Governors

The Local Governing Board at Christ Church C of E Primary School offer you a very warm welcome to the Governors’ Page.

As a charity and company limited by guarantee, the Trust is governed by a Board of Trustees who have overall responsibility and ultimate decision-making authority for all the work of the Trust.

To support the effective operation of the Trust and its schools, the Board of Trustees has established committees to which it has delegated certain of its powers and functions. The Local Governing Body (LGB) is a committee of the Trust Board and these terms of reference set out the constitution, membership, and proceedings of this committee. Local Governing Bodies (LGBs) are established by the Board of Trustees to support the effective operation of the schools and represent the needs of their local community.

SCEAT Terms of Reference for LGB

SCEAT Scheme of Delegated Authority

SCEAT Governance Webpage

What do the Governing Body do?

• have a genuine interest in our children’s future
• offer time, energy and enthusiasm
• have a desire to make a difference
• accept responsibility
• work as a team
• are happy to ask questions, listen and learn

Who are our Governors?

You can find a full list of Governors and the dates of their Terms of Office below.

Photo	Governor	Term of Office	Category	Link Governor Responsibilities	Register of Business Interest
	Carole Fenton Chair of Governors	20/10/2029	Foundation Governor	Safeguarding Link Governor CLA Link Governor	None
	Sam Rigby Vice Chair of Governors	06/11/2028	Ex-officio Foundation Governor		none
	Emma Clarke Acting Head of School	20/07/2026	Ex-officio		None
	Patricia Wilkin	12/07/2028	Co-opted Governor	Health and Safety Link Governor	Business Manager at Local Academy Trust
	David Leddington	10/02/2030	Parent Governor		None
	Stephanie Bentley	13/10/2029	Parent Governor	SEND Link Governor	Education Consultant
	Rachael Fortune Acting Deputy Head of School and SENDCo	21/06/2029	Staff Governor		None

Diversity of our Governing Board

We will consider the diversity of our local area when making future appointments and seek to encourage under-represented groups to apply. Our current Board is 100% White British and majority female. We do have a wide spread of different ages represented from 20s to 70s.

Link Governors

All Governors have a role in monitoring and ensuring that the school is improving and holding the Head of School to account for the school’s performance.  This is done through allocating Governors to areas of the School Development Plan and asking them to take special responsibility for that priority.  They do this through critical questioning at Board meetings, visiting the school and talking to pupils and staff about that area and meeting with the leaders who are leading the improvements.

We also have a link Governor for Safeguarding and Prevent Duty: Carole Fenton and a link Governor for Special Educational Needs and Disability: Stephanie Bentley.

The Importance of Transparency

Governors hold to the highest standards in serving in this role.  This means they declare if they have or could be seen to have a conflict of interest in any decision making.  For Parent Governors, this means that they are aware of putting the interests of every child and the whole school ahead of any personal interest or passion about their own child’s education.  It also means that Governors declare specific conflicts of interest on any agenda. Governors also fill in a yearly declaration of any business interests, alongside staff and other public sector employees.  There are currently no declared conflict of interests.  Part of that transparency is also being accountable to the school community for attendance at Governor meetings.  Governors operate under a Code of Conduct: Governor Code of Conduct