Governing Body

INTRODUCTION TO CLORE TIKVA & ITS GOVERNING BODY

Welcome to the Governing Body of Clore Tikva School. Clore Tikva School is a Voluntary Aided School, established by its charitable and voluntary foundation, Bet Sefer Ltd (now trading as the Clore Tikva School Foundation – CTSF). Clore Tikva’s Governing Body has eighteen members who are all dedicated to the belief that the education of the whole child, within a pluralist Jewish environment is fundamental.

As governors, we work in close partnership with the staff, pupils and parents in providing high quality education for all our students, which emphasises care for one another, academic achievement and all round development.

Our aim is to provide an environment that respects the needs, values, cultures and opinions of others, where students can develop positive attitudes towards learning, discover success and develop self- esteem and where every student has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

We are committed to working with the staff to ensure high standards of achievement, behaviour and discipline and to ensure excellence for all our students, not only in academic matters but also in the outstanding range of extra curricular and sporting opportunities offered by the dedicated staff.

We are looking forward to the continued success of the school and to working as part of the school community in ensuring that our students meet the challenge of today’s world with confidence and enthusiasm.

We have produced this handbook to help new governors understand their role, how a Governing Body works and to ensure continuity for existing governors. We all work very much as a team for the benefit of the school, respecting each other’s points of view but always acting as a corporate body accepting the decisions reached by the majority.

Governing Bodies have three specific roles:

A strategic role in the development of the school
As a critical friend to the school
To ensure accountability in how the school operates

This handbook helps to explain the roles and responsibilities of being a governor and how we, as a Governing Body, carry out our duties.

TYPES OF GOVERNOR

The number of governors in each school is set out in the school’s Instrument of Government (see below). The composition of a governing body should reflect a wide range of groups from the community.

Parent, teacher and staff governors are elected. They are representative of those groups and should keep in touch with those who elected them but make up their own minds on how to vote on any specific issue. Head teachers can choose whether or not to be governors.

Local Authority governors (LEA) are appointed by the local authority that maintains the school, on merit rather than on political balance and should keep in touch with those who appoint them but should vote according to the best interests of the school.

Foundation governors are normally appointed by the schools founding organisation (Bet Sefer) and, in a Voluntary Aided school like ours, make up the majority of governors (10 of 18) on the Governing Body.

Sponsor Governors are normally appointed by the governing body, at their discretion. Currently, we have two sponsor governors that have actually been appointed by the JCADSB and Mechanical Engineering Ltd.