Governors act as critical friends to the school, set the strategy, and are accountable to the children, parents, staff, local community and local authority.  The overall aim is to assist the headteacher and staff to improve the school so that all children fulfil their potential, are safe, and enjoy their time at school.

At Nether Green Junior School we have four parent governors, four co-opted governors which include a LA representative and several staff members.

The term of office for these governors is four years although many governors serve for longer to make use of their accumulated experience.  The headteacher is a governor and we also have three associate governors: the deputy headteacher, and the headteachers of Nether Green Infant School and of Broomhill Infant School, our feeder schools.

The Governing Body meets six times each year. We work as a unified governing body with governors taking link roles. We also have a data monitoring group which is a smaller group of governors who meet every half term to monitor how well the school is doing against our development plan. Our meetings are business-like but also friendly (laughter is sometimes heard).  Despite diversity of opinions we manage to reach a consensus for the good of the school.

The main requirement of a governor is commitment to the school, and time and effort to spend on preparing and attending meetings and on any other activities that become necessary.  Particular experience, such as in business, education or law, can be useful but is not essential.  All governors attend an induction training course, and other courses are available to develop skills such as chairing meetings or taking minutes, and to keep up to date in financial matters, personnel law, safeguarding, and so on.

If you are interested in becoming a governor and wish to know more, please contact the school to be put in touch with a governor.  The main route to join the governing body for parents is through a vacancy for a parent governor. These will be advertised in the school newsletter. An election is held if there are more candidates than vacancies.  There are occasional vacancies as community or local authority governors, and anyone with specific skill or experience can be co-opted as an associate governor.