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

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.

*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: Alison Stephenson (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