The Governing Body oversees the running of the school. On these pages you can find out more about their role and information about current governors, committees and minutes of meetings and newsletters.
Our role explained
The Governing Body oversees the running of the school. The purpose of governance is to provide confident, strategic leadership and to create robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.
The Governing board has three core functions:
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
- Holding school leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the performance management of staff
- Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent
More details of the roles and responsibilities of Governors can be found in the Department of Education’s Governance Handbook, last updated October 2020.
Here are our Governing Body Committees’ Terms of Reference:
Interested in becoming a Governor?
Becoming a Governor is an opportunity to get involved in the life of the school. Our aim is that our Governors are broadly representative of the community. If you are interested please contact one of us to find out more about the role or email us at governors@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
View Brookfield’s Governor roles, declarations of interest and meeting attendance 2020-21
Governor Frequently Asked Questions
Schools need governors to make sure the school has an ambitious vision, provides an excellent education for students and that the school finances are well-managed and used properly. Governors are also there as critical friends. They should champion the school, but also to ask difficult questions to the students and teachers to make sure that the school is doing the best it can. The governing body is very similar to the board of a company. Like the board of some companies, the Headteacher sits on the governing body as do members of staff. Governors do not, and should not, have any role in the day-to-day running of the school – that is the job of Headteacher and staff.
“Statutory duties” are basically things the law says that governors have to do. All school must have a governing body to oversee what the Headteacher and teachers are doing and make sure the school is run properly. The basics come down to three things:
- Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
- Holding leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its students, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff;
- Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.
There are at least three full governing body meetings a year, which are held in the early evening. All governors go to at least one committee meeting a term. Governors are also expected to visit the school a few times a year during the day, take part in occasional evening workshops and read documents which are sent to them in preparation for meetings. Some governors sit on disciplinary panels, and receive special training for this. Governors are especially welcome at Brookfield events and performances to support the students, staff and Brookfield community.
Being a governor is not a commitment to be taken lightly, but it is a way of contributing meaningfully to the local community and getting to know your local school.
If you want to know what the governing body does, or if you are interested in becoming a governor, please contact Jo Cooke our chair of governors at jvicooke@hotmail.com
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