Brudenell Primary School

Governors are a group of volunteers who include parents, staff and members of our local community.

Our main role is to promote ongoing improvements in standards throughout the school. We help the headteacher and staff plan the school’s long-term direction and we evaluate progress. We help set the school’s aims and values and are responsible for some staff appointments, including the head. Many of our responsibilities carry a statutory requirement. This means we are obliged by law to do things such as agree the annual budget.

Our role is sometimes described as a ‘critical friend’. This does not mean that we are there to criticise the head or the school. Instead we try to ask useful questions to gain a greater understanding of the school and to foster an ethos of continuous improvement.

Our recent Ofsted report in March 2018 identified the governors as a strength of the school and said:

'Governors know the school well and are proud of the inclusive ethos that school leaders have developed over time.  They share the leaders' high expectations and are highly ambitious for pupils.'

'Governors are knowledgable and provide robust challenge to the headteacher and co-headteacher.  Efficiently led by the chair of the governing body, they know the school's strengths and weaknesses well.  Governors are very well aware of the challenges the school faces with a large number of pupils joining the school at different times of the year.  They are proud of the stron progress pupils make from their different starting points.'