Whybridge
Infant School
'Learning together to make a difference'
Governing Board
Please note that all PDFs included here open as a webpage with no separate download required. This is in order to comply with the 'readily accessible' instruction in the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools
The Governing Board is a group of people from across the school community that exists to support and oversee the leadership and management of the school. It has certain statutory duties around financial compliance, resource & personnel management, and ensuring adequate provision for pupils under current legislation and guidance. Governors are not paid for their governance role in the school (for staff governors this is considered an additional unpaid duty).
Board Constitution and Membership
The set up, operation and membership (including maximum numbers and terms of office) of the board is specified in the most recent 'Instrument of Government' issued by the Local Authority, as per the UK Government Department for Education document entitled: 'The Constitution of Governing bodies of maintained schools'. Both these documents are included here for your information:
All of our governors' names, mode of appointment and the dates for their term of office are listed on our 'Get Information About Schools' page of the UK Government website here:
Committees & Panels, Roles & Responsibilities
The Board meets at least three times per year and sets up sub-committees to carry out certain duties in it's name with a few members of the full Board sitting on each committee. Smaller panels can also be set up to carry out a specific task (usually where this task involves scrutinizing an individual or appeals to such scrutiny). Furthermore, the governing board distributes certain portfolios of responsibility to individual named governors.
Current committees, panels (and the relevant governor members as well as committee chairs) along with governors' specific portfolios are listed here:
Declared Interests & Conflicts of Interest
In order to prevent a conflict of interest between a governor's role on the board and roles outside of the board, all governors must declare such interests (including governance roles elsewhere, business/ pecuniary interests, relationships with other governors/ staff etc). There is also opportunity to declare any new or conflicting interests at the beginning of every meeting before the main items of the agenda are discussed. Where such conflicts of interest exist the board would take advice and determine the relevant course of action for that item on the agenda such as temporarily suspending the member's voting rights or asking them to vacate the meeting at that point for example. Governors' current declared interests are listed here:
Meetings Attendance
Record of governors' attendance at meetings for the current and previous year is provided here:
(cancelled/ future meetings have '?' recorded in the attendance box)
Other people may be invited to attend at the discretion of the chair in order to provide relevant expert or technical witness, testimony, advice and support to the board. Such guests do not have any voting rights.
Chair of Governors
The Chair of Governors is the main point of contact for the governing board and the lead facilitator at its meetings. The chair is one of the governors appointed by the board annually. If you would like more information about the work of the governing board or have a specific need to contact our chair of governors you can do so here:
Clerking & Minutes
The school engages a clerk (via a professional governor support service) in order to ensure that meetings are compliant, well advised, and that minutes are professionally recorded and independent. Minutes are a matter of public record and should any member of the community wish to view the minutes they should contact the chair. (Any personal or identifying data will be redacted before issue).
