We have two Foundation Governor spaces on our Board. Foundation Governors are appointed by the Diocese and need to be practising Catholics. Only two Foundation Governors can have children in the school and we have those two. This means that our prospective new governors cannot have children at St. Joseph’s now and are not likely to in the near future.
If you have some skills that you think could help our Governing Body and have the time to commit then please contact me to discuss. Our Governing Body is hard working and everyone has to attend the Full Meetings held on Monday evenings between 7.30 and 9.30pm every half term (6 per year).
If you join the Finance and Premises Committee then they also meet every half term on a different Monday evening. We have several other Committees that meet during the school day which you might join if you are available.
Every Governor appointment is for a period of four years but most of our Governors remain for more than one period of appointment. Documents are shared via a secure website called GovernorHub. You will be given a school e-mail address to use for all school related e-mails. Every Governor has to have a clear Enhanced DBS check (formerly known as CRB) that we will undertake and every Governor has to sign up to our Code of Conduct.
The Code deals with how we must all behave and, importantly, confidentiality is crucial. Governors play a strategic role in the school: we are here to ensure clarity of vision and ethos; hold the Headteacher to account for educational and staff performance; oversee financial performance; and safeguarding.
We are not here to get involved with the day to day running of the school. Training is provided and is continually necessary as things change is education frequently. We are part of a local network of schools that receives training in the evenings and you will be able to access on-line training.
If you have skills relating to health & safety, finance, HR or The Arts in particular then we would encourage you to put yourself forward. If you are interested and would like to discuss the matter further then you can e-mail sfitzgerald@stjosephs207.herts.sch.uk and I can arrange to call you at a convenient time. I would be happy to show anyone interested around the school if Covid restrictions allow.
Suzanne Fitzgerald Chair of Governors