School Governor

About The Children’s Trust School

The Children’s Trust School is a special non-maintained school for children aged 2-19, all have complex education, health, therapy, and care needs, resulting in multiple barriers to learning.

Dedicated and skilled staff maintain a focus on learning, with the multi-disciplinary integrated approach being a huge strength of our school. Together we create an effective whole system to deliver high-quality support and experience for children with special educational needs, placing their quality of life at the heart of what we do.

Our mission: to support children and young people to live the best life possible, with excellent education, health therapy and care (EHTC).

Our vision: The Children's Trust School will be a growth-orientated national centre of excellence for children and their families - with all environments promoting innovative, researched best practice through visionary integrated EHTC.

The Children’s Trust is seeking to appoint a new School Governor to bring their external perspective and professional knowledge to the Board.

Being a School Governor is a challenging but hugely rewarding role. It will give you the chance to make a real difference to young people, give something back to your local community and use and develop your skills in a board-level environment.

As a governor you will be able to:

• Use your own experience of education, health, therapy & care and life beyond school to inform conversations.

• Develop and utilise your skills in a board-level environment

• Make a valuable contribution to education and your community

• Support and challenge the school so that it improves for pupils and staff

• Bring your unique experiences, perspectives and insights in to decision-making in the interests of the school community

What skills do I need?

Governors set the aims and objectives for the school and agree the policies and targets for achieving those aims and objectives. They monitor and evaluate the progress the school is making and act as a source of challenge and support to the headteacher. In action, this means:

• Monitoring budgets and questioning how money is spent.

• Engaging with pupils, staff, parents and the school community

• Sitting on panels and making decisions i.e. interview panel for teacher recruitment.

• Addressing a range of education issues within the school including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with special needs, staff workload and teacher recruitment. All the children in the school have an EHCP.

• Looking at data and evidence to ask questions and have challenging conversations about the school.

• Appointing and performance reviewing the head teacher and senior leaders

Skills

Schools need and benefit from a range of professional knowledge on their governing board including education, finance, human resources, legal, marketing and public relations, property and estates management, and organisational change.

There is no requirement for you to be a parent or for you to have an understanding of the education system, just the necessary skills, character and time to contribute.

There is plenty of training available to help you learn about SEND education.