St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

At St Joseph’s, the Governing Body is made up of Foundation Governors (who are appointed by the Diocese), Staff Governors, Parent Governors and Local Authority Governors.

Governors are entrusted with ensuring the school is well run and promotes pupil achievement. The Governing Body's key duties include: setting the strategic direction, policies and objectives; approving the school budget and reviewing progress against it; acting as critical friend (by supporting and challenging the headteacher). In addition the Foundation Governors on the Governing Body have a legal duty to preserve and develop the Catholic character of the school and to ensure that the school is conducted in accordance with its trust deed. An important aspect of this is supporting and upholding the Catholic ethos of the school.

As well as sitting on the main governing body, Governors also form sub-committees and working groups that meet once or twice a term and have responsibility for the following specific areas of school management:

We also have a Complaints and Grievance Committee which forms as and when required and this is made up of a selection of Governors which can include John Apicella, Stephen Wasko and Elizabeth O'Keeffe.

Committees are bound by the rules and objectives set out their Standing Orders which are approved by the full governing body each year.

We have two vacancies for Parent Governors on the Governing Body of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, and we wish to invite parents who wish to stand for election to put their names forward.

The Governing Body

We are a welcoming and inclusive board. We can promise, in return for any time you can commit to this role, an extremely rewarding opportunity to contributing at a strategic level to the continued success and improvement of our school.   The term of office for all governors is four years, but you can resign at any time. 

Our governing body has four core functions.  These are to:

• support the Catholicity of the school;
• set the vision and strategic direction of the school;
• hold the head teacher to account for its educational performance; and
• ensure financial resources are well spent.

The Role of Governor

We would like to ask any parents who wish to stand for election to provide their contact details on the nomination form so we can arrange for Sinead Hall, Chair of Governors, or one of the board members, to speak with you about the role and expectations and to answer any questions you may have. 

Governors support the strategic leadership and management of schools and, as a governor, there is a regular time commitment of between 10 to 15 hours a term plus some meetings.  The majority of Committee and Full Governing Body meetings take place on Tuesday evenings. Typically governors are also expected to visit the school at least once every two terms on formal governor visits. 

As governors we regularly check we have the right skills to do the job and there is plenty of support available for specific areas of development.  Previous experience of being a governor is not required as full induction training will be given (free of charge).

Definition of a Parent

A  “parent”  for  those  purposes  of  governor  elections  is  defined  as  any  individual  person having  parental  responsibility  for,  or  care  of,  a  child*.  A parent is disqualified from election as Parent Governor if:

• He/she is an elected member of the Local Authority
• He/she is paid to work at the school for more than 500 hours in any consecutive twelve month period.

Next Steps

If you wish to stand for election as a Parent Governor you should:

1. Complete the attached Nomination Form.
2. Insert a brief personal election statement for circulation to voters.
3. Return the form by the stated closing date and time.  This can either be done by post (or by hand) and addressed to the Returning Officer, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Newport Road, Newbury  RG14 2AW; or e-mailed to the Clerk to Governors: rhousegemmell@stjosephs.w-berks.sch.uk

Nominations forms must be received by 3.00 pm on Friday 29^th January 2021.  Nominations will not be accepted after that date and time.

If only two nominations are received, those nominated will be appointed without a ballot.  If there are more than two nominations, a secret ballot will be held and each parent will be issued with a voting paper.  A separate timetable will apply if it is necessary to hold a ballot.

• Nomination forms sent to parents by end of Friday 15^th January 2021

• last day for returning nominations Friday 29^th January 2021 at 3.00 pm