Malorees Governors & Associate Members

The Board

What is the Malorees Governing and Associate Members Board?

The Malorees Governing and Associate Members Board is the group of people that has strategic oversight over, and legal accountability for Malorees School.

As you may know, Malorees Infant and Junior Schools have been in a federation since 2017. This means that, although they are legally separate schools, we operate them as much as possible as one school. Therefore, Malorees has one board of Governors and Associate Members , which oversees both schools.

You can see our Instrument of Governance here.

What is the role of the Governing and Associate Members Board?

The key main responsibilities of the board are:

Setting the school’s vision, ethos and strategy and making sure it is reflected in the school’s curriculum, policies and practices.
Holding the school’s leaders to account for the school’s educational performance and the effective performance management of staff.
Overseeing the school’s financial performance. This means setting the school’s budget, holding leaders to account for how the budget is spent and ensuring it is spent in line with the school’s priorities.
Ensuring that the school fulfils its statutory obligations, such as ensuring that all staff and pupils have equal opportunities within the school.

In many ways, the Board is a lot like a board of trustees of a charity. Governors and Associate Members sign up to follow a Code of Conduct when they join the board.

How does the Governing and Associate Members Board fulfil its responsibilities?

We make sure we fulfil our responsibilities in various ways, including through:

Board and committee meetings, which take place at least once every term. We have two main sub-committees:
Learning & Safeguarding Committee.
Finance, Property & Staffing Committee.
Regular school visits, during which we speak to staff, subject leaders and pupils; take part in learning walks and see what is happening in practice.
Setting appropriate targets and priorities and reviewing progress against these objectives.
Examining data, such as results for pupils’ performance and reviewing the school’s spending against its budget.
Asking ‘challenging questions’ of senior leaders, to ensure the school is effectively led and managed.
Appointing ‘link’ governors and Associate members, who focus on a particular area in more detail. They conduct a more detailed review of the school in that area and update the Governing and Associate Members Board.
Setting and reviewing school policies and ensuring that they are effective.
Performance-managing the headteacher.
Reviewing and monitoring safeguarding arrangements and practices to ensure that safeguarding and attendance is effectively managed and in accordance with the school’s legal Obligations. This work is led by the Safeguarding link governor.

What types of Governors and Associate Members are there?

There are two different types: ‘full’ governors and ‘associate’ member.

Full governors

Full governors are appointed for four-year terms.
Only full governors can vote at board meetings.
Only full governors can act as Chair of the board of governors.
There are 12 full governor positions on the Malorees Governing Board (as set out in our Instrument of Governance). They comprise:
2 Parent governors (appointed by parent election)
1 staff governor (appointed by staff election)
1 Local Authority governor (appointed by the Local Authority)
5 co-opted governors (appointed by full Governing Board vote for their particular skills)
2 partnership governors (appointed by full Governing Board vote)
1 Headteacher (ex officio role)

Associate Member

Associate members are appointed for (renewable) one-year terms. They can be appointed on the recommendation of the Chairs of Governors
They cannot vote at full board meetings.
They cannot act as Chair of the board of governors.
Can vote at sub-committee meetings

Further Information

You can find out more at

Gov.uk - School governance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

nga.org.uk - Knowledge Centre - National Governance Association (nga.org.uk)