Governors
Norton Sub Hamdon and West Chinnock Church Schools are members of the Bath & Wells Diocesan Academies Trust (BWMAT). The accountable authority for the schools is the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees is the appropriate body for all the academies in BWMAT for the purposes of section 6 of the Education Act 2005 and, as such, is directly responsible for, together with BWMAT leaders, the quality of education and governance provided in the schools.
The Board of Trustees of the Trust has identified that each school in the Trust will have a dedicated committee to oversee the governance arrangements of the school on their behalf. This committee is called the Trust Local Committee (TLC) and it works closely with the Executive Headteacher and the schools’ leaders in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for all pupils.
The role of the TLC is to provide confident, strategic leadership and to create a robust governance framework that enables oversight and assurance of the schools' safeguarding arrangements and its educational and financial performance. The TLC meets half-termly and its work reflects the Trust’s Scheme of Delegation that identifies the duties delegated to the TLC by the Board of Trustees.
Members of the TLC work very hard to ensure that they know what it is like to be a learner in the school. They undertake a range of activity in relation to the core functions of governance and these activities enable them to understand the schools' strengths and areas for improvement.
The requirements of the Trust’s Scheme of Delegation and the national expectations related to efficient and effective governance, as identified in the Academy Trust Governance Guide (DfE 2024), have been used to support the development of the Trust’s own local governance framework.
The key elements of the Trust’s local governance framework in relation to the role of the TLC are as follows:
i) Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
The TLC helps to shape the vision for the schools, and this is reviewed annually. It also looks regularly at the progress being made against achieving the schools’ identified aims.
The School Development Plan (SDP) identifies the priorities for the year and the TLC is instrumental in working with the Executive Headteacher to develop this and then monitoring progress against the identified priorities for the year.
Members of the TLC are linked to areas of the SDP and undertake a range of activity during the year – meeting staff, talking to pupils, reviewing plans, looking at pupils’ work – so that they can see the progress being made against the priorities for themselves.
One member of the TLC has an oversight of the schools’ safeguarding arrangements as this is such an important area of school life. This member’s role is to monitor the schools' arrangements to support safeguarding to ensure that the school is doing what it should in this area.
Members of the TLC may also be linked to aspects of school life – e.g. Vulnerable pupils – where the area identified is of particular interest to the schools.
Members report on their activity to the meetings of the TLC so that all members of the TLC are aware of what is going well and what is in need of development.
The TLC also identifies and manages any risks that might impact on the outcomes achieved by the school. Significant risks are escalated to the Board of Trustees to ensure that those areas identified as being of particular concern are being effectively managed and the risk mitigated.
ii) Holding school leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the performance management of staff.
The TLC acts as a critical friend to the Executive Headteacher and is always striving to ensure that the school is doing the best it can for every pupil.
The TLC regularly reviews the information provided on the progress and attainment of pupils and challenges the Executive Headteacher when performance appears to be uneven or inconsistent. Members ask about the organisation of the curriculum and the quality of teaching in the school. They make sure that the school has a robust system in place for the performance management of staff. The TLC relies on the Trust, with their support and input, to undertake the performance management of the Executive Headteacher on their behalf.
The TLC looks at a range of external data and information to see how the schools compares to local and national benchmarks. It also receives and reviews the reports of external partners about the schools so that it has as wide a view as possible of how the schools are performing.
iii) Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and ensuring that money is well spent for the benefit of all pupils.
The TLC is involved in discussion about the projected budget for the year but the final approval of the schools’ budgets is taken by the Board of Trustees. The TLC then receives regular updates on the progress of the budgets for the year and it challenges where there appears to be variations in what has been spent compared to what was expected to be spent.
The TLC also receives information about the schools’ plans for spending their Pupil Premium grants and PE and Sport grants. The schools provide regular updates on the impact of these plans to meetings of the TLC.
As well as attending business meetings of the TLC, individual members of the TLC also attend regular training and development sessions. These relate to either the development of the TLC as a whole or to the personal development of individuals. All members of the TLC undertake regular, Trust-identified training. They can also access on-line training as members of the National Governance Association. Newly appointed members of the TLC receive a planned programme of induction support.
The schools follow the policies approved by the Trust and, as such, these are all available on the Trust’s website. The schools have then developed its own procedures for each policy area that reflect Trust policy and identify how the schools are putting the policy into practice.
The TLC is always trying to improve its effectiveness and efficiency and an annual self-evaluation takes place at which the TLC decides, in terms of governance, what has gone well during the year and what the areas of focus need to be identified for the following year.
Our Local Governors at Norton and West Chinnock Church Schools
Mrs Sophie Staple (Chair of Trust Local Committee, Safeguarding Lead Governor and SEND Lead Governor)
Mrs Sarah Osborne (Vice Chair of Trust Local Committee, Health and Safety Governor)
Mr Jamie Caswell (Executive Headteacher)
Revd Nick Clark (Foundation Governor)
Mrs Vee Cockerell (Foundation Governor)
Mrs Mhairi Hallett (Staff Governor)
Mrs Tina Wilkes (Vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils Lead Governor)
Mrs Sarah Welch (EFYS Lead Governor)
All of our Governors can be contacted via the School Offices.