Welcome to the Middlefield Primary Academy  Local Governing Body

The board of governors exists to:

   Put in place the long term vision and strategic direction of the school

Monitor the educational performance of the school and its pupils

Oversee the financial performance of the school and ensure that money is well spent

Our role is to ensure that the Middlefield constantly and consistently delivers on its visions and values:  essentially, to ensure that every child achieves the highest possible standards through our relentless focus on high quality teaching and learning.  Further information about the school’s visions and values can be found on the  website.

The board of governors also oversees admission, staff employment and buildings management.

Dear Middlefield Parents and Guardians

I’m Middlefield’s Chair of Governors, Mum to Joshua in year 5 (and Harry who was previously at Middlefield). I have now been a governor at Middlefield for 6 years and Chair of the Local Governing Board (LGB) since 2020.

Our recent parent survey showed that there’s a lack of understanding of the role of governors and so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write to parents as it’s been a while since my last letter.

As members of the LGB, our role is to:

· Understand the school’s strategic priorities for development and improvement and work with the Head of School and other LGB members to achieve them.

· To act as a critical friend, providing the Head Teacher with support and to offer support and sometimes challenge.

· To ensure accountability and to monitor and evaluate how the school is progressing against its development plan, but also in terms of student achievement targets

We don’t have an operational responsibility in managing the school and this is down to the school’s leadership team and the Diamond Learning Partnership leadership team.

I had no idea what was involved in being a governor or running a school when I answered the school’s call for Governors to volunteer. But I’ve learnt a huge amount and am still learning. DLPT (Diamond Learning Partnership Trust) Governors are provided with training from the teaching school and I attended the trust’s ‘New to the LGB’ (Local Governing Board) Training during 2019. As part of learning about my role as Chair I completed the NGA (National Governor’s Association) Chair Program during 2020.

There is a legal requirement to have a Local Governing Board overseeing the school and ensuring proper management of the School as part of the larger DLPT Trust management process. So our Governors ensure this legal requirement is fulfilled as well as participating in additional meetings and committees which monitor items such as, Finance, Standards, Safeguarding, and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability)

As Chair, I try to meet with Mrs Besant on a monthly basis. Our catch ups provide an opportunity for Mrs Besant to update me on school and student progress, and any Safeguarding Issues. All of the governors attend school as part of a program of visits which are designed to review and evidence how the school is implementing it’s strategic plan.

At present we have four governors who are not employed by the school. More information about our governors can be found here: https://www.middlefield.cambs.sch.uk/governors/

We couldn’t function properly without them so a big thanks to our team which includes staff as well as volunteers (Mrs Besant, Mr Smith, Mrs Kirby, Ian Wallis, Lucy Hurley and Oliver Reid)

Being a governor is an unpaid, volunteer role. A governor is required to attend at least 3 LGB meetings a year but in reality the role requires more than that in order to really have an impact on the school and student outcomes. I’d be happy to talk to any parent who would like to understand more about the role of the governors and I can be contacted on gnoonan@middlefield.cambs.sch.uk. I’m also happy to answer any parent questions about the role of the governors so don’t hesitate to get in touch or to email the school office.

Governors normally sign up for a 4-year role. This can be extended but ideally our governors will change over time to allow different parents and community members to opportunity to get involved and bring a different perspective. Please do let us know if you’re interested in getting involved!

In the meantime, if you’ve read this far then thank you for reading!

Best regards

Gemma Noonan

Middlefield Governors