School governor - Portsdown Primary School and Early Years

Portsdown Primary School is a good school located next to QA hospital that values investment in children and staff to be the best that they can be. We are looking for co-opted and parent governors. (You do not need to be a parent of a child in our school).

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 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

Governors set the aims and objectives for the school or group of schools and set 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:

·       Managing budgets and deciding how money is spent

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

·       Sitting on panels and making decisions about things like pupil exclusions and staff disciplinary

·       Addressing a range of education issues within the school including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with special needs, staff workload and teacher recruitment

·       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, including making decisions about pay

     ·       The school will carry out all relevant safeguarding checks

     ·       We will also reimburse expenses where possible. 

Process:

You will need an account to register your interest for this role. Once you have registered your interest you will receive an automatic email with next steps. If you have not received this in a couple of hours, please do get in touch as it may not have registered (volunteering@hiveportsmouth.org.uk). 

You will need to respond to the "Criteria Check" email to progress with this role. 

Please check your junk email folder in case any emails end up there.  Friendly reminder that the charities/organisations emails may end up here too. 

Skills

Anyone aged over 18 can be a governor and you do not need to be a parent. There is no requirement 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 education.

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. Portsdown Primary School is currently particularly keen to bring governors with skills or experience in finance, reading and HR.

It is also important that you have time to commit to the role.