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Governor Services:
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Kingston
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary school in Kingston has a long connection with Wandsworth’s School Governor Services. So, when head teacher Lorraine Flower joined St Joseph’s in April 2022, after 12 years as a deputy head in Weybridge, Surrey, she found there was already a clerk to the governors who knew the school well.
“We are in the borough of Kingston and we do use their governor services as well, getting help with Governor Hub, but it’s Wandsworth’s School Governor Services that provides most support with governance tasks,” she says.
Clerk to the Governors is Steve Laffey who Lorraine describes as: “Very serious and knowledgeable. He keeps us on track and runs the meetings really well. He is efficient and timely with drafts of minutes, agendas, and if ever there are points for clarification needed in meetings, he tends to have the answers. In my time here he’s been fantastic and very good at his role.”
Schools need to keep on top of statutory policies and that’s where the Head finds professional clerking support a boon. “Our clerk sends a suggested agenda before a meeting and keeps a policy schedule for us – he will put on any statutory policies that are needed in time for that meeting and is open to us making amendments and putting on any agenda items we want to discuss. It is very much done in collaboration with the chair of governors and myself,” says Lorraine.
As well as organising a schedule of committee meetings a year in advance Steve also creates documents showing which policies need to be reviewed and which committee they need to go to. St Joseph’s is a small school, with around 240 pupils, but it still has a busy committee set up with the full governing body (FGB) and finance committees and has recently merged its Catholic life and Curriculum committees into one.
In addition, the Clerk did pay panel meetings for St Joseph’s in 2024 and clerked for a couple of disciplinary meetings.
“We get diocese training and Kingston governor training sent through and Steve is very good at communicating any available training to governors,” adds Lorraine who has recommended Wandsworth’s Governor Services to nearby schools looking for a new clerk.
“We are joining an academy trust on 1 January 2025,” says Lorraine, “but I don’t plan on losing Steve as our clerk as a result of it.”