Governing Body
A Garden for the Greeks - RHS Tatton 2013 - Year 2-6 - Gardening Club with Gods and Monsters by Art Club
There are places for twelve school governors on our governing board, their role being to oversee the work of the school, providing challenge and support to school leaders and encourage a culture of reflection and improvement.
What is the role of the Governing Body?
The governing body of the school has a number of functions. The Department for Education summarises them in this way: “In all types of schools, governing boards should have a strong focus on three core strategic functions:
Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils; and
Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.”
Current government policy is to give all schools more autonomy, and in the current climate the capacity of the Local Authority to monitor, support and challenge the school has been significantly reduced. At the same time the environment in which all schools operate is one of continuing change. This makes the role of the governing board even more important. Governors provide very necessary scrutiny, challenge and support for the school. Governors work with school leaders to develop a vision and strategy for maintaining sustainable high standards (in their broadest sense) and a culture whereby Kingsmead continues to be a reflective, forward looking professional community. We strive to do this against an increasingly difficult funding context, as do other schools across the country.
meet the governing boDY
Chris Atherton (Co-opted: 26/11/2020 - 25/11/2024)
Register of interests:
Assistant Principal, Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College
Mr Atherton in Assistant Principal at Sir John Deane's College where he leads on innovation in teaching and learning, the Oxbridge and Medics programmes and remote learning. He teaches English and has a background in linguistics. Alongside his career in teaching, he writes academic books on education. He moved to Northwich in 2020 and has a two-year old daughter.
Kerry Galvin (Co-opted: 1 September 2019 - 1 September 2023)
Vice Chair of Governors
Lead governor for Health and Safety and GDPR
Mrs Galvin has two children, one currently attending Kingsmead Primary School. Kerry is the Schools Liaison Officer at Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College where she co-ordinates the volunteer reading mentor scheme between the school and college.
Register of interests:
Schools Liaison Officer, Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College
Louise Heywood (Co-opted: 12/05/2022-11/05/2026)
Lead Governor for Wellbeing
Mrs Heywood is an experienced senior leader in the transport sector, leading strategic planning and investment on a number of high-profile and complex transport programmes.
Louise is also qualified relationship and mental health counsellor and is passionate about health and wellbeing, especially equipping children and young people to become more resilient.
She has two children already at Kingsmead Primary and another who will be starting sooner than she's ready for!
Register of interests:
None
Louisa Jones (Co-opted: 01/09/2019 - 31/08/2023)
Vice Chair of Governors
Designated governor for Safeguarding, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Children in Care [CiC]
Mrs Jones has been a Social Work practitioner and Group Manager specialising in the field of safeguarding children. Louisa has also been a guest speaker at a local university as part of their social work degree programme. She is currently taking a career break to focus on her two young children, of which the eldest currently attends Kingsmead Primary.
Register of interests:
None
Zoe Lau (Parent: 04/05/2023 - 03/05/2027)
Miss Lau has been a primary teacher in Hong Kong for eight years after graduating from University. She has also lived in Australia before moving to the UK. Zoe's child started Kingsmead in Reception in September 2023 and she is keen to support her son's school and bring her knowledge from further afield to support our school.
Register of interests:
None
Lucy Pittaway (Parent: 11/12/2020 - 10/12/2024)
Lead governor for sustainability and Eco-Schools
Mrs Pittaway is a Senior Lecturer in Events Management and a Year Manager at Manchester Metropolitan University; having spent 15 years working on large scale events in London and Manchester, she now shares her passion and experience with young event professionals. Lucy has two children at Kingsmead and is supportive of all events held by the KFA.
Register of interests:
A career mentor for Reachout charity
Chris Reed (Co-opted: 26/11/2020 - 25/11/2024)
Register of interests:
Kingsmead Parish Council (former Chair)
Lisa Rutter-Brown (Headteacher Governor: 01/09/2023)
Mrs Rutter-Brown is the Designated Safeguarding Lead for Kingsmead and has a keen interest in supporting children that have experienced early life trauma. She leads on Pupil Premium and is the Designated Teacher for Looked After Children, working closely with the Virtual School. She has two daughters, both now at high school and lives in Northwich.
Register of interests:
None
Paul Tuohy (Co-opted: 01/09/2019 - 31/08/2023)
Lead Governor for Resources (finance, premises and staffing)
Mr Tuohy has two children attending Kingsmead Primary School and works in senior commercial roles across Government. Paul is also a Chartered Chemist.
Register of interests:
None
Jess Tweedie (Staff: - 09/05/2023 -
Staff Governor
Ms Tweedie joined us as a newly qualified teacher and now co leads Mathematics and is the Trade Union rep for the National Education Union. As a governor, Jess represents the whole staff team, teaching and support colleagues, in working with the governing body to provide the best opportunities for our children and staff to thrive, make a positive contribution and enjoy learning and working at Kingsmead.
