Meet the Governors

Welcome to the Governors section of the School Website.

As of January 2018 St Mary's became a member of our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi-Academy Trust. The structure and committees of our Governing Body reflect the structure of the Trust Board. The school has two committees of the Trust Board which both meet termly - Resources and Teaching, Learning & Standards.

Contact us via the school by e-mail: admin@st-marys-ipswich.suffolk.sch.uk or in writing in an envelope addressed to a named Governor.

There are different types of Governors. Foundation Governors are appointed by the Bishop and are always in the majority in a Voluntary Aided school. Parent Governors are elected. Staff Governors represent the interests of the people employed by the school.

Report of Governors Strategy Day

The School Governing Body held their first Governors' Strategy Day on 25th September and I am pleased to report that this was a positive day for both the Governors and the school leadership team. Below gives an overview of the reason strategy days are held and the benefits outcomes from our first one.

Governor Strategy Days are now held termly and are designed to provide a number of benefits, including; Giving Governors the training needed to fulfil their roles appropriately, an opportunity to better understand school life, a chance to focus on specific school issues and to provide feedback to the leadership team. The focus of the September Strategy Day was 'behaviour'.

The September strategy day was a positive experience and School Governors were able to observe the children being taught in class and also at lunch time. (Where we joined the children in eating the school meal - pasta with veg, which was nutritious and tasty).

Overall we were delighted to see an impressive level of behaviour across all year groups. It was clear that all teachers had control of their class and this meant that during our visit every child was engaged in learning. There were a number of behavioural management techniques evident which were age appropriate and based upon positive reinforcement rather than punishment. We observed little low level disruptive behaviour but when this did occur it was quickly dealt with. Focus groups with pupils from all year groups were undertaken to gain an understanding of the effects of behaviour on others and this was a helpful insight into a number of issues. Pupils expressed a good understanding of how to report behaviour that they felt was disruptive and felt sure that teachers would deal with it.

We were impressed with the general level of behaviour and to the extent with which training undertaken by teachers during recent PD days was reflected in teaching across the school. A full report on behaviour was provided to Mrs Berry at the end of the day.

Kevin Reilly

CoG

The Governing Body

Name of Governor	Type	Date Appointed	End of term of Office
Eamonn Bridger	Foundation	1/9/15	1/9/23
Josephine Measham / Jo Berry	Head of School	1/9/13	1/9/21
Collette Duhamel-Newton	Staff	1/9/19	31/08/23
Donata Serrano	Foundation	1/10/17	30/09/21
Fr Peter Raj	Foundation	16/9/19	15/9/23
Paul Phillips	Foundation	1/11/19	31/10/23
Kevin Reilly	Foundation	1/10/18	15/10/21
Ugo Nwamo	Parent	1/11/18	31/10/22
Chris Griggs	Foundation	1/1/19	31/12/22

Chair - Kevin Reilly

Vice Chair - Eamonn Bridger

Clerk - Louise Pettit - School Business Manager

Governors who have previously served in the past 12 months:

Name Date end of term of office

Leeba Swift 1/11/20

Milena Kaczmarczyk 1/9/20

Associate Members:

No voting rights are currently held by the associate members.

Pecuniary Interests

A pecuniary interest is where a Governor or member of staff has a financial interest in a third party business that the school uses or may use int he future which could conflict with the policies, procedures or ethos of the school.

Pecuniary interests are declared annually in the Autumn Term, and at any point during the year if changes occur.

Governors Attendance at Meetings

Governors have excellent attendance at all meetings. We have never cancelled a meeting because it was not “quorate” (the number of governors needed to ensure that legal decisions can be made).

Autumn 2020

Governor	Teaching, Learning and Standards 5.30 pm via Zoom 30.09.20	Resources 5.30 pm via Zoom 04.11.20
Jo Berry	Y	Y
Eamonn Bridger	Y	Aps
Chris Griggs	Y	Aps
Collette Duhamel-Newton	Y	Y
Jo Measham	Maternity	Maternity
Ugo Nwamo	Y	Y
Paul Phillips	Y	Y
Father Peter Raj	Aps	Aps
Kevin Reilly (Chair)	Y	Y
Jill Sandvig	Y	Y
Donata Serrano	Aps	Aps
Leeba Swift	Y	Aps

Louise Pettit (SBM) Clerk	Y	Y