. The majority of Governors are Foundation Governors, appointed for a 4 year term by His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham. These Governors have a special duty in Canon Law to uphold the religious character of the school and to ensure that it is conducted at all time in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Chair and Vice Chair must come from this group. The second group of Governors are Parent Governors. These have a unique role to inform the discussions of the Governing Body so that our decisions are always child centred. These Governors do not represent themselves or the school’s parents, they represent parents in general and speak from a knowledge and understanding of that vocation. The third group are Staff Governors. They include the Head Teacher and an elected member of the school staff. The fourth group represent the Local Authority and are selected by the LA to assist the Governors in their work.
Governors have a strategic role in the school. In law we are required to do three things:
- Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
- Hold leaders to account for the educational performance of the pupils and the performance management of the staff
- Oversee the financial performance of the school and ensure that the public money is well spent
Each of these requirements will be examined by Ofsted when they visit the school to check that we, as Governors, are correctly fulfilling our role. We do this through committees for Performance and Standards and Resource Management and through full Governor Meetings. The role takes time to do properly and is voluntary. Governors freely give hours of their time each year to help our children, we work closely with Mr Doyle and his staff and we are frequent visitors to the school. Our aim is to help our children be the best that they can be.
You are always welcome to contact Governors. The easiest way is to write to the Chair of Governors at the school.
Please click here to see our Governors responsibilities/links.