Volunteer School Governor | Withycombe Raleigh C of E Primary School

Job content

Want to make a difference in your local community, and develop your own professional skills? By volunteering as a school governor, you can do both and make a valuable contribution to children’s education, and futures.

What will you be doing?

The School Governing Body

The department for Education has high expectations of governing bodies. We are the strategic leaders of our school and have a vital role to play in making sure every child gets the best possible education. This is reflected in the law, which states that the purpose of maintained school governing bodies is to ‘conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement at the school’.

Governing bodies should have a strong focus on three core strategic functions

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

Being part of a governing board will give you experience of working at a strategic level and the opportunity to learn and practice skills that have a direct relevance to employers.

There is a requirement to attend approximately 10 meetings per year, these are predominately held on a Tuesday evening. Our governing body is made up of parents, teachers, and foundation Governors who are appointed by Exeter Diocese and volunteers from the local community. Each Governor is appointed an area of the curriculum to monitor along with the subject lead teacher.

What are we looking for?

Anyone aged 18 or over can be a governor (but there are some exceptions) and you do not need to be a parent. There is no requirement for you to have an understanding of the education system, just the necessary skills, character and time to contribute. There is plenty of training available to help you learn about education. Schools needs and benefit from a range of professional knowledge on their governing board including education, finance, human resources, legal, marketing and public relations, property and estates management, and organisational change.

As a governor, you will be able to

• use your own experience of education and life beyond school to inform conversations
• develop and utilise your skills in a board-level environment
• make a valuable contribution to education and your community
• support and challenge the school so that it improves for pupils and staff
• bring your unique experiences, perspectives and insights in to decision-making in the interests of the school community
  

We have 3 vacancies, and as stated professional experience in education is not essential, however following our latest skills audit it has been established that our current board scored low in HR, we would therefore like to fill one vacancy with a volunteer who has knowledge and experience in HR.

What difference will you make?

Being a school governor is a challenging but hugely rewarding role. It will give you the chance to make a real difference to young people, give something back to your local community.

What’s in it for the volunteer?

Use and develop your skills in a board-level environment. You will also be joining the largest volunteer force in the country there are over a quarter of a million volunteers governing state funded schools in England.

Before you apply

We would seek references and a DBS check is required.

Causes

• Education
  

We are a large voluntary controlled, C of E primary school in Devon providing education to children aged 4-11 years. We currently have 623 children on roll, 3 classes per year group. Our governing...