Want to Help Our School?

Become a Governor!

Portsdown Primary School needs new governors to help make our school even better!

What does a governor do?

Governors help our school by:

Making big decisions about how the school is run

Helping all of the children do well

Bringing new ideas to help our school

Making a real difference to children in Portsmouth

What we need:

Someone who cares about helping children

Someone who can work well with others

Someone who wants to learn new things

Someone who can come to one meetign a month

You don’t need:

To be a teacher

Special qualifications

To have beeen a governor before

You just need to care about our school!

What will you do?

Come to meetings

Visit the school sometimes during the day

Read papers before meetings

Work with school leaders and other governors

What you get:

Help make children’s lives better

Learn new skills

Be part of a friendly team

See how schools work

Time needed: About 10-15 hours each term (that’s about 1 hour per week)

Please call the school office if you would like to know more or email the clerk clerk@portsdown.portsmouth.sch.uk

We’d love to hear from you!

All governors get a free safety check (DBS check) to keep our children safe.

See below for more information about school governance.

School Governors are a group of people who are committed to helping the school achieve its aim of making sure the children get the best possible education. Governing bodies have a strong focus on three core strategic functions:

Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and direction
Holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of the staff
Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Each individual governor is a member of a governing body and all decisions are the joint responsibility of the governing body. There are different types of governors.

Co-opted Governors – these are appointed by the Board because they have certain skills and experience that the Board think will help the school
Parent Governors – any parent, or carer, of a registered pupil at the school at the time of election is eligible to stand for election as a parent governor
Local Authority (LA) Governors – we have one LA governor who is nominated by the LA and appointed by the Board
Headteacher – the Headteacher is a member of the governing body by virtue of their office
Staff Governor – teaching and support staff who, at the time of election, are employed by either the governing body or the local authority to work at the school under a contract of employment, are eligible to be staff governors. They cease to hold office when their employment at the school ends

Associate members and advisors

Associate members and advisors are not entitled to vote. However, they attend relevant meetings of the full governing body in order to provide the governors with relevant information about the school which supports the governors’ decision making process. For example, the finance manager will attend to discuss their reports about the finances of the school.

The full Governing Body meet at least six times a year.

Governors have to act in accordance with the legislation and guidance from the Department of Education.

Parents may contact the Governors directly, but for general school matters, it is usually more appropriate to see the Class Teacher or Headteacher first.

Governors’ Minutes
The minutes of governor meetings are public documents and are open to be viewed by any interested person.

Minutes are available to be read, at school, where the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher or a member of the Governing Body could be available to answer any questions and explain the context of the issues raised in the minutes. This is to ensure that minutes read in isolation are not misinterpreted.