St Chad's RC Primary School: Governor Information

School Governing Body Meetings 2009 to 2010

School Governing Body meetings:
Monday September 28th 2009 at 6pm
Monday January 25th 2010 at 6pm
Monday May 10th 2010 at 6pm

County Governing Body meetings:
Monday November 16th 2009 at 6pm
Monday March 15th 2010 at 6pm
Monday June 28th 2010 at 6pm

Governor Visits Autumn Term 2009

Governor's have been very busy this term visting our classes as well as their usually visits to assemblies, coffee afternoon and our Christmas Fayre.

The children and staff would like to thank all our Governors for their help and support and we all value their input into St. Chad's school.

We asked our class Governors to feed back on their visits into school. We hope you enjoy their comments.

Thank you for the invitation to come into Class 4 on Monday 19th October in my role as Parent Governor. I really enjoyed the time I spent with Miss Connor and all of the children in Class 4. The afternoon started with a Religious Studies lesson about Christian Friendship. The children each had a bible and they found the relevant passages in Romans and Colossians. I was impressed at how eager and confident the children were to read aloud. After highlighting the key information from the bible passages the children worked diligently to develop their own ideas into a "Recipe for Christian Friendship". I was able to chat with the children while they worked and I appreciated their clear and positive ideas about their work.

The second part of the afternoon was P.E. Although this was never my favourite lesson at school, I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson about some of the skills needed in a game of netball! I tried “shooting” and was even allowed to take part in the match: Miss Connor has the photographs to prove it!

All too soon the bell for home time rang. I look forward very much to the next opportunity to share again in the learning opportunities and activities with Miss Connor and the children.

Lisa Stringer

I would like to thank Year 4 and Mrs Robertson for their kind invitation to visit them in school. I was glad to take up the opportunity and join them on the 9th October, for the preparation and performance of their Roald Dahl play during assembly that day. I think Roald Dahl is an excellent children’s author, it was interesting spending some time with the children on this topic and seeing their enthusiasm for his work. I was most impressed with the group as a whole with their approach to the subject, their confidence was clearly reflected in the performance. I really enjoyed the time I spent with the class and hope to be able to visit again in the near future.

Regards
Lisa Hirst

Dear Mrs. Gabriele,

On Wednesday the 4th November, I spent a very enjoyable morning with Class 4. Miss Connor, Mrs. Jackson and all of the children made me feel very welcome.

The morning started with a school assembly led by Miss Connor and, again, the whole school made me very welcome.

On returning to the classroom, Class 4 began their literacy work dealing with paragraphs. They carried out a class exercise learning how to achieve coherence in a paragraph, by arranging the sentences of a paragraph in a logical order. I was very impressed how well the children worked together.

After their morning break they worked on their maths. The children were tested on their 7 times table. They then solved problems relating to time, using both the 12 and 24 hour clocks.

It was a pleasure to spend time with Class 4 and I am very much looking forward to spending more time with them in the future.

Many thanks to Miss Connor, Mrs. Jackson and all of the children.

Kind Regards.

Linda Roughley

I would like to Thank Miss Walton, Year 1 and in fact all of class 2 for allowing me to spend the afternoon with them on Thursday 5th November. I had a really enjoyable afternoon and was made to feel so welcome. The children were designing Christmas cards to enter a competition run by the police – there were some fantastic ideas and drawings, the police dogs Jet and Ben were even included in some of the designs.

Some of the children were involved in describing and illustrating the sacrament of Baptism which was great to see.

I also listened to many of the children read and was very impressed by their reading skills!! Even if it was a difficult word each child knew how to break the word down, sound it out and managed to realise the correct word – it was lovely to see.

The afternoon ended with a story read by Miss Walton to the whole class.

I had a great time – thank you to class 2!

Regards

Karen Dixon

Governor Visit Autumn Term 2009

Mrs. Julie Greaves our new parent governor who has a special interest in the Foundation Stage Curriculum visited Class 1 on Thursday 1st October. The children in class 1 sent Mrs. Greaves a letter inviting her to come and see what learning in Reception is all about.

A little message from Mrs. Greaves regarding her visit:

Thank you for the invitation to come into Class 1 last week in my role as Parent Governor. I really enjoyed the time I spent with yourself, Mrs Hannon and all of the children in Class 1. It was really great to see how the children had settled so well into their early school life and the bonds that had already formed between teachers and pupils. I also appreciated the opportunity to be able to read to the children and was really impressed with some of the answers that came from the children on subjects within the book. However, my biggest highlight was building sandcastles in the new outside play area with the children!!!

ABOUT THE GOVERNING BODY

The governing body comprises of a team of voluntary elected staff, parents and other interested parties. They are responsible for making sure the school provides a good quality education for all children. Governors promote effective ways of teaching and learning when setting the school aims and policies. They do this together with the headteacher, who is resposible for the day to day management of the school.

WHAT DO GOVERNOR'S DO

The governing body has a range of important responsibilities these include working with the headteacher and staff to shape the future of the school. A key priority is raising educational standards in school.

In simple terms the Governing Body has three main roles.

Firstly, to provide a strategic overview that ensures the pupils learn most effectively and achieve the highest standards.

Secondly, to act as a "critical friend" of the school by providing the headteacher and staff with support, advice and information. We monitor and evaluate to school's effectiveness and promote the interests of the school and pupils.

Thirdly, to ensure accountability. We are accountable to parents, pupils, the community, the Local Authority and Ofsted.