Governors are highly visible in our school and regularly attend meetings, join events, support parents’ evenings, make formal visits, and even come in for school lunch.

Governors work very closely with members of the staff team and regularly invite them to Governor meetings where a specific area of the school's curriculum will be focused on. Examples of this include Lisa Jaworski attending to explain and showcase the current science curriculum. During these sessions Governors are able to ask specific questions, experience how  this looks in our school and find out what further support, if any, teachers might require from the Governing Body.

Governors also undertake a range of training courses and additional briefings to ensure they are aware of current practice expectations and statutory requirements. Examples of this training include staff wellbeing, Ofsted expectations, mental health, curriculum changes, safeguarding and changes to assessment. Each Governor brings their own skill set and training will be chosen to develop and support that.

It is the Governors' role to ensure that the school's activities enable all children to experience the education, environment and personal development described in the school vision statement. In order to assist in this process, we have worked with staff on long-term planning and developed a format which allows us to draw direct links between the work of the school and achieving this vision. We regularly review the school's long-term plan and visits are planned in accordance with this.

During each school year several visits will be planned, where Governors will assess the school's progress in line with the School Development Plan (SDP). Visits are planned to reflect key areas on the SDP, feedback from stakeholders and current trends in education. Examples of what we might do during these visits include meeting with children, observing lessons and playtimes, book scrutinies and learning walks around school. Each Governor visit is targeted towards assessment of particular school aims, which will be shared with the teacher they are visiting beforehand. Governors will then report back to staff and the Governing Body on their findings and discuss observations and questions with staff. This process allows us to make sound judgements about the school's progress towards meeting its development targets.

Not all visits are formally recorded and at our school we have developed a culture where Governors will simply pop-in as a member of the school team. Formal recordings of these visits are not required but examples of experiences will be shared at meetings. This gives all Governors the chance to experience how the school works on a daily basis.