Our Governing Body

Governors work closely with headteachers, school staff and representatives from the local authority (LA).

Governor Committee Structure

Click on each name to find out further information about our governors and their roles and responsibilities.

Name	Representing	Term of Office	Committee	Responsibilities	Governance Roles in Other Schools	Register of Interests	Relationship to Staff
Mrs Sturrock - Acting Head Teacher	Head Teacher	Ongoing	Finance & Premises Personnel & Discipline Curriculum	Head Teacher	None	None	None
Mrs A A Lyons	Co-opted	20/10/2019	Finance & Premises First / Pay Review Headteachers Performance	LAC Child Protection HTPM	None	None	None
Mrs H McGonigal Vice Chair of Governors.	Parent	09/10/2020	Appeals	Vice Chairperson Curriculum	None	None	None
Mrs K Stewart	Co-opted	20/10/2019	Curriculum		None	None	None
Mrs R Webb - Chair of Governors	Co-opted	05/11/2019	Finance & Premises First / Pay Review Headteachers Performance	Chairperson RE HTPM Geography Assessment	None	Auditor of School Fund.	Related to Staff member.
Mrs Kay Johnson	Parent	26/04/2018	Finance	Finance School Budget	None	None	None
Mrs Charlotte Tudor	Parent	18/07/2023	Finance	Finance	None	Applied Ecological Services Ltd.	None
Mrs Debra Colegrove	Staff	01/01/2024	EYFS Finance & Premises Personnel & Discipline Curriculum		None	None	None

Statutory Guidance for Governing Bodies

Ramshaw Primary School adhere to the statutory guidance from the Department of Education. This means that governing bodies must have regard to it when carrying out duties relating to the constitution of governing bodies in maintained schools. You can view or download further documents by clicking the link below:

How To Become A School Governor

If you require further information on the roles and responsibilities of School Governors or you are interested in becoming one, visit the Durham County Council website School Governor section.

Governor Attendance

Schools are required to display a record of Governor’s attendance at meetings for each school academic year.

KEY
✓ – Attended meeting
A/A – Apologies sent and accepted by meeting
N – Did not attend
X – Not a member of the committee

Record of Attendance 2019 -2020

Name	First Committee Meeting 25th February 2019	Finance Meeting 25th February 2019	Full Governing Body Meeting 25th February 2019	Finance Meeting 17th June 2019	Full Governing Body Meeting 17th June 2019	Curriculum Review Meeting 17th June 2019	Finance Meeting 11th November 2019	Full Governing Body Meeting 11th November 2019	Finance meeting 3rd February	Full Governing Body meeting 2nd March 2020	Virtual Full Governing Body meeting 8th June 2020
Mrs E M Sturrock	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mrs A Crowther	X	✓	✓	X	✓	X	X	✓	X	✓	A/A
Mrs H McGonigal	X	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	X	✓	X	✓	✓
Mrs K Stewart	X	✓	✓	X	✓	✓	X	✓	X	✓	✓
Mr D Brown	C	✓	✓	✓	✓	X	✓	✓	X	X	X
Mrs R Webb	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	X	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mrs K. Johnson	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mrs J. Linsley	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	X	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mrs C. Tudor	X	X	x	X	X	✓	✓	✓	X	✓	✓
Mrs A A Lyons	✓	A/A	✓	X	✓	X	A/A	A/A	A/A	A/A	A/A
Mrs D. Colegrove									✓	✓	✓

Archived Attendance
You can also view previous years attendance on our website.

Committee Terms of Reference

Finance and Premises Committee

Chair: Mrs. R.Webb
Terms of Reference: To meet termly
Members: Mrs. Anne Lyons, Mrs Liz Sturrock, Mrs K Johnson

In conjunction with the Headteacher to draft the first formal budget plan of the financial year, for approval by the full Governing Body
To establish and maintain an up-to-date 3 year financial plan
To monitor income and expenditure, including virement decision, significant anomalies from the anticipated position, and report termly to the Governing Body
To ensure the school operates within the financial regulations of the County Council and the requirements of the DfE School Financial Value Standard
To monitor expenditure of all voluntary funds kept on behalf of the Governing Body
To annually review charges and remissions policies and expenses policies
To make decisions in respect of service level agreements
To make decisions on expenditure following recommendations from other committees
To prepare financial statements for inclusion in any reports to parents
To ensure as far as is practical that any Health & Safety (H&S) issues are appropriately funded in accordance with priorities.

