Our Governors are drawn from the local community and freely give their time and expertise in order to support the work of the school.

Governor Duties

Some of the main duties carried out in conjunction with the school leadership team are:

  • Setting targets for pupil achievement
  • Managing the school’s finances
  • Making sure the curriculum is balanced and broadly based
  • Appointing staff

Governor Committees

At St Joseph’s the governors are organised into five committees to manage this:

  • Resources
  • Strategy
  • Ethos, Discipline and Relationships
  • Admissions
  • Curriculum

Governor Types

There are several different categories of Governor:

  • Foundation Governors are appointed by the Diocese;
  • Parent Governors are appointed by self-nomination and parent vote where necessary
  • Local Authority and Co-opted Governors are appointed by the Governing Board.

We are blessed to have a committed and multi-talented Governing Board with a wide variety of experience and expertise.

Useful Links

Our Governance Statement - A Summary

  • The board worked alongside the SLT to support the consultation period and subsequent conversion to Academy status and officially joined the Xavier Catholic Education Trust in August 2024 and strongly believe that the conversion is in the best interests of the pupils of St Joseph’s School.
  • We remain committed to enhancing RE learning and the new curriculum which was introduced in 2022 has now expanded to 5 year groups. The board worked closely with the SLT to support the preparation and participated in the Catholic Schools Inspection in Spring term 2024.
  • We continue to be committed to school success and governors are focussed on working with staff to improve and build on the wider curriculum. To achieve this we have restructured the SLT
  • 1 x Executive Head (working across three schools)
  • 1 x Head of School
  • 1 x Deputy Head (leaving after Autumn term)
  • 2 x Assistant Heads (increasing release time after Autumn term)
  • We have continued to monitor the effectiveness of subject leadership via yearly meetings between subject leaders and link governors. We have been able to pick up on the action plans from the previous academic year and looked for evidence of impact of changes made. The focus is always on looking for evidence of a positive impact on children’s learning.
  • We spent time in school on May 24th for Governor’s Day which fell on St Joseph’s Day. The programme included attending both a KS1 and KS2 liturgy which was led by children in year 5 and 6. This was followed by 6 classroom visits focusing on RE, Maths and English and meetings with subject leads for History, Geography and Early Years. Governors enjoyed spending time with both the staff and children and having the opportunity to chat informally and share the St Joseph’s Day celebrations with them.
  • We have continued to focus on the use of targeted funding such as pupil premium, covid catch-up and sports premium. We review evidence of how the funds have been spent and question senior leaders to ensure we are satisfied that money is being spent in a way that maximises the benefit to children.
  • Through regular meetings and monitoring we have ensured stewardship of the budget and awareness of the school’s financial position.
  • We formed a Road Safety Working Party in December 2023 and welcomed Parent representation to align our communication as a School community with the council on our safety concerns on Linkfield Lane. We input into the proposed plans for the subsequent works that have taken place and communicated the vision we had along with the rationale to parents and carers as well as writing to 100 local residents. We are delighted with the improvements that have been made and the focus the School has taken to launch their refreshed road safety plan with the children.

Governors’ Future Plans for the School:

 

  • To ensure that safeguarding remains front and centre of all that we do and to ensure active implementation of the annual updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education.
  • To restructure our governor roles and responsibilities to align with those directed by Xavier and embed these seamlessly into our ways of working.
  • To ensure effective leadership and management of the school with the new structure of the SLT, reviewing as necessary. Governors to impact on the strategic direction of the school and to hold leaders to account through the implementation of the School Development Plan.
  • To ensure the quality of teaching and learning in all school years; governors to ensure an ongoing commitment to the OFSTED 2022 recommendation regarding the effectiveness of individual subject area teaching.
  • To ensure the recommendations of the CSI inspection are incorporated into the School Development plan and monitored appropriately holding leaders to account.
  • To continue to ensure that the new RE curriculum is effectively implemented throughout the School along with the new prayer and liturgy directory.
  • To ensure that the funds allocated to the school are spent in a way that maximises the benefit to children’s learning and to navigate through the challenges of higher overall costs.

Our Local Governing Committee

NamePosition
Katie CostelloChair
Joanne LøvbakkeVice Chair
Thomas HallHead of School
Natalie CarrollFoundation Governor
Robert SandersFoundation Governor
Deborah WeatherleyFoundation Governor
Hannah CorcoranFoundation Governor
James HartParent Governor
Susanne WicksClerk