WELCOME TO OUR WEBPAGE

Opportunity Brings Success.

Our governing body supports and challenges the Old Basford Leadership Team. We help to set the school’s strategic direction, monitor its performance and ensure that money is used effectively. The current governing body has a wide range of educational leadership experience coupled with expertise in areas including HR, accountancy, compliance and leadership in diversity and inclusion principles.

Absolutely key to our role is making sure the school provides a safe, inclusive environment where all children can learn and thrive and reach their full potential. In all our decision making we consider our motto ‘opportunity brings success’ and review whether the decisions we make support this ethos.

Core Responsibilities of the Old Basford Governing Body

Setting the School’s Strategic Direction:

• Helping create the school’s vision, values, and long-term goals.
• Ensuring the school is focusing on improving outcomes for all pupils.
• Contributing to and monitoring the school development plan (SDP)

Holding School Leadership to Account

• Monitoring the Head Teacher’s performance and providing constructive challenge.
• Asking questions about teaching quality, pupil progress, safeguarding, and staff wellbeing.
• Ensuring policies are up to date and effectively implemented.

Overseeing Financial Performance

• Approving the school budget and ensuring money is spent effectively.
• Making sure financial resources are used to support priorities such as learning, staffing, and development.
• Checking value for money.

Safeguarding and Welfare

• Ensuring there are robust safeguarding and wellbeing policies and procedures.
• Monitoring how the school keeps pupils and staff safe, including online safety.
• Checking that statutory requirements are met.

Supporting and Challenging the Headteacher

• Acting as a “critical friend”: supportive but challenging.
• Providing feedback, guidance, and oversight.
• Supporting the recruitment processes for staff.

Monitoring Educational Performance

• Continually reviewing data on pupil attainment and progress.
• Checking interventions and support systems are in place, and effective, for pupils with additional needs.
• Ensuring the curriculum is broad, balanced, and well-delivered.

Representing Stakeholders

• Listening to the views of parents, staff, pupils, and the community.
• Ensuring decisions reflect the needs of the whole school community.

Ensuring Compliance with Legal Duties

• Adhering to statutory responsibilities (e.g., safeguarding, equality, health & safety, SEND).
• Annually all governors complete safeguarding training, comply with KCSIE, complete PREVENT training and take a variety of courses to cover areas such as GDPR, PSED and on-line safety.
• Making sure the school meets inspection requirements (such as Ofsted).

What Governors do not do

• We do not manage staff (except hiring the headteacher and providing support in interview processes for other staff).
• We do not get involved in daily operations.
• We do not deal with individual parental complaints unless a formal procedure requires it.

When can parents approach a governor?

Parents can approach a governor in relation to general issues, policy concerns, or help in understanding procedures.

For specific problems involving their child or class, parents must first speak to:

1. The class teacher
2. The headteacher
3. Follow the formal complaints procedure (if needed)

Accountability

Primary school governors in the UK (especially England and Wales) are made accountable through several formal processes. Their role is to oversee the strategic direction of the school, ensure resources are used effectively, and hold school leaders to account. Here’s how governors themselves are held accountable:

Ofsted Inspection

• During an Ofsted inspection, the governing board is evaluated as part of the school leadership.
• Inspectors assess how well governors understand the school, use data, challenge school leaders, and ensure safeguarding.
• Weak governance can contribute to a poor overall school rating.
• Governors are questioned directly by inspectors.

Published Governance Information

Schools must publish:

• Names of governors
• Their roles (e.g., chair, committees)
• Terms of office
• Pecuniary interests (to ensure transparency)
  This allows parents and the public to scrutinise who is on the governing board.

Minutes of Governing Body Meetings

• Available on request (with confidential information removed).
• Minutes show governor attendance, decisions made, and evidence of challenge to the headteacher.
• This transparency ensures governors are accountable for their actions.

Statutory Duties

Governors are legally responsible for:

• Safeguarding oversight
• School budget approval
• Performance monitoring
• Ensuring compliance with national regulations

Failure to meet these obligations can lead to intervention by the local authority or the Department for Education.

Governance Self-Evaluation

Governing boards are required to:

Review their own effectiveness (see our impact statement)

• Identify training needs
• Produce improvement or action plans

Some boards also commission external reviews of governance.

Appraisal and Performance Management

• Governors oversee the performance management of the Head Teacher.
• Their own ability to do this effectively is monitored through inspection and self-evaluation.

Removal Procedures

If a governor consistently fails to fulfil their duties, they can be removed:

• By the board itself (for appointed governors)
• By the body that appointed them (e.g., local authority, foundation, trust)
• For elected governors, removal is possible on grounds such as misconduct or failure to attend meetings.

The Governors of Old Basford School are:

Co-Chair of Governors:

     Caroline Aldrich (Community Governor and Chair of the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee) 

     Julie Wirszycz (Parent Governor)

Parent Governors

     Yacine Blair

Community Governors:

     Marguerite Adewoye, David Lawson, Carrie Paechter, Sally Eaton

Staff Governors:

     Katie Priddy, Jamie Ross, Emily Singh

Headteacher:

     Laura Duffin

 

The Members of Old Basford School Academy Trust are:

Daniel Appleby, Karen Lawson, Keith Barnes, Simon Salmon. 

​If you wish to contact the governing body you can do so in one of the following ways:

• Email: admin@oldbasford.nottingham.sch.uk (Marked FAO of ‘Chair of Governing Body’)
• Letter (sealed envelope): Addressed to ‘Chair of Governing Body’, Old Basford School, Percy Street, Old Basford, Nottingham, NG6 0GF

 

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