Co-opted Governor Vacancy

Sir Thomas Boughey Academy is one of the academies within United Endeavour Trust. We have a co-opted governor vacancy and wish to recruit a co-opted governor drawn from our local community who is interested in supporting our Governing Body. Co-opted governors play an important role as members of the governing body and we would like to take this opportunity to provide some information which we hope will be useful in helping you decide if you would like to put yourself forward as a candidate. 

If you are interested and would like to talk to a governor about the role, please contact the clerk to Governors, Michelle Tierney (michelle.tierney@uetrust.org) and she can put you in touch with a Governor.

What does an academy governor do?

The role of an academy governor is to contribute to the work of the governing body in ensuring high standards of achievement for all children and young people in the academy by:

• Setting the academy’s vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• Holding the Principals to account for the educational performance of the academies and their students; and

• Overseeing the financial performance of the academies and making sure their money is well spent.

As part of the governing body team, a governor is expected to:

• Contribute to the strategic discussions at governing body meetings which determine:

• the vision and ethos of the academies;

• clear and ambitious strategic priorities and targets for the academies;

• that all children, including those with special educational needs, have access to a broad and balanced curriculum;

• the academy budgets, including the expenditure of the pupil premium allocation;

• the academy’s staffing structures and key staffing policies;

• the principles to be used by academy leaders to set other academy policies.

• Hold the senior leaders to account by monitoring each academy’s performance; this includes:

• agreeing the outcomes from the academy’s self-evaluation and ensuring they are used to inform the priorities in the academies development plans;

• considering all relevant data and feedback provided on request by academy leaders and external sources on all aspects of academy performance;

• asking challenging questions of academy leaders;

• ensuring senior leaders have arranged for the required audits to be carried out and receiving the results of those audits;

• ensuring senior leaders have developed the required policies and procedures and the academies are operating effectively according to those policies;

• acting as a link governor on a specific issue or to a subject or faculty, making relevant enquiries of the relevant staff, and reporting to the governing body on the progress on the relevant academy priority; and

• listening to and reporting to each academy’s stakeholders: students, staff, and the wider community, including local employers.

•  Ensure the academies staff have the resources and support they require to do their jobs well and that the way in which those resources are used has impact.
•  When required, serve on panels of governors for example: to appoint the Executive Principal/Associate Principal and other senior leaders;  hear exclusions; agree pay recommendations or hear appeals.

What skills do I need? 

The National Governors’ Association identifies the following essential skills for all governors:

• Commitment to improving education for all pupils
• Ability to work in a professional manner as part of a team and take collective responsibility for decisions
• Willingness to learn
• Commitment to the Federation’s vision and ethos
• Basic literacy and numeracy skills
• Basic IT skills (email and internet communication)

How much time will it take?

As a co-opted governor you will be expected to attend meetings of the full governing body (currently four a year) and, depending on what committees and working groups you join, maybe one or two other meetings each term.  Full Governing Body meetings are generally held on Monday evenings with a start time of 5pm.

You will also be expected to be able to come into the academies to perform monitoring visits as required - probably once or twice a term depending on your role within the governing body.  This is an important part of our work as governors and requires governors to visit the academies during academies hours.  

Interested?

If you would like to visit and speak with either Wendy Whelan (CEO United Endeavour Trust) or Jamie Henshaw (Sir Thomas Boughey Academy Executive Principal) about becoming a Governor, please contact on wendy.whelan@uetrust.org or jamie.henshaw@uetrust.org

Then complete our Governor application form and return it to jamie.henshaw@uetrust.org.

Closing date: 9.00am 4^th August.