Tibshelf is a community school – which means that it is state funded via the Local Authority, who owns the land, employs the staff and sets the admission arrangements. 

The Governing Body is a group of volunteers from the community who provide a local and professional oversight of the school. This includes 

• Appointment of the Head Teacher 
• Setting the broad aims, ethos and vision of school 
• Discussing and agreeing strategic plans 
• Ensuring that the Headteacher is running the school effectively and ensuring pupils achieve according to their full potential
• Ensuring the school’s budget is spent wisely 

Purpose of Statement 

This statement is designed to provide a brief overview of the governor roles and key activities. 

Key Activities 

We have worked with the Head Teacher, Lucie Wainwright, on a statement of aspirations, aims and ethos of the school. This ensures that our strategy is clearly directed to a common set of objectives and helps all involved within the school to understand these aims and values. 

How the school's vision has developed: 

• We continue to cherish the long-established nurturing and caring environment of Tibshelf, which parents and pupils have consistently valued over the years
• There is increased emphasis on high aspirations for children of all abilities and backgrounds – promoting achievement and challenging low expectations
• We have promoted our role in developing citizens with a global perspective, valuing diversity and developing the critical thinking skills necessary to recognise and question prejudice

We continue to adapt to the changing expectations of Governing Bodies, where the traditional role of ‘critical friend’ has been further developed to include a more strategic and directional role. In light of this, the governing body includes a strategic group that ensures the work of our committees is well directed and focussed on identified priorities from our School Improvement Plan. There are also links between the members of the Leadership Team and governors to ensure that we have direct access to the senior leaders with responsibility in the focus areas, ensuring that governors gain a broader insight into the school than can be provided purely by the Head. 

An ongoing challenge for the school is to create a curriculum provision worthy of our students which also provides a balanced budget in the context of falling revenue. Governors have worked alongside the Senior Leaders to do this, working on the following principles: 

• Focus on quality, with a particular emphasis on the core subjects of English, Maths and Science 
• As broad a provision as we could afford without compromising on quality 
• Balancing pupils’ desire for freedom of choice with the needs of the economy and government directives 
• Governors were particularly keen to ensure that the creative subject provision (e.g. art, drama, design & technology) was not squeezed out by other pressures – recognising the value of these subjects in providing a rich and broad education. 
• Ensuring that the curriculum provides academically stretching subjects (e.g. triple science) and quality vocational provision – recognising the equal importance of both to our society and economy 
• Where compromise was necessary (e.g. music provision) we would look for alternative arrangements in the short term and look for opportunities for future expansion wherever possible 

In order to help us in our role of providing strategic direction and holding the Head Teacher to account, the governors engage in a range of training opportunities throughout the year to keep us up to date with current educational trends as well as ensuring we remain an effective body that fulfils all its legal requirements. 

Full Governing Body.