My First Governors Meeting

I was excited to be elected as a Parent governor at Sacred Heart last Autumn. The governing body meets once a term and my first meeting with my new colleagues was this week. It was held at St Mary’s school –  because the two schools are now in Federation, there is one governing body that looks after both schools.

The governing body includes other parent governers, a staff representative, the headteacher, a representive from the Diocese and other expert, hardworking dedicated people who give up a lot of their time over the years to Sacred Heart and St Mary’s.

As I say, the meeting took place at St Mary’s this time and included some time to tour the new school building that is rapidly rising from the rubble of the building site. It’s going to be an amazing space for the children and staff when it partly opens in only a few months time.

St Mary's School, Battersea (new building)
St Mary’s School, Battersea (new hall)

The meeting included progress reports from each school, with a particular focus on how the results are matching up to the targets that were agreed with the governing body. Each school has a mission statement. These form the backbone for a School Development Plan –  this public document (they can found on the school websites) sets out long term strategic priorities and details what the schools will be doing to reach ambitious targets.

As a new governor, I found plenty of resources to help me hit the ground running. Wandsworth council provide comprehensive training for school governors and I’ve been to an evening induction course. This has really helped – the main thing that I learnt was that school governors main role is strategic – not to work on operational issues. We support headteachers, but also ask questions and make sure the headteacher is taking the school in the right direction. Overall a big responsibility.

So whilst I can’t intervene on who took who’s seat on the school trip, I can, and will, work with the school management team to improve our children’s education so that our kids can achieve the very best of their ability.

I can be contacted via the school office if you want to meet with me.

Rex Wickham