Meetings: Termly to coincide with Oracle
Disqualifications: when there may be a conflict of interest; or a pecuniary interest.

Virement Limits		Expenditure Limits
Limit set for Headteacher without prior written approval of Chair or Governing Body.	£3,000	Any items of expenditure up to	£5,000
Limit set for Headteacher with approval from Chair of Governors.	£3,000 to £5,000	• Above this limit if item was previously notified to the Governing Body. • Prior Finance Committee or Chair of Governors approval (whichever is the soonest) to be sought outside of this limit and reported at the earliest opportunity.
Prior Finance Committee or Chair of Governors approval (whichever is the soonest) to be sought outside of this limit and reported at the earliest opportunity

Personnel and Pupil Discipline Committee

Chair: Rachel Webb
Terms of Reference:To meet at start of every Autumn Term, and then as required

Members: Liz Sturrock, Kay Johnson

To carry out the annual review of the staffing structure
To oversee the appointment procedures for all staff
To keep under review work life balance, working conditions and well-being including monitoring of absence
Teaching staff appointments
Review temporary contracts on an annual basis
To ensure that a Performance Management Policy is in place
Consider staff Leave of Absence (only if necessary after delegation to Headteacher)
To act as the pupil discipline committee for fixed term and permanent exclusions.
Complaints.

Delegation to the Headteacher
School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009.
Appointment:

Temporary support staff
Supply
Non-teaching staff (delegated together with one Governor).

Dismissals:

No delegation for dismissals (to be dealt with by the First/Pay Review Committee).

Curriculum Committee

Chair: Mrs. H. McGonigal
Terms of Reference:
Members: Mrs L Sturrock Mrs K. Stewart Mrs D Colegrove

To make recommendations to the Governing Body and review the school’s curriculum statement and policies as required in the light of the LA curriculum statement and statutory obligations regarding the National Curriculum
In collaboration with the staff to provide information about how the curriculum is taught, evaluated and resourced
To review the policy and provision for sex education and to make recommendations where necessary
To review the policy and provision for collective worship and RE and to make recommendations where necessary
To monitor and review information about school performance and reporting to parents accordingly to statutory requirements
To contribute to the School Development Plan and SEF
Curriculum/performance review including target setting and monitoring mechanism.

Disqualifications: Pecuniary Interest

Safeguarding Committee

Chair: Rachel Webb
Terms of Reference
Members: Liz Sturrock, Debra Colegrove, H. McGonigal

Ensure the school is fulfilling its responsibilities regarding Child Protection and the requirements of ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’
To consider and determine the school’s policy relating to E-Safety
To consider the school security policy.

Disqualifications: Pecuniary Interest

Headteacher’s Performance Review

Chair: Rachel Webb
Terms of Reference
Members: Mrs AA Lyons,

To arrange to meet with the Education Development Partner to discuss the Headteacher’s performance targets
To decide with support from the EDP whether the targets have been met and to set new targets annually
To monitor throughout the year the performance of the Headteacher against the targets
To make recommendations to the appropriate committee in respect of awards for the successful meeting of set targets.

First / Pay Review Committee

Chair: Mrs. R. Webb
Terms of Reference
Members: Mrs. AA Lyons, Mrs K. Johnson

To act in accordance with the Teachers’ Pay Policy adopted by the Governing Body
To report to the Finance Committee on Pay Review-related expenditure.
To make any decisions under the personnel procedures adopted by the Governing Body, eg disciplinary, grievance, ill health, capability etc where the Headteacher is the subject of the action
To make any decisions relating to a member of staff (other than the Headteacher) under the Personnel procedures adopted by the Governing Body and in line with Diocesan advice
Staffing Reductions.

Appeals Committee

Chair: Rachel Webb
Terms of Reference
Members: Mrs H. McGonigal

To consider any appeal against a decision to dismiss a member of staff made by the First/Pay Review Committee
To consider any appeal against a decision under the personnel procedures adopted by the Governing Body (eg disciplinary, pay review, capability for teachers etc)
To consider any appeal against selection for redundancy.

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