Holbeck Hill, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 3BW
Welcome to the Governors' section of the St. Martin's Website.
As the current Chair of the Governing Body of St Martin’s C.E. (Aided) Primary School I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the governors’ section of the school website.
Our Governing Body consists of a diverse group of volunteers who may share a common faith but always share a mutual desire to support the school and all members of the school community. We are proud of the level of involvement we have within the school.
The meetings that we have with the Senior Management team and other members of staff are important, but so are the meetings and other contact that we have with the pupils on the School Council, parents and representatives of the Diocese and Local Authority. Governors have three core functions:
1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of our School;
2. Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of our School and the performance management of staff; and
3. Overseeing the financial performance of our School and making sure its money is well spent and well managed.
To state these funcitions is much easier than the practice of them! We deal with every aspect under the roof - and the roof as well! We do this through meeting as a full board eight times times a year (four such meetings are solely dedicated to curriculum matters), and also through three separate sub-commitees dealing with finance, personnel, and premises matters. The three sub-commitees meet at least three times each year - and sometimes more, depending on the nature of the business to be conducted in any one academic year. We try to place governors with the relevant skills on the relevant committees and we all undertake governor training in accordance with our roles. It is a very busy board and we visit school regularly - which enables us to feel a welcome part of life at St Martin's You can see the list of current governors and theircommittee membership below.
We have an active Link Governor programme, each of us spending time with teachers and pupils involved in a particular priority curriculum area. We also take part in the numerous extra-curricular activities that the children in the school enjoy, helping out on school visits, at school productions and taking part in the spiritual life of the school
We enjoy a good relationship with the Friends of St.Martin's (FOSMS)to whom we are always grateful because they invaluably assist us in finding the the funds which, as Voluntary Aided School, we need to contribute towards particular capital projects.
I am always very pleased to hear from anyone with a stake in the school and I can be contacted by email, or you can leave a message with your details with the school office: messages and letters are always passed to me by Mrs Newton and Mrs Black as quickly as ever possible. I am also happy to arrange to meet with parents to discuss aspects of school management should that be necessary.
I hope that this brief introduction to the Governing Body explains to you a little of what we do and I hope that you might feel able to talk to any of us about governance matters and perhaps even join us!
Julia Jones
Chair of Governors
How to contact the Governors
The Chair of Governors, Julia Jones and the Clerk to the Governors, Mick Prince, can be contacted through email or via the School’s office.
Please call 01723 360239 or email admin@st-martins.n-yorks.sch.uk marked for the attention of Chair of Governors
Meeting dates for the Governing Body and Committees
The Full Governing Body and the regular Committees meet throughout the year. The dates for those meetings in the current academic year are listed below.
Governing Body
|
Meeting Dates |
Academic year 2020-21
|
|
Meeting |
Date |
Time |
Day |
|
|
|
|
FGB |
22nd September 2020 |
7pm |
Tues |
HT performance mgmt. |
8th October |
1pm |
Thurs |
Policy Review |
17th November |
5.30pm |
Tues |
Resources |
24th November |
5.30pm |
Tues |
Premises |
24th November |
7pm |
Tues |
FGB |
8th December |
7pm |
Tues |
Admissions |
2nd February 21 |
6.30pm |
Tues |
Premises |
9th March |
5.30pm |
Tues |
Resources |
9th March |
6.45pm |
Tues |
FGB |
23rd March |
7pm |
Tues |
Premises |
8th June |
5.30pm |
Tues |
Resources |
8th June |
7pm |
Tues |
FGB |
6th July |
7pm |
Tues |
*How to become a Governor
If you are interested in knowing more about serving as a governor of St Martin's please contact Julia Jones, the Chair of Governors through school on 01723 360 239 or send an email to admin@st-martins.n-yorks.sch.uk.
You can also find further helpful information on school governance generally by visiting the following websites:
National Governance Association www.nga.org.uk
Diocese of York www.dioceseofyork.org.uk/supporting schools
North Yorkshire County Council www.northyorks.gov.uk/educationandlearning/school governors
Department of Education www.gov.uk
For a more detailed explanation of the role and obligations of school governors you might like read the Department of Education publications "Governance Handbook" and "Competency framework for governance" , which are regularly updated. They can be easily found by searching the respective title name on the gov.uk website.
As well as complying with its statutory requirements, our Governing Body has chosen to adopt successive editions of the National Governance Association Code of Conduct (without amendment) and to abide by the seven Nolan Principles of Public Life as set out in that code. The code provides part of a framework for excellence in governance by clearly setting out the expectations on and commitment required from every serving governor, thereby enabling the Governing Body to properly carry out its work within school community and the wider community beyond.
Our Governors: Their roles and standing committee membership
Since October 2017 the number of seats on the board has been 14. The term of office is one year for co-opted governors, three years for Foundation governors and four years for all other types of governor. The current composition of the board appears below with individual committee responsibilities shown. In addition to the meetings of the Full Governing Body, there are a number of standing committees, usually consisting of five members.
Staff Ex officio: Claire Barber (Headteacher) - member of all committees
Staff Ex officio: Karen Plumpton (Deputy Headteacher) - member of all committees
Parent: Greg Foster, Premises
Parent: Laura Edmunds, Resources
Local Authority: Ryan Chapman, Resources
Staff: - Karen Plumpton - Admissions, Premises, Christian Distinctiveness working party
Co-opted:
Foundation (Deanery): Mike Colbeck - Resources, Christian Distinctiveness working party
Foundation (Deanery): Julia Jones (Chair of Governors) - Admissions, Christian Distinctiveness
Foundation (Deanery):
Foundation (Deanery): James Crick - Chair of Premises, Chair of Admissions
Foundation (Ex officio): Fr David Dixon - Admissions, Christian Distinctiveness
Foundation (PCC): Louise Hanks - Chair of Resources, Christian Distinctiveness
Foundation (PCC): Greg Booth - Resources
Foundation (PCC): VACANT
Associate (non-voting): Richard Hodgson - Premises only, (not FGB)
Current Priority Link Governor Roles - academic year 2019-2020
English - James Crick
Maths - Laura Edmunds
Science - Mike Colbeck
PE - Greg Booth
PSCHE & RE - Louise Hanks
SEND - Julia Jones
Pupil Premium - James Crick
Child Protection & Safeguarding - Ryan Chapman
All website content copyright © St Martin's C of E VA Primary School
PrimarySite Web Design