Four Oaks Primary School

Below you will find a list of the members of our school Governing Body.

Name	Type of Governor	Connection to Staff	Date of Appointment	Term of Office End Date (4 yrs)
Mrs D. Jones (Chair)	Co-opted Governor	Ex-member of staff	30/09/23	29/09/27
Mr T. Briggs (Vice Chair)	Co-opted Governor	No	20/05/2021	19/5/25
Mr M. Benton	Head Teacher (Related to School Catering Manager)	Yes - Head Teacher & brother of Catering Manager	N/A	N/A
Miss L. Appleby	Deputy Head Teacher Co-opted Governor	Yes - Deputy Head	01/09/22	31/08/26
Miss S. Glynn	Staff Representative	Yes - Staff Rep	20/09/23	19/09/27
Mrs J. Van Arkadie	Foundation Governor	No	23/11/20	22/11/24
Mrs H. Sutton	Foundation Governor	Ex-member of staff	10/05/21	09/05/25
Mrs N. Pole	Co-opted Governor	No	23/11/20	22/11/24
Mrs S. Cardwell	Parent Representative	No	05/10/22	04/10/26
Mr. R. Bhandal	Parent Representative	No	05/10/22	04/10/26
Mrs H. Birha	Parent Representative	No	05/10/22	04/10/26
Mr.C. Osborn	Clerk to Governors (Non-Voting)	No	01/09/20	N/A

Welcome to the section of our website where you can find out more about the Governors and the work that they do.

Governors have an important role as a 'Critical Friend' to the school, working in partnership with the school community to help provide the best possible education for our pupils. This is achieved by:

- Setting the school's values, vision and strategic aims, agreeing plans and policies, and making creative use of resources.

- Monitoring and evaluating performance, acting as a critical friend to the Headteacher to support and challenge the Headteacher in managing the school.

- Ensuring that the school is accountable to the children and parents it serves, to its local community, to those who fund and maintain it, as well as to the staff it employs.

Categories of Governor

Local Authority (LA) Governor - nominated by Birmingham City Council.

Co-opted Governor - a person appointed by the Governing Body who has the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.

Parent Governors - are elected by and from the parents

Staff Governor - elected by and from the staff

Committees

The responsibilities of the Governing body are shared between three main committees, each with a specific responsibility; the Finance Committee oversees the budget, staffing, strategy and resources, our Resources Committee is responsible for the working environment and health and safety on site, and the Safeguarding Committee overseas all aspects of safeguarding in school. In addition to this, there are further committees which meet as and when the need arises; Pay Committee, Discipline and Complaints, and the Curriculum Committee. All committees report back to the main Governing Body.

Finance Committee & Pay and Personnel

Mrs H Sutton (Chair)

Mr M Benton (Head Teacher)

Miss L Appleby (Deputy Head Teacher)

Mrs J Van Arkadie

Mrs H Birha

Mr R Bhandal

Mrs N Humphries (Schools Financial Services)

Resources Committee

Mr A Briggs (Chair)

Mr M Benton (Head Teacher)

Miss L Appleby (Deputy Head Teacher)

Mrs H Sutton

Mrs D Jones

Mr D Meyer (Site Supervisor)

Safeguarding Committee

Mrs S Cardwell (Chair)

Mr M Benton (Head Teacher)

Miss L Appleby (Deputy Head Teacher)

Mr T Briggs

Mrs N Pole

Mrs D Jones

Curriculum Committee

Mrs. D. Jones (Chair)

All governors

Link Governors

Safeguarding - Mrs S Cardwell

GDPR - Mr M Benton

Mathematics - Mr R Bhandal

English - Mrs J Van Arkadie

Science - Mrs D Jones

EYFS - Mrs. H Sutton

SEND - Mrs D Jones

Training - Mrs H Birha

Collective Worship - Mr T Briggs

Well-being - Mrs H Birha

Link Governors are those who have been assigned to a specific focus of school life. There are Link Governors assigned to many areas of the curriculum. The role of the Linked Governor is:

to take an interest in and gain more detailed knowledge of their area
to know what is contained in the School Improvement Plan (SIP for their area)
to be involved in the review of the SIP for their area and to be part of the planning process
to help the governing body in its critical friend role by asking questions about progress and challenging appropriately about attainment in their area
to report back at agreed intervals either to the appropriate committee or the full governing body
to work in full partnership with the Headteacher

Past Governors

Name	Type of Governor	Resigned
Mrs Sue Burke	Foundation Governor	19.11.2020
Mrs Susan Hill	Co-opted Governor	11.05.2021
Mrs Vivienne McDonald	Foundation Governor	20.07.2020
Mrs Judith Powell	Co-opted Governor	23.11.2020
Mrs Natalie Sturmey	Elected Parent	04.10.2022
Mr Paul Farrer	Associate Member	24.01.2022
Mr Trevor Johnson	Co-opted Governor	21.11.2022
Mrs Natalie Sturmey	Parent Governor	04.10.2022
Mrs. Joy Batsford	Local Authority Governor	12.05.2023
Mrs. Jennie Atherton	Co-opted Governor	17.12.2021