Joanne Watkins (Parent: - 17/01/2019 - 13/01/2023; co-opted 13/01/2023 - 12/01/2027)
Chair of Governors
Lead governor for Quality of Education (curriculum and standards)
Mrs Watkins has used her expertise in High School mathematics to support our older children in meeting the challenging expectations for the year 6 mathematics curriculum at greater depth. Joanne has been a link governor for Mathematics.
Mrs Watkins works as a Mathematics teacher at Ashton on Mersey Teaching School where she also works as a professional mentor for new trainees. She works supporting other schools within their teaching school alliance and across the North West Maths Hub.
How can Governors help if I have a concern about the school?
Governors will be informed of concerns and views shared through appropriate channels. The school consults with families and parents' and carers' views are shared with Governors; you can read more about this on www.kingsmead.cheshire.sch.uk/communication-letters-home/consultation. Themes and issues communicated through feedback@kingsmead.cheshire.sch will be shared with governors and, extremely occasionally, specific serious matters (with names redacted and confidentiality maintained) might be shared in order that Governor can undertake their role in holding school leaders to account.
The law is clear - the operational leadership and management of the school is the responsibility of the headteacher. The governors' role is to drive the strategic vision and values and ensure that these are reflected in the school's work and children's experiences.
Governors also have a role in the final part of the school complaints procedure (or earlier if a complaint about the headteacher). This means that they may be called upon when, having followed the procedure, the complainant remains unsatisfied and believes that the school have either acted unlawfully or not followed their own policies and procedures. In this event, a committee of governors will be convened to consider the complaint alongside the response the school has already made and consider whether the headteacher has acted lawfully or unreasonably in respect of the school's published policies and procedures. Following any complaint and whatever the outcome, governors and school leaders will always reflect in order that things can be improved for the future.
Governors don’t need to be experts on education
They do need to be committed to keeping all discussion, scrutiny and decision-making focused on the best interests of children and be relentless in their determination to make the school vision a reality for all pupils. They need to be able to get on with people and to be able to work as part of a team, but also be able ask the difficult questions when it’s necessary – and sometimes the easy questions too, like ‘Why do we do it like that?’ Governors, as volunteers, also need to be able to make time to come into school occasionally during the school day for purposeful visits, and to attend and contribute to evening meetings regularly – at least two meetings a term.
Governors meet once every half term; days and times are kept under review to best maximise governor attendance. While we no longer operate a committee structure, we have lead and designated governors who support the chair and clerk in setting agendas and managing governors' work. Committees for Pay appeals and Discipline and Grievance (and appeals) are convened from the full governing body.
Our expectations of each other are summarised in our governors’ code of conduct, which we reviewed and updated at our October 2018 meeting. Details of current members of the board, our code of conduct, committee membership and governors’ attendance records, as well as the register of interests are provided on this website page. Should you wish to contact the chair of governors, you may do so in writing, care of the school, or by email at chair@kingsmead.cheshire.sch.uk.
We are always keen to meet new people interested in joining our governing body. If you would like to find out more please make an appointment to discuss this with the chair of governors or headteacher. We welcome all people wishing to make a contribution to school as a governor and particularly welcome interest from groups underrepresented on the governing body including minority ethnic groups, LGBT+ and the disabled.
Support for Governors
At Kingsmead we take the voluntary role of governors very seriously. There is an expectation governors undertake relevant training, which may be online or face to face, and keep abreast of educational developments as they affect the school. Course fees are paid for by the school and governors are entitled to travel and subsistence expenses for training. We will also reimburse additional childcare costs for governors undertaking duties as part of their role.
Past governors
Thank you to those who have supported the strategic direction and monitored the school's effectiveness.
Rosie Bangham - Co-opted 2014-2017
Claire Barker - Co-opted 2011-2018
Ada Chrys-Chikere (Co-opted: 02/02/2022 - 01/02/2026)
Lisa Forbes - Parent 2014-2016
Paula Hammond (Staff Governor: 22/03/2019 - 21/03/2023)
Angela Harris - Associate Member 26/10/2018
Mark Higgins - Parent 2016-2018
Andy Kent - Co-opted 25/10/18-25/07/19
Kerry Kirkwood - Co-opted: 16/11/2017 - 06/10/2020
Cathy Lewis - Staff 2012 - 09/02/2019
Cat Oakes - Co-opted 2017-2018
Sam Rocke - Parent 23/10/2003 - 13/07/2016, Co-opted: 14/07/2016 - 20/06/2024
Mark Smith - Parent 2014-17, Co-opted 2017-2019
Catriona Stewart - Headteacher March 2004-August 2023
Michael Walters - Co-opted 2011-2017, Associate Member 2017-2018
Helen Weltman - Co-opted - 23/04/2014 - 20/03/2021)
Lesley Nelson (Parent 23/05/2016, Co-opted 30/03/2020 - 29/03/2024)