Governors

Pluckley Church of England Primary School is an academy as part of The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT).

TKAT is a multi-academy trust, which was established on 1st September 2010. Its constitution is set out in the Articles of Association and this is shared with individual academies via the Scheme of Delegation. TKAT have established Local Governing Bodies for each of the Academies through the Scheme of Delegation.

Click here to view the Scheme of Delegation.

The Local Governing Body of each of the Academies is responsible for fulfilling the strategic and operational governance role in the conduct of the Academy.

Please click here to link to the Directors of the TKAT Board.

Please click here to link to Governance information relating to TKAT, including the structure of governance and relevant details about Trustees terms of office, attendance and business interests.

Please click here for key documents including the Master Funding Agreement, Articles of Association and Accounts.

Pluckley Church of England Primary School Local Governing Body (LGB)

Mission Statement

The aim of the Governing Body is to provide confident, strategic leadership and to create robust accountability, oversight and assurance for education and financial performance at the school. The three core functions of the Governing Body are:

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

Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent

The ethos of our school is captured in our motto “Enjoying, Learning, and Achieving Together” and in the REFLECT values: Respect, Enjoyment, Friendship, Leadership, Endeavour, Cooperation, and Trust.

As governors, we are committed to this ethos, and to making sure that our school promotes British values of equality, freedom, democracy, tolerance, personal responsibility, and the rule of law.

In addition, we promote and encourage the distinctively Christian character of Pluckley, as a Church of England school.

Governors are critical friends to the schools’ leadership team. By undertaking regular monitoring of all aspects of school life, we should not only discover progress and achievement, but also lack of progress and underachievement, if and where it is occurring. On this basis we can provide challenge, as well as support, to the senior leadership team, as appropriate. Monitoring visits and regular meetings of the Governing Body are reinforced by regular training and extensive support from TKAT (the academy chain to which our federated schools belong).

Each year the LGB produces a Governance Impact Statement, summarising their activities and achievements over the previous academic year:

Membership

There are several categories of governor. Parent governors and staff governors are elected by the parents and staff respectively to offer their particular skills and perspectives. Appointed governors are drawn from other parts of the Pluckley communities to provide connections with the wider world and additional professional skills and experiences, while Foundation governors have particular responsibility for the Christian ethos of the school at Pluckley, and the ‘REFLECT’ values across the school.

We currently have 8 governors:

1 Headteacher
1 staff governor
2 parent governors
2 Foundation governors
2 appointed governors

Chair of Governors: Mrs V Carmichael, an appointed governor

Vice-Chair of Governors: awaiting confirmation

Current LGB members

Name	Type	Responsibility	Attendance % *Ac Yr 18-19*
Vicki Carmichael Current term: 19.03.2019-18.03.2023 Start date: 01.02.2015	Appointed	Chair of Governors Wider curriculum/ Science	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
Chloe Longley Current term: 01.04.2018-31.03.2022 Start date: 01.04.2018	Parent	Parent Voice	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
John Mills Current term: 30.04.2019-29.04.2023 Start date: 30.04.2019	Appointed	Vice Chair of Governors Physical Education	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019
Eve Randall Current term: 30.04.2019-29.04.2023 Start date: 30.04.2019	Parent	Parent Voice Reading/ Phonics	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019
Adrian Watson Current term: 19.03.2019-18.03.2023 Start date: 19.03.2023	Staff	Safeguarding	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
Lorraine Smith	Head Teacher		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
Rebecca Love	Clerk to the Governors		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
Chris Olivares	Business Manager		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None
Renate Beerling Current term: 12.02.2020-11.02.2024 Start date: 12.02.2020	Foundation		N/A
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2019	None

Previous LGB members

Name	Type	Responsibility	Attendance % *Ac Yr 17-18*
Paul Brooker Term: 01.01.2016-31.12.2019 Start date: 01.01.2016	Appointed	Member of Finance Committee Community Links REFLECT values	60%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	Church Treasurer of Zion Chapel, Smarden (charity/church) since January 2016. No transactions in 2017-2018
Thomas Dixon Term: 01.02.2015-31.01.2019 Start date: 01.02.2015	Parent	Chair of Governors Chair of Finance Committee Pupil outcomes Leadership and Management Attendance	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Lucy Farrington Term: 01.07.2015-30.06.2019 Start date: 01.07.2015	Appointed	Vice Chair of Governors Chair of Premises Committee Finance Committee Safeguarding Health and Safety	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Richard Finlinson Term: 01.01.2017-31.12.2020 Start date: 01.01.2017	Foundation	Christian ethos of Pluckley and REFLECT values across Smarden and Pluckley Member of Premises Committee	80%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Annie Fowler Term: 01.11.2015-31.10.2019 Start date: 01.11.2015	Parent	Teaching, Learning and Assessment Parent Forums	60%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018
David Linsell	Acting Head Teacher (Smarden), Member of SLT		N/A
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Rachel Aitken	Head of School (Pluckley), Member of SLT		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Elizabeth Bloom Term: 01.01.2016-31.12.2019 Start date: 01.12.2017	Former of Foundation Governor	Christian ethos of Pluckley and REFLECT values across Smarden and Pluckley	100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Melanie Pierce	Business Manager, Member of SLT		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Melanie Smith	Executive Head Teacher, Member of SLT		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	Malcolm Pitts (partner) and Tommie Pitts (step-son)- TJ Pitts & Fahter- Painters & decorators and builders since September 2016. No transactions in 2015-2016.
Heidi Nesbit Term: 01.12.2016-30.11.2020 Start date: 01.12.2016	Staff	Year 5/6 teacher Teaching, Learning and Assessment	80%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Elizabeth Rice	Clerk to the Governors, Business Manager, Smarden		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Mike Taylor	Acting Head Teacher (Smarden), Member of SLT		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None
Rev. Jack Bateson Term: 01.09.2018-15.01.2020 Start date: 01.09.2018	Foundation		100%
Declarations of Interest including transactions to 31^st August 2018	None

Structure

There are five meetings of the full Local Governing Body each academic year. They receive reports on the performance of the school from the Head Teacher, and consider monitoring reports produced by individual governors on all aspects of the life of the school, including pupil progress, attainment, behaviour, and wellbeing, as well as the ethos and values of the school.

The governors are judged by Ofsted, alongside the Head Teacher and her team, for the quality of Leadership and Management at the school.

All governors are volunteers and give up a considerable amount of time in the service of the schools.

Clerking and secretarial support is provided by Rebecca Love. She can be contacted via Rainham School for Girls on 01634 362746 or email rlove@rsg.org.uk