Governors Information

Governor Committees 
Behaviour, Attitudes, Health & Safety 

• Sue Herlihy (Chair)
• Rosalind Hopkins
• Paul Saxby
• Debi Palmer
• Amy Dunstan
• Lisa Bramall

Quality of Education

• Sue Herlihy (Chair)
• Rosalind Hopkins
• Debi Palmer
• Amy Dunstan
• Kerry Clarkson

Finance and Staffing Committee

• Caroline Pearson (Chair)
• Rosalind Hopkins
• Sue Herlihy
• Gail Seaton
• Lisa Bramall

Pay Review Committee

• Sue Herlihy
• Rosalind Hopkins
• Gail Seaton

Governor Attendance 2019-2020

The Governing Body

The School’s Governing Body is proud to be part of the progress that the school is making and is highly committed to ensuring Birch Wood’s vision and ethos continue to underpin its success.

The Governing Body is a group of volunteers organised within the Education Act 2012 and the Regulations associated with that Act that came into force in 2012 and 2013.

The Governing Body has three core functions:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, aims, ethos and strategic direction;
• Seeking to ensure the educational performance of the School and all of its pupils; and
• Oversight of the School’s financial performance, use of resources and performance management

These functions are exercised via the Governing Body and its respective committees. These committees are:

• Behaviour, Attitudes, Health & Safety

• Quality of Education 

• Finance and Staffing

The Governing Body and its Committees oversee and approve the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and within that Plan have identified particular areas of focus for evaluation and review. There are regular meetings of the committees (where members of the School’s leadership team are also present), and the full Governing Body, together with frequent meetings between members of the Governing Body and members of the School. These meetings, and these contacts, create a governors monitoring schedule of the Governing Body’s work; a full record of those meetings is maintained.

Key documents include:

• The School Improvement Plan
• The 2019-20 governors monitoring schedule

The Governing Body also has a number of statutory duties, for example the safeguarding of pupils, employment within the School and complaints procedures. These duties are also contained within the work of the committees and the Governing Body as a whole. The Governing Body is subject to inspection by OFSTED and the Governing Body’s performance is part of the Leadership and Management comments in subsequent reports.