Starks Field Primary School

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0113 3200 750 if you have any queries.
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167 Church Street,
London N9 9SJ

office@starksfield.enfield.sch.uk

0208 887 6060

Starks Field Primary School

Be The Best You Can Be helps our pupils learn the importance of our six core values: kindness, respect, tolerance, resilience, honesty and self-responsibility.

  1. Our Community
  2. What Governors Do

What Governors Do

What is the Governing Body? 

The governing body is a group of dedicated volunteers whose core purpose is to:

  1. Shape the strategic direction of the school. 
  2. Act as a critical friend
  3. Hold the school accountable for the standards it achieves

The Governing Body of Starks Field Primary School comprises: 

Parent governors  (X3) who are elected by the parents; 

Staff governors  (X 1 with Headteacher being a de facto governor) who work at the school and are elected by their colleagues;

Local Authority governors  (X1) who are appointed by the local authority; and

Community governors (X3) who are chosen by the other governors for their local knowledge and/or other skills useful to the Governing Body.

The governing body:

  • is accountable for the performance of the school to parents and the wider community
  • plans the school's future direction
  • selects the Headteacher and Deputy
  • makes decisions on the school's budget and staffing
  • makes sure the statutory curriculum is taught
  • decides how the school can encourage pupil's spiritual, moral and social development
  • ensures that John Laing (PFI providers) maintains the premises, including grounds
  • maintains all resources (such as computers and the furniture etc.) and
  • makes sure the school provides for all its pupils, including those with special needs.

What do Governors do?

Governors are at the heart of how a school operates.  It is important they get things right.   How they do their job directly affects the interests of pupils, staff morale and how the school is seen by parents and others in the community.

Hold the school accountable for standards. Governors work as a team.  They are responsible for making sure that the school provides a high quality education and for raising educational standards in school.  This has the best chance of happening when there are high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Governors set policies that promote effective ways of teaching and learning; they do this together with the Headteacher, who is responsible for the day to day management of the school.

Act as a critical friend. Governing bodies are responsible to parents, the LA and the community.  The governing body's main role is to ask challenging questions to be sure that the school is doing its best; this role is often called being a ‘critical friend’.  Governors support and challenge the head by gathering views, asking questions and deciding what's best for the school.  They are not there to rubber stamp decisions.  They have to be prepared to work together in partnership and then be loyal to decisions taken by the governing body as a whole.    A governing body is not a supporters club; governors are responsible for how the school is performing and following up inspection reports is an important job.  Governors also try to be proactive - identifying problems and tackling them in advance.

Shape the strategic direction of the school. Governors play a strategic role; this means that they concentrate on the underlying issues of school management, rather than day-to-day issues. They are however involved in reviewing exclusions and dealing with any cases of staff dismissal appeals.   Governors, especially parent governors, are sometimes approached by parents who have a grievance or complaint against the school.  In general, individual cases should not be taken to the whole governing body.

The governing body of Starks Field Primary School has 2 committees: Staffing and Curriculum and Finance and Premises. Each committee meets once a term and the full governing body also meets once a term. At the meetings, governors discuss and make decisions about the school’s budget, policies (e.g. for Religious Education, behaviour, performance management),  the overall ethos and direction of the school, long-term planning, special education needs, targets for pupil performance and staffing structure.  

Starks Field Primary School has a recognised complaints procedure, and governors will encourage parents to follow it. On occasions, however, it may be appropriate for a governor to accompany a parent to see the Headteacher, or to have a word with the Headteacher or Chair, over a complaint.

Minutes of governors’ meetings are available on request until they are posted on the website.