As the Governing Board, our role is to support and challenge the school leadership so that every child can thrive.  We’re very proud of the progress made this year and wanted to share some highlights.

2025 has been a busy year for Silchester, with a lot of amazing achievements – we had a very successful visit from Ofsted, we got great results in KS2 SATS, the Year 4 times tables test and Year 1 phonics.  The EYFS area refurbishment and new outdoor learning shelters are fabulous! The governors would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their dedication, resilience and hard work.

We would also like to thank the children of Silchester for your enthusiasm and embodying the values that make Silchester such a wonderful school, and to the parents for making it such a happy supportive community. 

The governors are a group of volunteers from the local community whose role is strategic. Our core functions are set out below but not limited to ensuring

• the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined
• the headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of the school
• sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources to:

At Silchester, our board consists of 12 people, including two from the school (the Executive Headteacher and a staff governor), plus 10 volunteers from the community - two parent governors, one governor nominated by the local authority, one ex-officio foundation governor from the church, and six other foundation governors.

The Resources Committee focusses primarily on the third core function, through, for example:

• Overseeing the financial performance of the school through approving, monitoring and reviewing the budget
• Overseeing personnel matters including monitoring staff performance management
• Monitoring health and safety with regular visits to the school

We convene as a Full Governing Body (FGB) once every half term to focus on core function one, i.e. the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school. At this meeting, we review the Silchester ethos and culture, its vision and core Christian values - particularly as a Church of England school - together with the assessments and recommendations from each of the committees. In 2023 with a new team leading the school, the whole school community revisited its strategic vision and core Christian values.

The FGB reviews the School Improvement Plan (SIP), reviews policies such as Safeguarding, Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), and approves and monitor the budget, along with many other topics.

As skilled professionals, we bring a wide range of skills and expertise. Currently, our governing body brings experience in finance, premises management, education, and project management. We regularly review the skills set of our governing body and will actively recruit new governors to fill any gaps.

If you have a skill set that you think would be a good fit for the governors, we would love to hear from you! It is sometimes possible to co-opt people with specific skill sets to help build our vision in a particular area without the time commitment of being a full governor. Skills that would be particularly useful for us are marketing, finance, HR, health and safety, and digital transformation.

Although we like to be involved in the school and to visit regularly, we are not responsible for the day-to-day running of the school. That responsibility lies with the Head of School and Executive Headteacher.

Whilst governors have an overall responsibility for the staffing structure of the school and are represented on most recruitment panels, staff deployment within the school is delegated to the Executive Headteacher. We are responsible for the appointment of the Headteacher for which we receive professional support from the Hampshire County Council as the local authority, and Portsmouth and Winchester Diocese. Through working alongside our Executive Headteacher, Head of School and senior leaders, we ensure every opportunity is made to provide the best education for our children. 

Liv Edwards (Chair of Governors)

Danny Gibbons (Vice Chair)

Deb Forrester (Staff Governor)

Rev Karen West (Foundation Governor)

Kirsten Johnston (Foundation Governor)

James Stacey (Foundation Governor)

Emily Clapson (Parent Governor)

Vanessa Dore (Safeguarding Governor)

Kate Wright (Foundation Governor)

Bernadette Fleet (Clerk to the governors)

There are a number of different categories of governor:

• Parent - Chosen by and from parents with children at the school (whose term of office can continue once the child has left the school)
• Foundation - Unique to church schools, foundation governors are those nominated by the Parochial Church Council and appointed by the diocese to contribute to and monitor the impact of the school's distinctive Christian vision
• Local Authority - Appointed by Hampshire County Council
• Co-opted or Associate member - Periodically elected by the governing body when required to bring specific skills
• Staff - The Executive Headteacher has the option to become an ex officio governor at any time once appointed; the staff governor can be a teaching or non-teaching member of staff and is appointed by the staff

Other information
Approved minutes of Governing Body meetings are available upon request from the school office via email: adminoffice@silchester.hants.sch.uk or telephone: 0118 9700 256.

Our Written Statement of Behaviour Principles can be found on the policies page and here: Silchester Church of England Primary School Written Statement of Behaviour Principles 2024 to 2025

Many questions and queries can be answered by talking with your child's class teacher or another appropriate member of staff. If you feel a matter has not been resolved by the school and you would like to make a complaint to the governing body, please follow the Complaints Procedure found on the policies page and here: Silchester Church of England Primary School Complaints Policy 2024 to 2027