Our Governors
The Governing Body of Benthal Primary School is made up of parent governors, school elected representatives, co-opted governors, a local authority appointed governor and the Headteacher.
The role of the governing body
The role of the governors is a simple one. It is to seek to ensure that the school operates in a way that provides the best possible educational experience for all of its children in a safe and stimulating environment where the aspirations of all are high.
In addition to this core purpose we also have a number of significant statutory roles to perform concerned with ensuring that the school operates in a fair and efficient way achieving best value for money.
Governors have no role to play in the day-to-day running of the school. This is the responsibility of the Headteacher and senior leadership team. Governors do have the important function of maintaining a strategic overview of what the school should be aiming to achieve for all of the children. They also hold the senior leadership team to account for the performance of the school.
At Benthal Primary School the governors seek to work in partnership with the school to achieve all of the above stated goals.
The governors at the school also regard it as fundamentally important that the school operates in as transparent a manner as possible in all that it does. We are striving to improve communication and to ensure that the school provides all parents and carers with all the information they require for them to assess how the school is performing. We believe that by doing so we maintain an impetus for continued improvement.
Governor Meetings
Full Governor’s meetings are held termly. Additional full meetings are occasionally called where it is decided that this would be of benefit.
In addition there are two formal sub committees – Finance & Premise and Curriculum to focus on particular areas in more detail. It is a statutory requirement that these meet three times a year.
The Governors may also convene working groups or task and finish groups to address a particular issue and report back to the full governing body. Governors may co-opt specialist advisors to support the work of such groups and to advice on specific issues.
The minutes of full governor’s meetings will be made available on the website as soon as they are agreed in addition to being available in the school office.
If you would like to contact the governors please email us at the following address: governors@benthal.hackney.sch.uk. Emails are reviewed weekly matters which concern the day to day running of the school will be passed on to the Headteacher.
List of Governors
Headteacher – Ms Louise Drew
Chair of Governors
Ms Jo Carter (Leadership and Management)
Vice Chair of Governors
Mr Nathan Waddington
Community Governors
Mr Nick Harvey-Jones (Finance and Premises committee)
Ms Matilda Astle (Safeguarding and Pupil Welfare)
Mr Henry Greenwood (Teaching and Learning)
Ms Stella Stamford (Pupil Outcomes)
Parent Governors – (Elected by parents)
Ms Susannah Barker (Stakeholder Voice)
Mrs Shabnum Hassan (Inclusion)
Local Authority Governor– (Appointed by the Local Authority)
Councillor Sem Moema
Staff Governor – (Elected by the school staff)
Mrs Fatima Haffeji (Health and Safety)
The Governing Body can also Co-opt Associate Members, who are appointed to committees but are not governors. They can vote on any issue within the remit of the committee they have been appointed to. The committee may still exclude associate members from any discussion which concerns an individual member of staff or pupil. Associate members are entitled to attend full governing body meetings but have no voting rights at full governing body meetings and as with committee meetings they can be excluded if the discussion is about an individual member of staff or pupil.
- Benthal minutes
- Benthal minutes
- Extraordinary Meeting Minutes
- Roles of the Effective Governing Body
- National Governors Association Skills Audit
- Qualification and disqualification to serve as a school governor
- Roles and responsibilities of Maintaned Schools and Governing Bodies
- Governing Body meeting minutes 19.05.15
Governor’s meetings 2017-18:
Please see below the minutes of the Governors meetings: