Roles and Responsibilities of All Governors

The Governance Handbook describes effective governance as follows:

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

These are the responsibilities of Staplegrove’s Local Governing Committee.

• At its heart it is about being a ‘critical friend’ to the school. This involves a wide range of activities aimed at ensuring we understand ‘where the school is,’ its strengths, its areas for development, and its core priorities that stem from these.
• Core priorities stem from a wide variety of evidence sources, including from external monitoring processes, such as Ofsted and other external experts, as well as from school’s own monitoring processes.
• Governor monitoring activities contribute to these evidence sources. We endeavour to ensure we have the right information in sufficient depth, which we analyse and interrogate in order to provide rigorous challenge. We engage with parents, staff and pupils in carrying out our own monitoring processes to support the improvement process.
• Core priorities are captured within the school’s strategic School Development Plan and we monitor progress towards these key goals throughout the year.

We are a group of committed volunteers whose aim is to make a real contribution to the ongoing improvement of the school; playing a role in enabling it to be the best that it can be, for our children and who love celebrating too, the successes along the way.

Individual Governor Responsibilities

• Each governor takes on an additional specific responsibility, for which they have a role descriptor and a linked cycle of monitoring events which they undertake
• These activities involve staff in a wide range of roles, including Senior Leaders, as well as pupils and parents
• Governors then complete reports which are presented to the Local Governing Committee [LGC] meetings, having been shared with the HT, who adds their reflection to the report
• We value collaboration and learning from each other and have, therefore, organised ourselves into ‘coaching pairs’ as governors take on new, specific responsibilities.
• Governors have listed their specific responsibilities within their profiles below.

Sandy Robertson - Vice-chair

I have a teaching background and always felt very lucky to have been able to spend my career working as part of a team supporting young children with special educational needs and their families. I retired from teaching a couple of years ago. 

My three children, who are now grown up, all attended Staplegrove School so it is exciting to feel part of the School Community again. I am also a member of St John’s Church and look forward to supporting the links that exist between the School and the Church.

Amy Shah - Chair

(Curriculum Governor)

My name is Amy Shah, and I have three wonderful children, two of which are at Staplegrove Church School. I have always wanted to be a parent governor to support and challenge schools to ensure that children are receiving the best opportunities to shape their future. I am passionate about Early Years education and the importance of children's holistic wellbeing. I have over 10 years of experience as a Primary teacher and now work in higher education teaching Early Years and Education qualifications.

Dr Sariqa Wagley Khodabocus

(Pupil Premium Governor)

I am a microbiologist who researches how microorganisms cause disease in humans and I am a mother of two sons, both now attend Staplegrove Church School. I am also a volunteer STEM (Science, Engineering Technology and Maths) ambassador, where I go into schools, take part in science activities and run a microbiology workshop for children aged 5-11 years.  I became a school governor so that I can bring my own experiences of education and insights to the school and support the school to help improve conditions for both staff and students.

Laura Chidgey

(Safeguarding & Ethos Governor)

Currently working within corporate product management and living in the Staplegrove area. I am blessed with two wonderful children who attend Staplegrove Church School. My experience with the setting, staff at the school and approach to teaching has been absolutely positive. I hope that my skills and experience will add to the breadth of knowledge in the Governors Team.
My aim is to support the school leadership in ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for all children and staff. I also look forward to contributing to the growth of the relationship between the local religious communities and the School.

Sam Stamp

(Parent Governor)

I manage a team of Cloud Architects for Microsoft working with large organisations to guide their transformation and adoption of cloud services. I have two daughters, one has now finished at Staplegrove School and the other is still attending. With a number of years' experience as a parent of the school, I'm keen to help support students and staff to be successful, calling on my professional and technical experiences where needed. Outside of work I'm a keen runner and regularly compete in races up to marathon distance.

Nandor Stemler

(Parent Governor)

I work as Administrator at Musgrove Park Hospital having extensive expertise in Customer care, Negotiation, Foreign Languages, Database, Hotel Management systems, Administration and Office, Front and back of House and Team Leader and Supervisory skills.

My child attends Staplegrove Church School and I wanted to be a parent governor to support and challenge the school in ensuring high standards of achievement for all children and young people in the school by ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance and management of staff, overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent and also, to bring a rich variety of skills and experience to ensure a safe environment and a bright future for all pupils and the best education and experience of a wonderful childhood within a lovely community.

In my spare time a play piano, build and paint miniature figures, draw and paint with with my daughter, gardening and traveling.

Michelle Beer

(Staff governor)

Governor Meeting Attendance