Governing Board

The Governing Board, Headteacher and senior staff form the school Leadership and Management team and share responsibility for the school.  The Governing Board must hold the school to account for the standards it achieves.  It must ensure that all resources (including the school budget and staff) are properly used to meet the needs of all children and provide value for money.  Governors help to develop the School Improvement Plan and are responsible for monitoring all aspects of its effectiveness in terms of outcomes for pupils.

Who are the Governors?

The Governing Board is made up of 4 groups who represent the stakeholders of the school: staff, parents, the community and the Local Authority.  This range of people is intended to provide a broad and balanced selection of viewpoints and to represent each sector of the school’s community. Governors are volunteers. An effective Governing Board will have members who have a wide range of experience and a variety of skills to offer their school. They typically have a term of office of for four years and during this time will have a variety of responsibilities.

Key roles of governors:

• To ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• To hold the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff
• To oversee the financial performance of the school and make sure its money is well spent 

The constitution of the Downsview Governing Board is:

•  The Headteacher
• 6 Co-opted Governors
• 1 Local Authority (LA) Governor
• 1 Staff Governor
• 2 Parent Governors

The Governing Board has two committees – the Pay Committee and Headteacher’s Performance Management Committee.  Governors have monitoring and other individual responsibilities and report on their activities to meetings of the full board. 

The Clerk to the Governors is Karen Fitzpatrick.

If you wish to contact the Governing Board please address correspondence to the Chair of Governors or the Clerk to Governors C/O the school. 

If you are interested in becoming a school governor, please enquire at the school office and we will contact you to talk about what the role involves and the opportunities that are available.  At the present time we are very keen to recruit governors from the local community.

These are the people in post, with their terms of office and governor responsibilities:

	Term of office	Responsibilities
Executive Headteacher
Caroline Cain	05/04/24	Ex Officio Governor, member of all committees except pay committee
Co-opted Governors	(3 vacancies)
Jo Penn	06/5/20 – 05/5/24	Chair of Governors Headteacher’s Performance Management
James Ellwood	19/7/23 – 18/7/27	Safeguarding Headteacher’s Performance Management Pay Committee
Karen Makomereh	20/9/23 - 19/9/27	Pay Committee  Finance Monitoring
LA Governor
Margaret Moyle	23/3/23 – 22/3/27	Vice Chair of Governors Governor Monitoring Pay Committee Finance Monitoring
Parent Governors
Alicia Logan	4/10/21 – 3/10/24	Liaison with Friends of Downsview
Jon Porter	31/3/23 - 30/3/27
Staff Governor
Matthew Turner	3/10/22 – 2/10/25

 

Resignations this year

Luke Donnellan (19^th July 2023)

Abbie Fulks (20^th September 2023)

Christine Allsop end of term of office 19th May 2024

Business Interests

The governors declare their business interests annually and update them during the year if required.  There is a legal duty on all governors to declare any interest likely to lead to questions of bias when considering any item of business at a meeting and for the governor concerned to withdraw, if necessary, whilst the matter is considered.

This is the summary from May 2024:

Governor	Business Interests
C Cain	Headteacher, New Ash Green Primary School
J Elwood	None
M Moyle	Trust Governor at Horton Kirby School  On the local governing body and Trust Challenge committee of Alethia Trust Academy   Schools
Jo Penn	Trustee at Connect Schools Academy Trust
Alicia Logan	Member of Friends of Downsview  Employed in school
Jon Porter	None
Karen Makomereh	None
Matthew Turner	Employed by school  Partner works in school

 Business and Pecuniary Interests - governors who have left with the past 12 months

Governor	Business Interests
C Allsop	None
Luke Donnellan	None
Abbie Fulks	None

 

Governors’ Attendance at meetings 2022-23 Academic Year

	Full Governing Board	Apologies accepted
James Elwood	1/1	0
Margaret Moyle	8/8	0
Christine Allsop	8/8	0
Alicia Logan	8/8	0
Luke Donnellan	7/8	1
Jo Penn	6/8	2
Jon Porter	1/1	0

 (Updated Annually)

Meet Our Governors 

Jo Penn – Co-opted Governor and Chair of Governors

I joined Downsview during lockdown and have been Chair of Governors since July 2022.  I am looking forward to my new role, getting to know the school community better and meeting our aspirations to look beyond, reach further and aim higher.

I have served as a governor/trustee for eighteen years across various settings, starting my governance journey as a parent governor. During that time, I have spoken on governance at local and national conferences, delivered governor training, supported boards as a National Leader of Governance and founded a school governor forum on social media which has been recognised by the DfE, NGA and Ofsted.

I am married with a grown-up daughter and labradoodle and enjoying semi-retirement with more time for walking, baking, gardening and crochet.  I qualified as an Osteopath in 1985 and have my own practice based at home.  I hold a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic and Clinical Education.  My 34 years as a clinical tutor, lecturer and examiner in the UK and overseas bring many skills and attributes to support governance activities.

 

Margaret Moyle – Local Authority Governor and Vice Chair of Governors

I have worked in education all my life and have taught right across the Primary age range.  As a Headteacher I led an Infant School and Hearing Impaired Unit through three successful OfSTED inspections.  My passion was developing and nurturing my teaching and support staff, many of whom are now distributed across the area as Primary headteachers, one being the CEO of an Academy Trust.

As a young teacher, I taught at Downsview Infant School.  So much has changed since then but the ethos of the school remains.

I have been a governor in a wide variety of schools but being a governor in my retirement at Downsview has been the most rewarding experience.

I enjoy crafting and experimenting with a variety of craft techniques.  I have three young grandsons who have kept me busy in retirement and I have two dogs.  One is a therapy dog who has visited the school.

I hope that the skills I have will support Mr Moore, Downsview School and the Governing Board in its future development.

  

Alicia Logan – Parent Governor

Initially I joined the Governing Board in March 2021 as an Associate Member as Chair of the Friends of Downsview.  I was later elected as Parent Governor in October 2021.  I had started to learn what governors did for the school and really enjoyed what I was learning.  Helping to support my own children by having an involvement and better understanding of how the school runs. 

I am an Early Years Practitioner, now working in the school.  I am an avid reader and can easily lose myself in a good book.  I love anything creative and hands on – DIY, growing my own vegetables, foraging and walks.  I enjoy cooking different cuisines and learning new skills.  I also have a passion for photography and enjoy capturing special moments.

I look forward to helping to support the school vision and values, knowing that the children will be encouraged to be individuals and develop values such as trust, self-respect and self-belief.

  

Matthew Turner – Staff Governor

I work as the Year 5 teacher at Downsview Community Primary School where I have been teaching for nearly 4 years.

This is my first position as a governor and I hope to make a positive impact on the school through my contribution as part of the governing board.

I have an interest in music and play guitar. I also enjoy playing both traditional and non-traditional board games. I have recently taken up sketching and have come to enjoy taking a sketch pad on walks.

I have taught at Downsview Community Primary School for nearly 4 years.  I have been helped so much on my journey as a teacher by the school and wanted to do everything I can to have a positive impact on the place that has done so much for me.