Governors & Become a Governor
Curriculum-Link Governors
Governors are nominated to develop links with different curriculum areas and challenge Curriculum Leaders. They liaise with teaching staff from their chosen curriculum area, to ensure they have first-hand knowledge of the area and the progress students are making. They also work to support staff and bring any areas of concern to the attention of the Principal and the rest of the Governing Body. Governors also talk to students and to parents about their experiences of the Academy and the service it gives to their children.
Questions they ask the Curriculum Leaders include:
- What is your judgement on the standards of achievement in Key Stage 3 / Key Stage 4 and Post-16 in last year’s exams? In comparison with the departmental targets, and performance nationally (for the previous year), are they below/average/above?
- What is the current data showing you about the progress of this year’s Yr11 and Yr9?
- What does your department put in place to stretch more able students? How many potential A*/A grade students did you have last year and how many of them achieved this grade in your subject?
- What does your department do to support the less able students or those on the Special Needs register? How do you monitor the progress of vulnerable groups of students e.g. SEN/FSM/looked after/ girls with low self-esteem – and what do you do in your department to help them achieve well?
- How successful are you?
- How do you know if your target-setting is accurate?
- Have you noticed any patterns in the performance of girls and boys? Have you done anything particular to prevent the ‘see-saw’ effect of one year boys performing well, the next girls?
- Science and maths: we are a specialist Academy – why aren’t our results ‘outstanding’?
- Show us some evidence of how you are tackling the weaknesses you have identified as part of your exams analysis?
- What can governors or the senior team do to support you in tackling any weaknesses?
- How do you seek student views and what have you done to respond to their views? How do you make sure all groups are represented – SEN/able/travellers/ FSM etc ?
- How do you seek the views of parents and what evidence do you have that you have taken their views on board?
- How would a student know, from the work of your department, that we are a specialist Academy for science and maths…what impact has this had on your Department?
- How are you developing literacy?
- How would you judge the quality of learning and progress in this Department: satisfactory/good/outstanding? How do you know?
- How often do you go into lessons to monitor students’ work? What do you do when you see students off-task?
- What strategies are used to manage behaviour in your department? How successful is your team in doing this?
Questions they ask the Students include:
- How do the students interviewed feel about this subject?
- How often is homework set and marked?
- How good is the feedback given to students?
- Is work marked regularly?
- What do the students think?
Current Academy Governors
The term of office for an Academy governor is normally four years and governors are expected to attend at least one meeting per term. Most governors find they usually attend meetings or visit Academy three or four times a term.
Committee Structure And Terms Of Reference
Becoming a Governor
The Elizabethan Academy currently has a vacancy for two parent governors and is looking for parents and carers who would be interested in taking on this role, and who have children at the academy. Please read the following letter and documents for more information:
Parent Governor Elections Letter 2020