Christ Church C of E Primary School in Clifton, Bristol, is looking for a Parent and a Community Governor to join its Governing Body. The school is looking for applicants who can commit to improving outcomes for the school’s pupils, have a willingness to learn and an interest in being part of a friendly, inclusive and dedicated team.
“School Governors play an important role in helping to run local schools,” explained Liz Gray, Chairman of Governors at Christ Church. “It’s an extremely rewarding role and Governors are the largest volunteer group in the country, working to do something positive and make a difference to Education in the community. Our Governors are a mix of people from the area.
“The Governing Body is responsible for providing strategic leadership and creating robust accountability, oversight and assurance for the school’s educational, and financial performance. It does this by building a thorough knowledge of the school and its community, by both supporting and constructively challenging the school, and by ensuring accountability and compliance.
“The Governing Body of our school is made up of parent, community, staff and foundation Governors. We are all passionate about education and committed to continuous school improvement to ensure the best possible outcomes for our pupils.
“We don’t get involved in the day-to-day running of the school, that is the job of headteacher Mrs Jones and her
team. We don’t inspect the school or its staff, we don’t decide what the pupils are taught and we don’t make any judgements on the quality of teaching.”
Liz added that there are several different types of Governor and elected Parent Governors who form an integral part of the school’s Governing Body. While applicants will be elected by the parents, they are not a parent representative and do not report back to parents. The governor’s role will be to bring a parent’s perspective to the Governing body and the running of the school. If parents have any comments about the way the school is run, they should always get in touch with the Headteacher and her team first.
“We are looking for Parent and Community Governors who are committed to Christ Church CE Primary School and its future, with a keen and active interest in education and school improvement and who are willing to get involved,” said Liz. “Your existing skills can be very useful to the Governing Body. Governors need ‘soft skills’ – the ability to be able to build relationships with a range of people, to work as part of a team, to question and challenge, and to make connections between different types of information. Right now, we are also looking for people with skills in business, finance, marketing and human resources but we welcome nominations from anyone.”
Anyone interested in becoming a Parent Governor needs to be a parent/carer/person with parental responsibility for a current pupil at Christ Church and needs to be nominated by another parent/carer. Applications to become a Community Governor to support their local primary school can contact the Chair of Governors (email hidden; JavaScript is required) for more information.
For more information, potential applicants are invited to contact the school at 0117 3772830 and email hidden; JavaScript is required.
www.christchurch.bristol.sch.uk