Parent Governor Recruitment

Being a Governor can be a very rewarding role and is a chance to make a valuable contribution to the lives of children; supporting them to receive excellent education and become outstanding citizens of the world.

We currently do not have any vacancies for a Parent Governor to serve on the Governing Body of the school. We are keen to attract governors who are representative across our whole school community. We want to create a governing body of committed people ready to work hard for the school and its community. We want to appeal to people with a range of skills and experiences, and with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in order to represent our local school community.

Parent governors will serve alongside co-opted, staff and local authority governors, as part of a proactive team supporting the school to develop an outstanding education provision for all pupils. You will play a vital role in bringing a parental perspective to the governing board, but you are not there to speak “on behalf” of the parent body. The term of office will be 4 years.

All governors, however appointed, have the same role as part of the local governing body. It is responsible for ensuring the clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school, ensuring financial probity and holding its leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils.

The Governing Board operates at a strategic level and is not involved in the day-to-day running of the school. We are responsible for both the conduct of the school and for promoting high standards. We perform this role by setting the vision for the school, ensuring that the school works efficiently and effectively towards achieving its vision, and that the school provides a high quality education for its pupils.

This is done by building a thorough knowledge of the school and its community, by both supporting and constructively challenging the school, and by ensuring accountability and compliance.

Governors do not need to be experts in the field of education. They need to be interested in the school and in the welfare of its pupils and have the time and enthusiasm to get involved. The skills you have can be very useful to the Governing Board; you will need to be able to build relationships with a range of people, to work as part of a team, to be able to question, and to make connections between different types of information. All governors are expected to be able to read budget reports and data on school standards.

Our Governing Board has certain expectations of governors, which currently are:

to attend and contribute to termly meetings of the full Governing Board,
when required, to sit on any committee or working party and attend all associated meetings
participate in any hearings that may happen, such as exclusions or complaints
to monitor a subject link area within the school, e.g. Numeracy, Literacy, SEND, Early Years, etc., and meet with the staff subject leader on a termly basis, reporting on each visit to the Board
to visit the school formally for monitoring purposes as directed by the Governing Board,
to visit the school informally on occasion,
to commit to attend training courses,
to comply with the expectations set out in our Code of Conduct.

In return, our Governing Board commits to:

provide you with an experienced governor as mentor,
provide you with a structured induction,
provide access to quality training,
develop your skills in strategic management,
offer you an insight into the wider perspective of the school,
give you the opportunity to make a difference to our school and the outcomes for our pupils.

Who can stand for parent governor

The definition of parent under education law covers:

all parents whether they are married or not
any person who has parental responsibility for a child or young person
any person who has care of a child or young person, such as lives with and looks after the child

A person cannot be a parent governor if they are:

An elected member of the Local Authority or
Paid to work in the school for more than 500 hours in any consecutive 12-month period (at the time of election or appointment)

Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply to be a school governor, except for individuals legally barred from being governors.

All governors will have to undertake a disclosure and barring (DBS) check for criminal convictions and suitability for working with children. They will also have to complete a due diligence check carried out by the Department for Education.

Both of these processes involve completing a form and giving personal details such as name, date of birth, addresses, work history and financial information.

How to apply

If you are interested in standing for election as a parent governor of the school, please contact the school on clerk@sheddingdean.co.uk and we will be happy to give you further details about how to apply.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Helen Fairman

Chair of Governors