The Role of the Governing Body

The Board of Governors is composed of parents, staff and members of the community, whose collective responsibility is to ensure the Federation provides an excellent all-round education for all our children by setting the strategic direction of the two schools and by monitoring the Federation’s educational performance.

Their main responsibilities are:

• Ensuring the Federation’s clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction is met and maintained by reviewing policies, targets and priorities in consultation with the Headteacher. They must agree on how the schools should develop to benefit all pupils, and in so doing must consider and support the well-being of all staff and pupils.
• Accountability. The Board must act as a critical friend by holding leaders to account for the educational performance of the Federation, and the performance management of staff. It must work closely with the Senior Leadership Team and have a clear understanding of the challenges of managing the two schools. Governors must feel able to question and challenge as critical friendship and support are achieved only where there is mutual trust and respect.
• Financial performance. Governors must oversee the financial performance of the two schools and ensure sure their budgets are well spent and provide value for money. The Federation’s stakeholders are its pupils, parents and staff, and the governors are answerable to these three groups, and the wider community. They must use their collective skills to ensure this responsibility is fulfilled.

Governors serve a four-year term of office, the Chair and Vice-Chair are elected annually, and the Board is supported by an accredited clerk. Governors must observe a Code of Conduct, which embodies The Seven Principles of Public Life - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), as defined in the Nolan report on Standards in Public Life. They must work within the Board’s Terms of Reference, Hampshire County Council’s Manual of Personnel Practice, and the Governors Good Practice Guide.

Effective governance:

The Board has adopted a ‘flat structure’ model of governance, effective from 1st September 2024 and will meet three times in the Autumn Term, and twice each in the Spring and Summer Terms. The Board will not any longer have committees with specific responsibilities other than the Teachers’ Pay, and the Headteacher Performance Management Committees.

Lead governors will co-ordinate the monitoring of:

• the schools’ finances and resources,
• curriculum, learning and achievement, including additional educational needs,
• safeguarding and child protection
• health and safety.
• staff wellbeing

Governors will visit the school to ensure the strategic goals of the schools are being met. These visits afford an overview of safeguarding provision, children’s progress, and the schools’ budgets.

The unrestricted minutes of governors’ meetings are published here.

Governors are part of the schools’ leadership and management team, their effectiveness is considered at Ofsted inspections and contributes to the Ofsted report.

We are committed to supporting the children, parents, and staff of our Federation, and we will continue to do so throughout our term of office.

If you need to contact the governors, please leave a message with the office staff in either school, or email the Chair of Governors, Mrs Ann Arscott, at governors@foxhillsfederation.co.uk, or use the link in the governors’ section of the Federation website.

Foxhills Federation Board of Governors
September 2024

You can view our current school governors here.