Governors

Contact

To contact any Governor, please address your envelope to the Governor, c/o Mrs. Natalie Wainwright, Clerk to Governors, using the School Address, or email nwainwright@educ.somerset.gov.uk

Volunteers

Want to make a difference in your community, and develop your own professional skills? By volunteering as a governor, you can do both.

Governors are volunteers who play an important role in leading our schools. They set the strategic vision and direction, approve the budget and hold the senior leadership team to account. Despite a quarter of a million people across England already volunteering as school governors, it is estimated that one in ten school governor positions are vacant. www.inspiringgovernance.org/volunteers/ to find out more.

If you are interested in becoming a School Governor, please first read the Support Services for Education Guidance on how you can become a School Governor in Somerset. To find out more and to register your interest in becoming a School Governor at Swanmead Community School, please contact the Clerk, specifying any experience, skills and areas of interest that you would bring to the role.

School Governor Recruitment – Vacancy for one Governor – for more information click here

Policy

Governors do not claim expenses, but can request paper for printing, if required.

*Behaviour Principles Statement –cannot be delegated to the Headteacher, the Headteacher will write the behaviour policy along with the senior leadership team. In the Governance Handbook it states that a governance board “must make and periodically review, a written statement of principles to help the executive leader determine the measures that make up the school’s behaviour policy. The board must consult the executive leaders, other appropriate members of staff, parents and all registered pupils before making or changing a statement of principles”, this statement must also be published online.

The DfE guidance “Behaviour and discipline in schools: guidance for governing bodies” they recommend that the following should be covered:-

a.     Screening and searching pupils (including identifying in the school rules items which are banned and which may be searched for);

b.     The power to use reasonable force or make other physical contact;

c.     The power to discipline beyond the school gate;

d.     Pastoral care for school staff accused of misconduct; and

e.     When a multi-agency assessment should be considered for pupils who display continuous disruptive behaviour.