Governors

Sherington Governing Body

The Sherington governors share the enthusiasm and excitement for learning that pupils and staff have and are proud of Sherington’s outstanding achievements. We are committed to the Sherington vision of “Aspire Believe Create Achieve” and between us, we bring a wide variety of skills and experience to the role.

To get in touch, you can email governors@sherington.greenwich.sch.uk, leave a message in the school office or catch us in the playground – questions, ideas, comments all welcome! (Please note that the first point of call for any issues relating specifically to your child is your child’s class teacher.)

Linda Pound – Chair of Governors

Sherington’s Governing Board has three key responsibilities:

The role of the governing body is strategic (not operational – the headteacher is responsible for the day-to-day running of the school). The governing body acts as a “critical friend” to the school and its leadership.  Governors focus on three core strategic functions:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction– we help decide the school’s strategy for improvement. We do not get involved in the day-to-day management of the school but focus on key issues that will raise standards and achievement.
• Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff. We use our knowledge and experience to support and challenge (in a constructive way) the headteacher and staff so as to get the best possible teaching and outcomes.
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent . We work with the staff to ensure that the school makes best use of its resources.

Governor Impact Statement – December 2023 

2023 has been a year full of challenge, change and success at Sherington and throughout the year the Sherington governing board has continued to provide support to the senior leadership team (SLT).

In spring year 6 pupils tackled, what was reported in the press, challenging SATs papers. Not only did the cohort produce fantastic academic results they also demonstrated Sherington values and approached the tests with resilience and poise.

This emphasis on personal development as a significant Sherington strength, was highlighted as outstanding in the recent Ofsted report. It has been over 10 years since Sherington has hosted Ofsted and we congratulate Sherington’s leadership, staff and pupils in achieving a great outcome. The report put emphasis on the school’s rich curriculum embedded in the community, the great behaviours demonstrated by its pupils, its high expectations on outcomes and the outstanding efforts around personal development. This is all a testament to the energy and passion that the staff, and of course the pupils, put into Sherington and exemplifies the love of learning that is at the heart of the school’s ethos. Thank you to all the staff and pupils for their hard work throughout the inspection.     

We end the year by saying thank you and farewell to Amanda Burnell. The recruitment process for a new headteacher has begun and will continue into 2024. In order to ensure that Sherington has the support, experience and capacity to maintain its high standards, the Governing Body has been working closely with the local authority to guarantee we have a robust interim structure in place until we have a new substantive Headteacher in role. 

The partnership with Montbelle Primary School and the appointment of the Headteacher of Montbelle, Elspeth Geden, as the Executive Headteacher of both schools for the rest of the academic year provides Sherington with stability, continuity and lots of exciting opportunities for children and staff to work together on different projects in 2024.  

Thank you to the whole school community for all the passion and effort throughout 2023.

Below is a summary of the key activities taken by the Governing board in 2023:

• We supported the SLT & school and engaged with inspectors as part of the Ofsted inspection
• We established a recruitment panel to appoint a new substantive headteacher
• We set out a partnership agreement between Sherington and Montbelle to provide additional support and opportunity for both schools while a substantive head teacher is appointed
• We welcomed two new parent governors to the board
• We rationalised our committee structure to improve communication and efficiency by merging finance & personal and premises committees into a single Resource Committee
• We revamped the terms of reference for all committees, clarified the delegation of authority, and introduced a governors code of conduct
• We introduced vice-chairs for each committee and named governors to support linked governors for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), child protection (CP) and safeguarding
• We have supported the school in a complete review and overhaul of policies
• We have implemented a new approach to governor visits that tracks to the school strategic and improvement plan with a focus on SEND provision and linking individual governors to specific subjects

How do we ensure effective governance?

We have a full governors meeting once a term, with two sub-committees which meet at least termly:

• Resourcing (covering Finance, Personnel & Premises)
• Learning and Achievement

At these meetings we review levels of achievement across the curriculum, monitor how children’s needs are being met and how the pupil premium is being used to narrow attainment gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, contribute to the school’s evaluation procedures and development plan, agree the schools budget and monitor its implementation.

We make regular visits to develop a fuller understanding of how Sherington works as a school. Visits can be very informal (e.g. attendance at school concert or assembly) or may be planned with a specific focus.

We play an important role in the appointment of new staff, particularly those at a senior level.

Governing bodies are supported by the Local Authority through the provision of training and advice. Ofsted evaluates how effectively governors challenge and holds senior leaders to account for all aspects of the school’s performance and ensure financial stability, and will judge the effectiveness of governance against the three core strategic functions.  

Head Teacher Appraisal

The governing body carries out the headteacher appraisal annually. Several governors have undertaken headteacher’s appraisal training, and with expert assistance from an independent educational advisor through the Local Authority, the appraisal is carried out. The appraisal process allows us to look closely at the performance of the headteacher, have discussions about areas of strengths, and where necessary, areas for development. New targets are then set against criteria which the headteacher’s performance will be evaluated.

Training

All members of governing body have and continue to have significant training. All members have undergone safeguarding and safer recruitment training. Alongside the whole governor body training, governors attend individual courses and training.

Please click here for attendance of meetings for the last completed school year.

All terms of office are 4 years unless otherwise noted.

Our Clerk is Lucy Davies, provided by Royal Greenwich Governor Services.

F&P = Finance & Personnel, L&A = Learning & Achievement, P = Premises, Pay = Pay Committee

ROI = Register of interests

The Governing Body including the Head are required to register any business interests on appointment and at every governors meeting.  The Register of Interests is held in the school office. 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save