Meet The Governors

Crossways Federation Governing Board

Governors

Crossways Schools is a federation of Crossways Infant School and Crossways Junior School. There is one governing board that provides oversight to both schools. It is collectively referred to as Crossways.

 

Chair of Governors                     David Jenkins

Vice Chair                                  Anthony Phillips

Clerk to the Governing Board     Rachel Beattie

 

For the full list of governors and the latest attendance and pecuniary, please see the attached files

The governing board consists of parents, staff and members of the community. This ensures a wide range of stakeholder representation. There is a mixture of elected posts and co-opted posts within the staff and parent governors. Board members from the community are co-opted according to the skills they offer.

The Chair of Governors and the Vice Chair are appointed annually. The term of office for governors is four years. All can serve more than one term.

 

Responsibilties

The governing board has three main functions

  1. Ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
  2. Hold the Federation Head Teacher to account for the educational performance of Crossways and its pupils and the effective and efficient performance management of staff.
  3. Overseeing the financial performance of Crossways and making sure its money is well spent.

This is achieved through discussion at the eight board meetings per year and visits to school by individual governors to discuss with staff specific areas highlighted as priorities in the school development plan. As the strategic priorities change the areas of monitoring also change. However, there are two areas where we are required to have permanent governor monitoring. These are Safeguarding and the education for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities). We also have permanent monitoring of Health & Safety and Staff and Child Wellbeing.

In addition, governors review and approve the policies used by Crossways to ensure that they reflect the vision, ethos and strategic direction of then schools as well as ensuring compliance with statutory requirements

The day-to-day operational leadership at Crossways is the responsibility of the Federation Head Teacher and their leadership team.

Governor

Role

Term of Office

David Jenkins

Local Authority Governor and Chair

 01.01.20 – 31.12.23

Anthony Phillips

Co-opted governor and vice chair

16.09.21 – 15.09.25 

Emma Aiken-Jones

Co-opted governor

 02.02.20 – 01.02.24

Katy Eales

Co-opted governor

01.09.22 – 31.08.26 

Katey Dowdeswell

Co-opted governor

01.09.22 – 31.08.26 

Alan Bucke

Co-opted governor

24.09.23 – 23.09.27

Thomas Baxter

Co-opted governor

01.09.23 – 31.08.27

Carrie Rees

Elected parent governor

01.09.23 – 31.08.27

Sam Baker-Green

Elected parent governor

01.09.23 – 31.08.27

Dominique Ayotte Reader

Elected staff governor

23.05.23 – 22.05.27

Jo Geoghegan

Federation HT and Ex Officio Gov

Duration of employment

Paul Medlicott

Co-opted staff governor

01.09.22 – 31.08.26

Claire Clarke

Co-opted staff governor

15.10.20 – 14.10.24

Rachel Beattie

Clerk to governors

Employed Post

Individual areas of focus (Link governors)

 For the current academic year we have link governors which include the required roles, as well as those areas chosen by the governing board to align with Crossways’ School Development Plan:

 

Area of focus

Governor responsible

Safeguarding

David Jenkins

Whistleblowing

David Jenkins

Health and Safety

Katy Eales

GDPR and computing

TBC

Inclusion (including SEND and Pupil Premium)

Emma Aiken-Jones

Children and Staff Mental health and wellbeing

Katey Dowdeswell

Curriculum, with emphasis on:

English, Maths, History, and Geography

David Jenkins/Katey Dowdeswell

Quality of teaching, pupil attainment and progress

Anthony Phillips

 

Chair of Governors Annual Statement

 The governors keep the Crossways community updated on their work through contributions to newsletters during the year and an annual statement.  Please find attached the most recent annual statement.

 

Governor Contacts

We encourage everyone to use the established methods of communicating with school for day to day matters.  However, if you would like to raise a matter with the governors, please contact the Chair or Governors David Jenkins by email via the school office: c/o office@crossways.org.uk 

 

Business & Pecuniary interests 23-24