Annual Governance Statement 2024-25

The Core Functions of the Governing Body

In accordance with the Government's requirement for all governing bodies, the three core strategic functions of Aldercar Infant and Nursery School's Governing Body are:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
• Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils.
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Governance Arrangements

The Governing Body of Aldercar Infant and Nursery School is made up of nine members:

• Headteacher
• 1 Staff Governor
• 2 Parent Governors 
• 5 Co-Opted Governors

The Governing Body works together as one team, with no separate committees, allowing all members to have a full overview of the school's strategic and operational position.  The Governing Body meet formally twice every term, and monitoring visits will be carried out by individual Governors throughout the year.

The members of the Governing Body have a wide range of skills and knowledge and each  individual brings their own attributes and qualities to the team, ensuring an active contribution to the school's effective governance.  Governors undertake regular training throughout the year, ensuring their knowledge remains current and relevant, and an annual skills audit identifies any skills gaps or training requirements.  

Governor attendance

A record is kept by the Clerk to the Governing Body of governors attendance at meetings.  Details of attendance can be found on the Meet the Governors page.  Meetings need to be quorate to ensure that decisions can be made (quorum is half of the number of Governors in post).

How the Governing Body works with the school

The School Improvement Plan provides a key focus point for the Governing Body in fulfilling its functions, setting out the priorities and aims for the school to ensure the children have the opportunity to achieve the very best that they can. 

Each Governor is allocated a specific School Improvement priority area, according to their individual skills and strengths, and they  work closely with staff to monitor progress in this area. Together they monitor and evaluate the impact of actions taken, and identify next steps.  They use this information to ensure all our children make the best progress and achieve as highly as possible, and that resources are planned effectively. They also use this to support the school’s self-evaluation judgements, benchmarked against the Ofsted inspection evaluation schedule.

The governors key monitoring and evaluation findings are reported back to the whole governing body.  These findings influence the decisions made, to ensure that the children continue to access outstanding provision, teaching, learning and are kept safe and well looked after.  Governors seek the views of parents, carers and children at three points during the year, based on the parent view questions. 

The work we have done as a Governing Body during 2023-24:

Throughout the year the governing body has fulfilled its statutory duties in terms of monitoring the school’s work and offering support and challenge.  Key areas covered this year include:

• Continued to strengthen and develop our relationship with Embark Federation.
• Continue to support and plan the leadership direction, to secure the future strategic vision for the school.
• Approved staffing plans and future strategies, ensuring the continued provision of a caring, nurturing environment where children can thrive.
• Agreed building improvement plans, ensuring the school environment remains safe, secure and fit for purpose now and in the future
• Monitored pupil progress, attainment and behaviour, ensuring consistent standards are delivered throughout school to allow best possible outcomes for all children.
• Reviewed Pupil Premium expenditure, monitoring the attainment of recipients to make sure that appropriate support is provided, allowing all pupils to reach their full potential. 
• Monitored Sports Premium expenditure, ensuring all children have access to an enriched and varied sports provision.

The work of the Governing Body is recorded in approved minutes which are available to view on request.

Our Strategic Objectives for 2024-25

• Continue to monitor and evaluate school improvement priorities, ensuring the continued pursuit of excellence across all activities.
• Monitor and evaluate the implementation of new strategies, raising pupil attainment and learning outcomes.

• Regularly evaluate and assess the Governing Body structure and operational methods, to ensure statutory obligations and strategic functions are met.
• Monitor and review the impact of new attendance monitoring strategies, to ensure measures are successful in driving improved attendance and subsequently learning outcomes..