Our Governing Body
The governing body has overall responsibility for ensuring the highest standards of education are provided in both schools, and for setting the strategy for future development.
What the Governing Body does
Governors work in close collaboration with the staff and parents to ensure high-quality education and care in a welcoming environment. To do this the Governing Body formulates relevant policies and sets aims and objectives which are addressed in annual School Development Plans for the two schools. Governors' scrutiny at Church Hill and Low Hall covers these areas:
- planning and development of the educational curriculum and extended services,
- children’s learning progress and all-round development
- policy-making and review
- the staff teams and professional training
- the school budgets and fund-raising
- maintenance and improvements to the buildings and school grounds.
How the Governing Body works
Our Governing Body is made up of:
- the Executive Head teacher and 1 member of staff, voted for by all staff at both schools
- 2 parent governors
- 1 Local Authority governor, proposed by the London Borough of Waltham Forest
- 5 co-opted governors, people from our local community who all bring particular expertise
- occasionally, an associate governor is appointed
This combination of volunteers is designed to bring a range of appropriate expertise and engagement which can understand and challenge the school operations in a supportive yet critical way.
There are 4 ways governors and the schools meet:
1. Some governors take particular Link Governor responsibility for specific areas. They make visits to the schools, usually once a term and during school hours, to have in-depth discussions with staff and observe how their area of interest is working. After the visit they write a report, which is circulated to all governors.
2. Three sub-committees meet every term:
- Finance, Pay and Personnel
- Children's Learning and Development, and
- Premises.
These meetings have detailed discussion, and make recommendations to the Full Governing Body. As the occasion arises, governors sit on recruitment boards, disciplinary committees and complaints panels.
3. Full Governing Body meetings of all governors are held once a term. Parents who are interested can attend as observers.
4. From time to time some governors also join working parties with staff leaders to draw up new policies or guidance, or to work on a particular matter.
You can see which governor does which role in the 'who's who' section.
Who's who, declarations of interest and attendance at meetings
Name | Governor Type | Term From | Term To | Roles |
Mr Mark Brown | Co-opted governor | 6 May 2021 | 5 May 2025 | Vice Chair, Premises, Safeguarding & Children's Welfare Link Governor |
Ms Aalia Chaudhary | Parent governor | 1 September 2021 | 31 August 2024 | |
Mrs Helen Currie | Executive Head Teacher |
n/a | n/a | all committees |
Ms Sally Davey | Co-opted governor |
1 Sep 2018 | 3 Oct 2022 | Chair, CLD, Joint Link for PSED & SEND |
Mr Peter Dawe | Co-opted governor |
2 Feb 2019 | 1 Feb 2023 | Vice Chair, Chair of Finance, Pay and Personnel Committee |
Ms Pauline France | Local Authority governor |
2 Feb 2019 | 1 Feb 2023 | Chair, FPP, Premises, Joint Link for PSED & SEND, Children's Play & Learning |
Mr Abrar Malik | Co-opted governor | 5 May 2021 | 4 May 2025 | CLD |
Mr Jana Mills | Co-opted governor |
5 Sep 2018 | 4 Sep 2022 | Vice Chair FPP, Link for Sustainability & Equalities |
Ms Lindsay Read | Staff governor |
16 Oct 2019 | 15 Oct 2023 | CLD |
Ms Katy Thompson | Parent governor | 1 September 2021 | 31 August 2024 | Premises |
Mrs Caroline Russell | Clerk |
n/a | Clerk |
To see which governor came to which meeting:
- click here for the school year 2017-18
- here for 2018-19
- here for 19-20 and
- here for 20-21.
- here so far for 21-22
To see our governors' declared interests, click here.
Approved minutes of meetings
Minutes are signed off at the meeting after they are taken. As meetings are termly, ratified minutes are always a term in arears. As minutes are now signed off digitally, minutes no longer show handwritten signatures and initials.
Autumn 2021
Summer 2021
- Full Governing Body
- Finance, Pay and Personnel non-confidential
- Premises Committee
- Safeguarding link governor learning walk report
Spring 2021
- Full Governing Body
- Finance Pay and Personnel: all minutes marked confidential, so not posted here
- Children's Learning and Development: this meeting hasn't happened for some time due to COVID restrictions, however the Chair did a learning walk at both schools, the notes from which are here.
- Premises
Autumn 2020
- Finance, Pay and Personnel
- Full Governing Body
- Children's Learning and Development: this meeting didn't take place due to COVID-19 restrictions
- Premises
Summer Term 2020
- Finance, Pay and Personnel: this meeting didn't take place due to COVID-19 restrictions
- Full Governing Body Summer 2020
- Children's Learning and Development: this meeting didn't take place due to COVID-19 restrictions
- Premises Summer 2020
Spring Term 2020
- Finance Pay and Personnel: all minutes marked confidential, so not posted here
- Full Governing Body
- Children's Learning and Development
- Premises: this meeting didn't take place due to COVID-19 restrictions
Autumn 2019
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Autumn 2018:
Summer 2018:
Transparency
We pay the Local Authority to clerk our meetings; we don't write our own minutes. These minutes (confidential items excepted) are made public.
The clerk also records who attends which meetings, who is on which committee, who the link governors are for particular subjects and who has declared which pecuniary or personal interest. Governors declare at each meeting whether they have any financial or personal interest in any agenda item, and this is minuted.
You can see the Pecuniary and Personal Interests of the members of the Governing Body in the tab above called 'Who's who, declarations of interest and attendance at meetings'.
Listening to understand and improve
We are always happy to meet with parents to talk about our role on the governing body and how our shared vision for young children is being put into outstanding practice. We support Listening Week and follow up on any suggestions, ideas and comments from parents.