Horsted School

The Horsted Federation Governing Body 

Our Governing Body meet every term. Governors are ordinary people who have an interest in the education of children and are prepared to volunteer to work alongside Headteacher and school staff to improve standards and learning experience for all the children at Horsted.

Day to day management of the school is delegated to the Headteacher who, with colleagues, keeps governors fully informed about all aspects of the school.

Horsted Infant School and Horsted Junior School are maintained schools under Medway Local Authority. They are located on the same site and some seven years ago it was decided to combine the two separate governing bodies. The Federation governing body was reconstituted in line with statutory guidance on 1st September 2015 and aims at ensuring school governance is strategically focused and accountable.

The constitution provides for 12 Governors made up of 2 parent governors, 1 local authority governor, the Headteacher and 1 other staff governor and 7 co-opted governors. All governors are required to register any business interests they may have to avoid any conflict of interests that may arise in meetings. Some details of members are below.

All governors are volunteers and terms of appointment are normally for 4 years. Vacancies may arise at any time and efforts are made to fill posts with people who have appropriate skills or experience to offer the school. Currently, there are 2 associated members who are not governors as such, because they are staff members and there are no vacancies there, and they provide valuable input to discussions.

Committees and other bodies

The governing body has formed two committees to help the process. These are the Finance & Buildings Committee and the Curriculum & Assessment and Personnel Committee. Experience had shown it was convenient to combine buildings with finance as much of that area entails expenditure. Similarly, personnel could easily be covered during meetings when the school curriculum was discussed. Other panels or working groups are formed when required, for example panels to deal with staff pay or appeals.          

Officers and functions

1. i) Chair of the Governing Body - Matthew Payne

   Vice-Chair - Stuart Bean

 The full governing body has responsibility for various aspects of the running of the school. It takes a strategic overview while leaving the day to day management to the Headteacher and his senior leadership team.

1. ii) Chair of the Finance & Buildings Committee - Matthew Payne

 The Committee has initial oversight of the budget drawn up by the school; agrees priorities for revenues and capital funding; ensures the school maintains internal financial controls; initial oversight of school premises and grounds; receives proposals for capital projects and ensures best practice in procurement and implementation of works; takes a lead responsibility for health and safety and mandatory requirements.  

iii) Chair of the Curriculum & Assessment and Personnel Committee -               Suzanne Gilbert

 The committee ensures the school offers a broad and balanced curriculum in accordance with the National Curriculum; receives performance data and timely reports of pupils' achievements and progress; provides strategic advice and guidance on personnel matters.

Governors

Parent governors                             Term of appointment

Jennifer Champion                         8 May 2014 - 7 May 2018

Hinna Saeed                                     8 May 2014 - 7 May 2018

Headteacher governor

Steve Geary                                      1 Sept 2011 - continuing

Staff governor

Cheryl Francis                                12 May 2018 - 13 May 2021

Local Authority governor

 Stuart Bean                                       14 May 2014 - 13 May 2018

Co-opted governors

Shirley Beal                                      1 Sept 2015 - 31 Aug 2019

Suzanne Gilbert                               1 Sept 2015 - 31 Aug 2019

Matthew Payne                                29 Jan 2013 - 21 Jan 2020

Sarah Steer                                     17 May 2016 - 16 May 2020

Laura Packman

Katrina Jones

Appointing governors

Parent governors are elected by parents of children in the school.

Staff governors are elected by all teachers and support staff. The governing body may appoint someone should there be no nominations. The Headteacher has an automatic place on the governing body but may choose not to take it up, in which case that position remains vacant.

Local authority governor  - appointed by Medway LA

Co-opted governors - appointed by the governing body

Associate Members

The Federation Governing Body has appointed two staff members to the committees whose combined experience and knowledge is invaluable to its work. They are not counted as governors and do not vote in meetings of the full governing body.

Governors with interests in other educational establishments

Mrs Beal - employed at Wayfield Primary School

Ms Champion - employed at Bradfields Academy. Children at Rochester Grammar, Walderslade Girls and Horsted Infant School.

Mrs Gilbert - Owner/Manager of Vale Pre-school, situated in the Community Centre next to Horsted Schools. Most children move on to Horsted which helps ensure a smooth transition.

Register of Business Interests

All governors have declared whether or not they have business interests. Currently the register includes:

Updated March 2019