The Governing Body

Few things are more important to the success of a school than good teachers and support staff. The Governing Body is, legally, the employer of staff at the school, and it decides the number of staff to be appointed. At St Nicholas School, Governing Body deals with staffing matters through its staffing and pay subcommittee. The subcommittee looks after the majority of staffing policy matters at the school. It considers staff appointments, development and pay issues, and keeps staffing and pay policies under review.

The committee has authority (within existing pay agreements and terms of employment) to set staff salary levels at annual salary reviews. It is directly responsible for appointment of full time staff, and conducts recruitment interviews for new staff.

Finally, the committee advises the Governing Body on appointment of Governors to conduct the head teacher's annual appraisal, and ratifies performance targets for the head teacher and deputy head.

School budgets are tight, and need careful management. The Governors have a responsibility to set annual budgets, which must be agreed with the local education authority, and to monitor the use of funds throughout the year. This responsibility is carried out through the finance and fundraising committee.

The committee prepares and reviews the school's financial management policies, which cover matters such as charging for school activities, sponsorship, and insurance. It reviews draft budgets in detail before they are put to the governing body itself. Once budgets are agreed, the committee can act to adjust funding within limits set by the school's financial management policy (currently, the committee can move up to 5% of the overall budget from one area to another without reference to the full governing body).

As well as the official budget available from the LEA, the finance committee monitors other funds, such as income from fundraising events and the Building and Maintenance fund (the building and maintenance fund's trustees are usually appointed from members of the finance committee).

"The Curriculum", and particularly the National Curriculum, sets out in general terms what our children should be taught at school. The Governors keep the subject matter, our methods of teaching, and our overall performance under review through the Curriculum and Special Needs Committee. The committee is helped by co-opted full-time teaching staff and subject coordinators who contribute when we review particular curriculum subjects.

The committee typically reviews three or more curriculum topics in detail each year, using a rolling programme which makes sure that all curriculum topics are reviewed at least every three years. Each review involves discussions with the subject leaders, review of performance information such as SATs and teacher assessments, study of each topic's development plans and resources, and classroom visits to see teaching in practice.

It also reviews the overall SATs results each year, checking for trends and looking for opportunities to improve the school's consistently good performance. The performance review also checks for significant differences in results between different groups of children. This helps to make sure that all children are well served by the school, irrespective of gender, ethnic or social background, age on entry, or prior education.

The committee also reviews special needs provision every year. This statutory responsibility ensures that the school is meeting its legal obligations to assist children with statements of special needs. We also monitor the school's provision for children who are not 'statemented' but nonetheless need additional support or special provision; this includes those who are particularly able as well as those who are less able.

Finally, the group considers and advises the Governing Body on changes in curriculum policy, on published attainment targets and on a range of statutory issues related to curriculum provision, exclusion and disapplication of the curriculum.

The Premises and Community committee reviews the condition of the buildings, checks safety and security in the school and looks for ways to improve accommodation for children and staff. It also monitors the school's relationships with the wider community.

Safety for staff and for children is very high on the Governors' priority list; the school needs to be a safe and secure place to work. The Premises committee members participate in the school's termly safety and security inspections to identify potential hazards or risks to security, so that the Governing Body has first hand knowledge of safety issues. The committee also reviews the inspection reports to make sure that any potential problems are properly reported and dealt with.

Buildings management for a school of over 500 children is a large task, and while the day to day management falls to the Bursar and senior management team, the Premises committee's job is to make sure that building and facilities development is well managed and provides good value for money.

Several community clubs and societies, as well as many children's activities, use the school's facilities on an hourly or longer-term letting arrangement. It is the Premises committee that recommends the charging policy and reviews the terms of use of the property.

St Nicholas is well aware that it is part of the larger community of Shepperton, and tries hard to act as a responsible member of the community. The premises and community committee is, as its name suggests, particularly charged with assisting the staff and Governing Body in this. As part of this role, the committee discusses and advises the Governing Body and the head teacher on issues such as community projects involving the school, planning of school events to minimise undue impact on residents, and joint activities with St Nicholas' Church. The committee also takes an interest in matters such as safe routes to school, including traffic flow and safe walking routes. Although none of these is within the school's direct control or formal responsibility (traffic and footpaths, for example, are Council responsibilities and outside the authority of the school) the Governors do what they can to minimise disruption for residents and contribute to safe access for the children.

The Admissions committee is concerned with procedures and policy for handling applications to the school. It has delegated authority to decide on the children who will be admitted to the school; in doing so, it is bound by the published school admissions criteria.

The committee meets annually to decide on the number of children the school can take in the following school year; this is the "published admissions number" (PAN).

The Admissions Committee also keeps the Admissions policy and procedures under regular review, and monitors transfers from the school and the destination of our pupils.