Introduction

A school's Governing Body is there to provide oversight of the management and operation of the school. The governors help the school take a strategic view of its activities and can bring experience and expertise from other walks of life into the school.  This section will tell you who the governors are, how they are appointed and elected, what they do, what their legal duties are and how you can contact them or seek to get involved as a governor yourself. What does the Governing Body do?   The Governing Body does not run the school. That is the job of the Headteacher and the senior staff.  Rather, the governors provide independent oversight of the school and how it is run. The school is required to report to the governors on various aspects of management and planning and, by acting as 'critical friends' the governors can give the school an invaluable sounding board.

Some aspects of the governors' role in the school are laid down in law. For example, the governors are required to approve the school budget as well as the school's targets for attainment in GCSE and other public exams. Also, if the school decides to exclude a pupil permanently that decision has to be reviewed by an independent panel of governors. 

Major strategic decisions of the school also have to be approved by the governors. Recent examples at Beaumont have been the decisions to:

Such decisions often start with a recommendation from the Headteacher and are then examined in detail by the governors prior to a final decision. In some cases, as with the change of the school timetable in September 2008, the governors consulted the parents as part of that process. 

What sort of people are the governors?

The governors are all volunteers and the role is part-time. Most of them have full-time jobs elsewhere. One of the major benefits of the Governing Body is that they are all able to bring experience and expertise from vastly different walks of life to bear on their work with the school. This can help the school take a more creative and strategic approach to management, problem solving and long-term planning.   

The current Governing Body includes governors with experience in policy analysis, disability issues, science, human resources, diplomacy, training, management, information technology, financial services, business systems and many more. 

According to the Government, more people in the UK today come forward to be school governors than for any other volunteer activity.


View the governing body biographies here.

How are the governors elected or appointed?

There are a number of different routes on to the Governing Body. 

At Beaumont, the Governing Body is made of up:

In addition to the full governors listed above, there are Associate Members drawn from among the senior teaching staff at the school.   The Governing Body also invites representatives from the Student Council to attend meetings, enabling the pupils' voice to be heard loud and clear at Governors' meetings. 

It is important to note that, although governors are elected and appointed in a variety of different ways, once they have joined the Governing Body, they are all equal. They are all free to involve themselves in any aspect of the Governing Body's work, regardless of how they became governors.  Moreover, they do not represent their particular 'constituency'. The parent governors, for example, have no particular role to represent the parents.  Rather, it is the Governing Body as a whole which reports to the parent body.

All governors except the Headteacher serve a four-year term at the end of which they may stand for re-election or appointment.  There is no limit to the number of terms a governor may serve. When a parent governor’s term ends, an announcement is made about an election and all parents or carers of pupils at the school are eligible to stand. 

The Chair of Governors is elected by the Full Governing Body at its first meeting of each school year. The current Chair of Governors is Mike Tidball.

How is the work of the governors organised?

The full Governing Body meets twice a term.   Much of the 'leg-work' of the governors is carried out by its three principal committees:

The Resources Committee

The Resources Committee focuses on Beaumont’s budget, staffing of the school, school buildings and plans for the future. The Committee looks at both the maintenance of the existing buildings and seeks to develop plans to improve those facilities. 

A key current focus for the Resources Committee is the plan for a new, very much safer, school pedestrian and vehicular access to the school from the Hatfield Road which would give us a new sports hall and other facilities for the school.

 The Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) Committee

This Committee reviews the development and delivery of the curriculum at Beaumont. It advises on specialist school status and monitors the quality of teaching and learning at the school as well as progress with the CTL aspects of the Plan for School Improvement.

The CTL Committee has a specific role in relation to public examinations.  It conducts a thorough review of the school’s performance in public examinations each year.  It then recommends the targets for performance in future years against which the school is measured.  Related to this, the committee has been reviewing the various exam options available to pupils: GCSEs, BTecs, Diplomas, A Levels and the International Baccalaureate.

More widely it is interested to explore ways to enhance the personal thinking and learning skills of all students at Beaumont to enhance their educational and academic development during their time at the school.   

The Community Committee

The Community Committee has a wide-ranging role to look at the links between Beaumont and the local St Albans community.  As Beaumont School is a Specialist Language College and has a second specialism in Maths and Computing,  this includes the links with the nearby primary schools, whereby Beaumont staff and students go out to help them increase language, mathematical and computing skills. 
 
The Committee also focuses on communication within the school community – between students, their families and staff – and on the wellbeing of students and staff. Its remit includes support for students with special educational needs. It monitors child protection issues which might arise at the school, oversees Beaumont’s pastoral service and progress with the Community aspects of the Plan for School Improvement.

Other committees

As well as the three main committees above, there are a number of other committees or ad hoc groups that meet on an occasional basis.  For example:

The Appointments Committee is made up of governors qualified in recruitment procedures. A governor representative is usually present during the interview of any candidate for a senior member of the teaching staff at the school. 

The Discipline Committee includes those governors trained in discipline and exclusion issues. Any permanent exclusion by the school must be reviewed by a panel of governors. 

Beaumont Life

Reports about the work of the governors, both at the Full Governing Body and the three committees will appear in each edition of Beaumont Life. These will provide updates on the current issues being discussed.

Contacting the governors

You may contact the governors via the school office.

A family wishing to raise any issue about their child at the school should in the first instance contact their child’s form tutor. 

We are proactive in considering the additional expertise we need to attract to the Governing Body. We will always need high calibre governors to develop even further the excellence of Beaumont School. So, if you would like to help us or know of someone in the community who may be interested, we would be very happy to hear from you. Please send details of background and skills, in writing, to the Chair of the Governors at Beaumont  School.