What do we do? 

Our school is overseen by a volunteer Governing Body who, alongside the headteacher, set the vision for the school. Together they ensure that the school works effectively and efficiently to achieve its vision by: 

• Building a thorough knowledge of the school and its community; 
• Supporting and constructively challenging the school; 
• Ensuring accountability - judging the school's performance openly; and, 
• Compliance - ensuring the school meets all its legal obligations, for example safeguarding children and managing finances. 

The Governing Body works in close partnership with the headteacher, staff and the local authority. In practice, the headteacher is responsible for the day to day running of the school. However, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings and finance. They ensure the school functions well and set the direction and policies for the school, to provide ongoing support and advice and to monitor the outcome. 

Each sub-committee and the full governing body meets once per term and their areas of responsibility are: 

Education Committee 

Standards and Curriculum:   to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s work around pupil attainment and progress, and ensuring that the school’s curriculum is broad and balanced and meets statutory requirements. 

Pastoral Support:  to discuss and monitor all aspects of the school’s pastoral work which includes areas such as attendance, behaviour, safeguarding, health, and spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) provision. An important role of the committee is to ensure all Child Protection policies are fully understood and correctly implemented by all staff, and to monitor how the government PE grant is being spent to improve provision. 

Business Committee

Finance and Resources:  to ensure that the school spending remains within budget and that all funds are spent wisely to best meet the needs of the pupils. 

Full Governors

The full Governing Body will meet once a term to receive input from the sub-committees and make any necessary decisions.

Who are we? 

Somerset Bridge Primary School’s Governing Body consists of: 

• the headteacher 
• one elected staff governor 
• one appointed local authority governor 
• five co-opted governors* 
• two parent governors. 

*  Co-opted governors are people who in the opinion of the Governing board have the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school 

 The standard term of office for a governor is four years. The chair and vice-chair are elected annually at the first meeting of the academic year. 

The Governing Body of Somerset Bridge Primary School is currently: 

Name	Appointing Body	Responsibilities	Office Term	Business Interest	Attendance 23/24	Committee
Darren Argrave	FG Board Co-Opted	Chair	Sept 24/26	Wife is a teacher at the school	90%	Business Chair
Laura Devenish	FG Body Co-opted	Governor	May 21/25	Somerset Council Staff	90%	Business
Emma Kilner	FG Body Co-opted	Governor	Mar 22/26	Further Education Staff	90%	Business
Susan Ley	FG Board Co-opted	Health & Wellbeing	Jan 23/27	NONE	90%	Business
Heather Moffat	FG Board Co-opted	Vice Chair  SEND	Sept 24/26	NONE	90%	Education Chair
Nathan Murdoch	FG Body Co-opted	Health & Safety	Jan 23/27	Teacher at another school	90%	Education
Shane Stevens	Local Authority  LEA	Safeguarding/Attendance	Sept 23/27	NONE	80%	Business/Education
Barry Williams	Elected Parent	Governor	Sept 23/27	NONE	80%	Business
Vacant	Elected Parent	Governor
Kevin Bryant	FG Body Associate Gov	Headteacher	N/A	School staff	100%
Kelly Evans	FG Body Associate Gov	Deputy Head	Sept 24	School staff	Appointed Sept 24
Matt Eva	Staff Gov	Governor	Oct 24/28	School staff	Appointed Oct 24	Education
Angela Barber	FG Body	Clerk	June 24	School staff	Appointed Jul 24	Clerk
Vacant	Elected Parent			Governor

For further information on the Governing Board at Somerset Bridge please apply through the School Office.