Welcome to the governor pages of the Ely St John’s School website. Use the links on this page to find out more about who the governors are, how they work with the school, and how you can contact them.

Find out more about what governors do

What is the school governing body?

The school governing body is a group of 15 people who work closely with the headteacher and senior staff to ensure that pupils get a good balanced education. The role of the governing body is to represent the public in the running of the school. Every school is required to have a governing body, and there are statutory roles and responsibilities that governors have to fulfil.
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What does the governing body do?

The governing body has three key roles that it is required to fulfil:

·     The strategic role involves ensuring that the school has a clear aims and a vision that is supported by the school community and enacted through clear plans and goals. In this role governors work with staff to ensure that the school has all the resources it needs, and that these are used well and in line with agreed plans.

·     The “critical friend” role involves monitoring and evaluating how the school is progressing towards it aims. As a critical friend, governors need to ask ‘tough’ questions if necessary, but also to celebrate the many successes of the school.

·     The accountability role requires governors to hold the school accountable for the standards it achieves, and to account for the performance of the school to the wider community.
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How do governors carry out their work?

There are three main areas of practical activity for governors. Probably the most important of these are our regular meetings. We meet as a full governing body twice a term, and also have important sub-committees. At or meetings we report, review and plan on a wide range of issues concerned with the strategy and operation of the school.

As part of our role in monitoring and evaluating, governors make regular visits to the school. These can be formal visits, with a specific focus, informal meetings with subject leaders, as well as attending performances, open events, and parent consultations. Visits give governors the chance to meet with staff, pupils and parents and keep in touch with the everyday activity of the school.

Governors also carry out specific projects related to particular issues concerning the school. These might involve changes to buildings and access, monitoring the school’s response to an Ofsted report or helping with the introduction of a new statutory process, for example.
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How can governors help parents?

The main way that governors help parents is by contributing to the operation of a happy and well-run school. But we can help out with specific issues that face particular parents.

Specific issues or concerns about a child or about the operation of the school should always be raised with the class teacher or head teacher in the first instance. If the issue is not resolved by this route, then the parent or the head teacher may refer it to the chair of governors. The governing body has processes and procedures for handling complaints or concerns about the school. Fortunately, it’s very rare that these ever have to be used.
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How do I contact the governors?

There are several ways to contact governors at Ely St John’s:

·     ask at the school office for the contact details of a governor

·     speak directly to a parent governor when you see them in the playground (photos of the governors are on  the website, and on a board by the school office door)

·     governors are available when they are in the school, at events like parent consultation evenings

·     send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Who are the governors?

All types of people become school governors. No special qualifications are required, although you do have to be over 18. In order to reflect a range of public interests, the governing body is made up of people from different sources:

Parent governors are elected by parents, and serve a term of four years

Staff representatives are elected by the staff of ESJ

Local Authority governors are appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council

Community governors are members of the local community who don’t have children at the school. They are appointed by the Governing Body.

At any time, the governing body will have a mix of each of these types of governors.
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Can I become a governor?

Any parent with a child at the school is entitled to stand for election as a parent governor. All parents are notified (via the school newsletter) when a vacancy for a parent governor arises.
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