Welcome to our Governors’ section. 

At Claypole Church of England Primary School we have a Governing Body who bring a vast range of skills and enthusiasm to the school.

The Department for Education (http://www.education.gov.uk/a0056625/the-role-of-governor-within-the-governing-body) say that ...

The purpose of having a governing body is to:

• help the school to set high standards by planning for the school's future and setting targets for school improvement
• keep the pressure up on school improvement
• be a critical friend to the school, offering support and advice
• help the school respond to the needs of parents and the community
• make the school accountable to the public for what it does
• work with the school on planning, developing policies and keeping the school under review
• exercise its responsibilities and powers in partnership with the headteacher and staff
• not intervene in the day-to-day management of the school unless there are weaknesses in the school, when it then has a duty to take action.

We feel that we are now poised to reach and exceed these expectations.  Please find below details of how our Governing body is structured, including the names, categories, responsibilities and terms of appointment for each Governor.  We have also provided a Register of Governor Interests and an Annual Statement of Issues for your information.

Governors of our school

Sarah Fisher

• Appointed: February 5^th 2022 (Second Term) by the Governing Body
• Term of Office: 4 years
• Co-opted Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Sarah is Chair of Governors and is a member of the Finance, Premises & Personnel Committee and Curriculum & Pupils Committee. Sarah is also one of the Link Governors for the Senior Leadership Team
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 6/6

Mark Street-Docherty

• Appointed: November 7th 2022 by the Governing Body
• Term of Office: 4 years
• Co-opted Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Mark is Vice Chair of Governors and Chair of the Finance, Premises & Personnel Committee.
• Mark is also the Governor responsible for Information Technology and is the Link Governors for RE
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 3/3

Stephen Jarman

• Appointed: May 2022 by Lincolnshire Dioceses/local Parochial church 
• Term of Office: 4 years
• Foundation Governor
• Stephen is the Governor responsible for Safeguarding
• Stephen is a member of the Finance, Premises & Personnel Committee.
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 2/3; Committee Meetings: 2/3

Melissa Cumberland

• Appointed: November 8th 2021 through parent/carer election
• Term of Office: 4 years
• Parent Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Melissa is a Chair of the Curriculum & Pupils Committee. Melissa is the Link Governors for Maths.
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 2/3

Deborah Beet

• Appointed: November 6th 2023 by the Governing Body
• Co-opted Governor
• Deborah will be the Governor responsible for Health and Safety
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Deborah is a member of both Finance, Premises & Personnel Committee and Curriculum & Pupils Committee for the first year
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 2/3

John Garner

• Appointed: November 6th 2023 by the Governing Body
• Co-opted Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• John is a member of both Finance, Premises & Personnel Committee and Curriculum & Pupils Committee for the first year
• John will be the link Governor for Literacy
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 2/3

Charlotte Dodes

• Appointed: December 11th 2023 through parent/carer election
• Term of Office: 4 years
• Parent Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Attendance last year: N/A

Martyn Wells

• Headteacher: Ex-Officio
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Member of all committees
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 6/6

James Tyrrell

• Appointed January 18th 2023 through staff election
• Staff Governor
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Member of Curriculum & Pupils Committee
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 2/2 Committee meetings: 2/2

Tony Tucker

• Ex-Officio Foundation
• Appointed by Lincolnshire Dioceses
• No business or pecuniary interests; or material interests arising from intra-governor or staff relationships.
• Tony is a member of the Curriculum & Pupils Committee. Tony is also the Governor with responsibility for Christian Distinctiveness & Community links.
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 1/3 

Sara Booth – Clerk to Governors

• Correspondence for the Chair or the Clerk of Governors may be addressed to the school.
• Attendance last year: Full Governing Body Meetings: 3/3 Committee meetings: 6/6

All meeting are held at Claypole Church of England Primary School, School Lane, Claypole.  Apologies should be offered to the Clerk for approval if you are unable to attend a meeting.  An agenda will be issued 7 - 14 days prior to the meeting together with notes for prior reading.  Minutes will normally be issued 14 - 28 days post the meeting.

Governing Body meetings

Full Governing Body meetings are at least three times a year (Autumn, Spring and Summer) with sub-committees meeting separately  at least three times a year too (prior to the Full Governors Meeting) -  it is expected that the Chair of the committees feeds back to the Full Governing Body any celebrations, concerns/worries and possible action.  The two sub-committees are:

• Finance, Personnel & Premises;

• Curriculum and Pupils.

Governors are on either committee.  The Chair of each committee is voted for annually in September.

Our Finance, Personnel & Premises committee are:

Mr M Street-Docherty (Chair of committee)

Mrs S. Fisher

Mr S Jarman

Mrs D Beet

Mrs C Dodes (N)

Mr M. Wells (Head teacher)

Our Curriculum and Pupils committee are:

Ms M. Cumberland (Chair of committee)

Mrs S. Fisher

Mr J Garner 

Mrs C Dodes (N)

Mr James Tyrrell (Staff governor)

Cannon T. Tucker

Mr M. Wells (Head teacher)

(N) denotes new governors who will sit on both committees for the first year to gain experience and to see which is of greater interest and suits them best

Chair of Governors

Sarah Fisher (Co-opted governor, February 5th 2022 - 4th February 2026)

sfisher@claypoleprimary.org

The original signed copies of the 'Declaration of Interest' can be viewed on request.

Mr Doney states at the beginning of each Governors meeting(s) of his relationship with Thomasin Doney (Administrative Assistant) who is his daughter-in-law. 

Becoming a Governor...

Governors are appointed for a maximum of four years, this term is renewable.

The governing body is responsible for both the conduct of the school and for promoting high standards. The governing body carries out its role by setting the vision for the school and then ensuring that the school works efficiently and effectively towards achieving its ambitions. It does this by building a thorough knowledge of the school and its community, by both supporting and constructively challenging the school, and by ensuring accountability and compliance. The governing body of our school is made up of parent governors, staff governors, co-opted governors, Local Authority and Foundation governors.

If a parent vacancy position becomes open for a parent governor on our governing body, the governing body will ask you to nominate someone (or yourself) with parental responsibility for a child at the school. If our school receives more than one nomination, then a ballot is held.

Governors need not be experts in the field of education. What they do need is an interest in the school and in the welfare of our children and the time and willingness to get involved. The skills you have can be very useful to the governing body... for example, at the moment the governing body would like to continue to strengthen their expertise in communication and safeguarding.

Governors also need what is known as ‘soft skills’ – the ability to be able to build relationships with a range of people, to be able to work as part of a team, to be able to question, and to make connections between different types of information. All governors are expected to be able to read straightforward budget reports and data on school standards.

Our governing body expects governors to:

• attend 3 termly meetings of the full governing body;

• act on a sub-committee and attend the meetings which are usually once a term;

• visit the school formally for monitoring purposes;

• visit the school informally;

• commit to attending training courses, perform additional research as required and help take part in monitoring areas within the school.

In return, our governing body commits to:

• provide you with a structured induction;

• provide access to quality training;

• provide you with an experienced governor as mentor;

• provide informal feedback on your contribution to the governing body on a bi-annual basis;

If you would like to find out more about how you can contribute to governance at our school, please email me with your contact details and I will pass on your details to the chair who will then arrange a time for a conversation.