St Anthony's Catholic Primary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

As governors of a faith school we hold an important public office.  It is a responsibility that we take very seriously.  Accordingly, we have adopted the Code of Conduct for School Governing Boards, 2021 version, to ensure to we are at all times acting in accordance with “best practice”.

As governors our role we have to ensure that the school adheres to:

Establishing Strategic Direction by:

1)       Setting the vision, values and objectives for the school.  For our Mission Statement click here.

2)       Agreeing the School Improvement Plan, with strategies and targets and

3)       Meeting all statutory duties.

Ensuring Accountability by:

1)       Appointing the Head teacher;

2)       Monitoring progress towards targets;

3)       Performing managing the Head teacher;

4)       Engaging with Stakeholders and

5)       Contributing to the school self-evaluation.

Ensuring Financial Probity by:

1)       Setting the budget;

2)       Monitoring spending against the budget;

3)       Ensuring value for money is obtained and

4)       Ensuring risks to the organisation are managed.

The Board of Governors

Valid from January 2024

The Governing Body now comprises of:

• The Head teacher (Mrs Joanne Hawthorne);
• 7 Foundation Governors (Father Bart Dudek, Dr Paul Taylor, Mrs Rachel Stenfalt, Ms Clare Labrosse, Mrs Hilary Jarvis, Mr Andrew Gilbert and Mr John Battle) ;
• 1 Local Authority Governor -recently resigned;
• 2 Parent Governors (Ms Geraldine Cooper & Mr John Madden) and
• 1 staff governor (Miss Anita Yohuno).

We have three Associate Governors, who have specialist expertise, thus their appointment.  Mr Ian Croft, Mrs Kirstin MacDonald (Assistant Headteachers) and Ms Angela Boilson (School Business Manager).  Associate  and Co-opted Governors do not have voting rights.

Our clerk is Karen O'Brien .  She is a professional clerk and clerks all of our meetings.

What we do
The Governors are led by the Chair of Governors but as a body it has many specific responsibilities which are defined the school’s  various Schemes of Delegation, whereby specific powers are delegated to specialist sub-committees.  

As a Governing Body we also have our own Terms of Reference, (see attachment), which sets out how we require our meetings are to be conducted.

Each Governor is a member of a committee and also attends full Governing Body meetings; they are also responsible for an individual area of specialty, see membership information attached below. 

Governors meet regularly with the senior leadership team and regularly conduct school visits to meet with staff and children, to make sure they are informed about the curriculum and how it is being delivered.

The Finance, Personnel and General Purposes Committee is chaired by Mrs Hilary Jarvis (Foundation Governor). The Curriculum and Community Committee is chaired by Dr. Paul Taylor (Foundation Governor).

Governor Skills

Every governor is a volunteer who gives their time freely to the School.  Each governor has their own expertise but all of our collective skills help us to work as an effective and coherent body. 

As a Governing Body we regularly carry out a skills audit so that we can identify areas in which we can develop and strengthen the team.

All governors have undertaken core governor training (including induction for new governors when appointed, role and responsibilities, school curriculum, SEN, school finance, personnel framework, Preparing for Ofsted) as well as specialist training provided by the Local Authority, school staff, and independent facilitators (including Raise online, SEN and Safeguarding issues) to make sure we have a well-trained Governing Body.  

Our training is geared to ensuring that we have a safe and happy school where each child makes progress.  We are conscious of our pupil’s attainment so we regularly analysis pupil data, as well as considering our internal tracking system so we can consider the progress of all cohorts within the school. We make comparisons with schools both locally and nationally to assist us in identifying areas of improvement and help us to consolidate areas in which we exceed.

We have appointed a number of link governor roles.   Each governor is required to attend the school termly to report on their area of interest and to circulate a report (completed in accordance with the Local Authority guidance) to all members of the Body of Governors, the Head teacher and our Local Authority clerk.  All visits are targeted, with each governor having an agenda linked into the School’s Improvement Plan. It is essential for all of our governors to understand how the school operates.

Governors’ Finance, Personnel and General and Purposes Committee

Each member of the Governing Body has a responsibility to ensure that the School’s budget is spent appropriately and that probity is exercised to ensure that there are the sufficient resources to ensure: (1) high- quality teaching can be delivered and (2) to raise standards and attainment for all pupils.

All governors carefully consider and continually review the School’s Improvement Plan.  In conjunction with this governors carefully consider we how we allocate funding and look at relevant research on costs/benefit analysis (Sutton Trust).

By way of information, the Local Authority funding we receive is, in simple terms, calculated using a per child formula.  There are additional funds available, such as pupil premium, free school meals allocation, special needs, social deprivation, English as an additional language and a number of other factors.

Pupil Attainment

The Senior Leadership Team (Mrs Joanne Hawthorne, Mr Croft, Mrs Macdonald, Miss Malherbe) report to the Body of Governors on the data pertaining to achievement and attainment in all year groups and in particular the results of national SATs tests.  The School has also introduced its on tracker system to enable detailed analysis of all individual cohorts within the School, this is particularly useful given the changes to the National Curriculum and the manner in which children are now assessed.  This is reported on, and is a standing item, in every Curriculum and Community Committee meeting.

Contacting Governors

1. Please email us on  governors@stanthonys.southwark.sch.uk.
2. The Governor’s Suggestions and Questions Box is located in the main hallway. Please address any queries you may have to the Chair, so these can be addressed at the Full Governing Body Meetings.  This facility is in place if parents/carers wish raise issues anonymously.
3. We have updated the School’s Complaint’s Policy which sets out the avenues that parents/carers can exhaust if they have a complaint.  A copy can be found at the Policy section of the website.

We would like to thank every member of the staff (leadership, teaching and support), FOSTAs, parents for their continued commitment in making St Anthony’s a wonderful school community, in which we all seek to achieve the best outcomes for all of our children. 

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