Welcome to our Governors’ section. 

Please find below details of how our Governing body is structured, including the names, categories, responsibilities and terms of appointment for each Governor.

Wymondham CE Primary School Governors

The aim of the Governor team at our school is to work with the staff in helping the children achieve their full potential in a happy, caring environment.

We do this in four main ways:

• Monitoring the performance and progress of our children

• Working with the staff to help them teach and care for our children

• Deciding on how the resources of the school are best used

• Planning ahead so that the performance of our children and our school continues to improve

To deliver this effectively, the Governor team members are representative of all the key groups involved in our school – the Parents, the Staff, the Community, the MAT and the Church. Some are appointed and some are elected. All serve for a term of four years. We meet as a whole team twice a term but stay in regular contact with one another and the school through making visits, attending events and via email / video conferencing.

You may contact me by letter via the school office, marking your envelope ‘Private and Confidential’ or directly to to the office email: office@wymondham.risemat.co.uk

Put your correspondence in an encrypted attachment. Alternatively, post through the school letterbox marking the envelope FAO H.Sykes 'PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL'. 

We look forward to a continued successful partnership with you.

Helen Sykes

Chair of Governors

Governance at Wymondham School

Our school is an Academy within Rise Multi-Academy Trust, whose Board of Trustees are ultimately responsible for the school. All local governance committees are de facto committees of the Board of Directors. The members of each local governing committee are referred to as ‘Governors’. Their key responsibilities are to:

• Ensuring there is clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
• Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils and the performance management of staff.
• Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

Governors are not expected to be involved in the detail of the day-to-day management of the school – this is the responsibility of the Executive Headteacher and senior leadership team. The Governors work in partnership with them, acting as 'critical friends', to support and challenge the work of the school. In practice this means there is a continual cycle of  monitoring and evaluation of the work of the school against agreed targets, actions and policies.

New Governance Structure 2022-2023

From the start of the 2022 autumn term, our Governing Committee officially merged with the Governing Committee of Croxton Kerrial CE Primary School (one of our close partnership schools within our Executive Headship model) to form a Cluster Governing Committee or CGC. This is something we have been trialling for several years, so we know it will work well for us.

The Board of Trustees have determined that a CGC may be formed when there is an executive leadership arrangement in place across two or more schools. In these instances, one governing committee has delegated oversight of all schools in the cluster. This avoids duplication of governance where CGCs are in operation. We believe that we will be able to carry out our roles and responsibilities as determined by the Rise Scheme of Delegation more effectively as a two-school CGC rather than a four-school CGC.

Our other two schools, Redmile CE Primary School and Waltham-on-the-Wolds CE Primary School, have also formed a CGC together.

Who Are We?

Our governors are representative of all the groups involved in our school: staff, parents, local community and Church. They are all volunteers who give their time, energy and skills free of charge to benefit the children of our school. The number and type of Governor is determined in our Memorandum of Understanding from the Trust. The term of office is four years.

We have a Clerk to Governors who is paid to carry out administrative tasks for governor business. Should you wish to contact her please email ntyers@risemat.co.uk

See below for details of our work so far this year and to read our governor profiles.

What Do We Do?

The Cluster Governing Committee meets twice per term, but we manage a lot of work through our regular visits to each school. Our main work centres around:

• Safeguarding and on-line safety - every time we visit, we consult with children and staff to check that everyone feels safe and secure.  During the course of the year, we review the security measures of the school, Single Central Record, policies and procedures, including Risk Assessments and school safety logs. We review e-safety with leaders and check children understand how to stay safe o the internet.

• Finance - we review staffing, including staff well-being and recruitment when necessary; review the annual budget, sports premium, pupil premium and recovery premiums to ensure value for money. We remain vigilant of possible funding opportunities (e.g. grants) too.

• Health and Safety - where we check health and safety around the school site, and look at the learning environment for the children, maintenance and development of our buildings. We support the Executive Headteacher in securing S106 funding from local housing developments and Condition Improvement Funds.

• School Focus - we review pupil progress and attainment with staff each term; we monitor school improvement through the  School Strategic Plan, including curriculum development; and consider the church school distinctiveness of our school. 

• Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) - we meet termly with the SENDCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) to review provision and progress, ensuring that effective lines of communication are in place for parents of SEND children.

• Behaviour and wellbeing - we ensure that effective policies are in place and that these areas are prominent within the curriculum and other activities.

• Early Years - to review provision, practice and performance with the Reception teacher and Pre-school manager.

We have governor advocates for each of the above areas who report back to the CGC each half term or term. From time to time, we also form working groups to work on specific strategic projects as they arise, eg. Headteacher recruitment.

How do we achieve this?

School Visits and Learning Walks

Governor visits allow us to see the school at work, gain relevant knowledge and understanding to be able to perform our governing role effectively and fulfil our monitoring functions. We set out a programme of governor visits for every year, each focused on a particular area as detailed above. This might include: discussions with subject coordinators, visits to each class to see how learning takes place and meetings about specific aspects of work, e.g. safeguarding. In practice, many of our governors also frequently attend other activities going on in the school to ensure that they know the school well. They also accompany the staff and children on school visits and trips, including residential visits.

Governor Training

We have a governor responsible for training and development to support us in our role as governors, organised through Rise and within school.

Partnership Links

We work in close partnership with the CEO and central team of Rise who visit our school and offer guidance and support when required. We also work with other governing bodies around our local area which helps to inform our strategic work as well allowing us to broaden our knowledge by exchanging experiences with governors in settings similar to ours.

Our Cluster Governing Committee

This is made up of appointed governors from Wymondham CE Primary School and Croxton Kerrial CE Primary School, all in our Executive Headship Partnership within Rise.

Dates of Meetings 2022-2023

Tuesday 20th September

Tuesday 29th November 

Tuesday 14th February 

Tuesday 2nd May 

Tuesday 20 June 

For information about Governance of the RISE Multi-Academy Trust please click here.