Welcome to our Governors’ section. 

Please find below details of how our Governing body is structured, including the names, categories, responsibilities and terms of appointment for each Governor.

We are committed to ensuring all children’s schooling here at Fairfields is productive, enjoyable, and that every child fulfils his or her full potential during their time here, equipping them for the years ahead.  These formative years are so important. We are proud to do what we can to ensure that our school continues to be successful. We want to be an outstanding school within our community, and a school of choice.  We can’t do this in isolation – we need your help and support to work with us to ensure this happens!

Thank you.

Who we are:

Chaired by Gemma Lester, your Governing Body currently has 9 members (there are governor vacancies for one Local Authority Governor) made up of:

• 2 Parent governors, elected by and from the parents;
• 5 Co-opted governors (These were previously known as Community Governors) – appointed by the governing body, these individuals either live or work in the community and, in the opinion of the governing body, are people who the members feel are committed to the good governance and success of the school;
• 1 Staff governor;
• 1 Local Authority governor – nominated by Herts County Council (post vacant)
• The Headteacher.

Each governor has equal voting powers and the different type of governor is merely the way the individual became a member. The governors’ term of office is 4 years.

What we do – the Purpose of Governance

The purpose of governance is to provide confident, strategic leadership and to create robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.

All boards, no matter what type of schools or how many schools they govern, have three core functions:

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

Effective governance is based on six key features:

• Strategic leadership that sets and champions vision, ethos and strategy.
• Accountability that drives up educational standards and financial performance.
• People with the right skills, experience, qualities and capacity.
• Structures that reinforce clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
• Compliance with statutory and contractual requirements.
• Evaluation to monitor and improve the quality and impact of governance.

How we do it

Full Governing Body meetings take place twice a term.  In addition two sub-committees comprising Premises and Personnel & Finance also meet twice-termly and these debates and outcomes feed into the Full Governing Body meeting.   At these meetings we review and discuss various items including compliance with current legislation, e.g. Financial Management Standards, regularly review our budget, the School’s Development Plan, various policies & procedures and we will challenge these where appropriate.  We work closely with the Head teacher and staff, we undertake visits, individually, to the school on a regular basis to review classroom and other activities to assist us in our role and ensure we understand what goes on, and how.

Contact us

We welcome any ideas / suggestions you have regarding your school and if you wish to contact us, please either pop into the school office with your comments or contact details, or e-mail us direct at : governingbody@fairfields.herts.sch.uk

If you are interested in finding out more about becoming a Governor yourself, please contact the Chair of Governors, and you may find the following website of interest for more detailed information about our role and responsibilities: www.governornet.co.uk

Governors 

We have one vacancy for a Local Authority Governor

PP & F = Premises, Personnel & Finance

Updated 07.10.24

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