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St Laurence Catholic Primary School

St Laurence
Catholic Primary School

School Governors

St Laurence Primary is an Academy, part of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi Academy Trust. 

The majority of our Governors are appointed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia. These are `Foundation Governors' who also have a specific responsibility to protect and enhance the continuing Catholic character of the school. 

The Local Governing Body reports to the Trust Board of Directors and has 3 main functions:

  • Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
  • Holding the Head of School to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
  • Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

The Local Governing Body meets 6 times a year. The Head of School’s role is to manage the school on a day-to-day basis, overseen by the Executive Headteacher. The Governors work closely with the Head of School and Executive Headteacher.  We support and oversee their management by setting policy and monitoring its implementation.

Governors are appointed or elected for a 4-year term of office (though some choose to serve more than one term). We are always looking out for new Governors. The majority of our Governing Body are Foundation Governors (Catholics, appointed by the Bishop). We are committed to our Local Governing Body being a group which reflects the diversity of our school and parish community. We expect non-Catholic Governors to be committed to supporting the school’s Catholic Ethos.

If you think you might be interested in volunteering to become a Governor, please contact the school office in order to arrange to speak to our Chair of Governors and find out more.  What we ask from Governors is:

  • Time and interest in the school: typically, Governors spend between 4-5 hours per month throughout the school year.
  • Attending between 1 and 3 governor monitoring days each year, where all Governors visit the school during its working day to see it in action and carry out planned monitoring activities.
  • Attendance at 2 Local Governing Body meetings per term.
  • Undergoing induction training & further training as needed.
  • Commitment to supporting the school to maintain its Catholic Ethos, academic standards and financial viability.  We do this in a number of ways.  Some people bring professional expertise (eg financial, legal, human resources).  Some make planned visits during the school day to see the school in action and report back to the Governing Body.  We all read reports from the leadership team, Ofsted, parent & pupil surveys and ask questions of the senior leadership team about what is going well, what the school’s challenges are and what the school is doing to improve.

Please see https://www.ourladyofwalsingham.co.uk/governorrecruitment for further information.

For most issues, we expect that you would talk to your child’s class teacher or the Head of School.  If you wish to bring anything to the attention of the governors, please send a letter addressed to Chair of Governors, Charlotte Woodford, c/o the school office or e-mail it to office@stlaurence.cambs.sch.uk.  Letters to the Chair of Governors are usually acknowledged within one week during term time.

Fr Simon Blakesley, our Parish Priest, is a Director of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi-Academy Trust. 

Clare Clark, our Executive Headteacher also attends all of our meetings.

Current Governors (updated November 2022)

 

A pecuniary interest is where a Governor or member of staff has a financial interest in a third party business that the school uses or may use in the future which could conflict with the policies, procedures or ethos of the school.

Pecuniary interests are declared annually in the Autumn Term, and at any point during the year if changes occur.  Pecuniary interests of current governors and previous governors who have served in the last 12 months are listed below. We decreased our number of full governor meetings in the 2022-23 year due to the school closure but continued to have smaller meetings with school leaders.