Governor Update
Dear parents and carers
Happy New Year, and welcome back for the new term. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season.
We are excited to have a full governing body again, following parent and staff elections. Our new parent governor is Ellie Barton, and our new staff governor is Jaswinder Dhanda. We also have also appointed a parent, Mark Hylton, as a new non-voting Associate Governor on the Children, Families and Communities committee. We welcome our new members and look forward to working with them. There have been some changes to committee memberships and which governor is responsible for particular areas of the school’s work (called link governor roles), and you can see these on the school website. We have also started to put minutes of our meetings on the website, as well as these being available in the school office.
The full governing body met twice last term, as did each of the committees. Before each meeting, the full governing body receives a report from Mrs Moore about what is happening in the school, including concerns, priorities, and how the children are progressing, and we discuss this. Last term we also approved a new special educational needs and disabilities policy, and discussed long-term plans for the school. The full governing body also receives reports from each of the committees about the issues they have been looking at.
The Resources committee has been monitoring budget spending, which is looking positive, and approved staff pay review recommendations. The Curriculum committee have discussed last year’s excellent results, and how this year’s Year 6 are doing. They have also discussed a revised policy for teaching and learning. The Children, Families and Communities committee discussed and approved revised policies for safeguarding and behaviour, and an accessibility plan for the school.
The governors are pleased that some of the things we have been working on, such as the glassroom and the new website, are now in use and looking fantastic. We have also been happy to join families and staff at school events such as the 40th birthday celebrations, and are looking forward to joining in more school activities.
We are always keen to hear more from parents and carers about what they think of our school, and would remind everyone about the Parent Forum, which next meets on Friday 10th February. This is a very informal meeting between parents, at least one governor and Mrs Moore, where you have a chance to discuss any general issues about the school. If you can’t come along but would like to raise an issue, please email us on gjparentforum@gmail.com.
Best wishes
Nicola McEwen
Chair of Governors