Welcome to the Governors’ section of the St Mary’s Catholic School website.

This section deals exclusively with Governing Body matters and I hope it will convey a broad outline of the role of Governors, tell you the kinds of people we are and show you how we go about our task of supporting the Headteacher and his staff.

St Mary’s School Governing Body

There are three types of Governor at St Mary’s Catholic School. Which type you are is determined by how you became a Governor.  Once you become a Governor, it makes no difference what “type” you are. All Governors are the same, have the same rights and role, except the staff Governors do not sit on the Discipline Committee. There are also some restrictions on personnel issues.

The role of the Governing Body is not to manage the school on a day-to-day basis. That is the role and responsibility of the Headteacher Mr T Johnston and as Governors we aim to support him in doing this.  St Mary’s we are privileged to support a very successful school, so our task is to help maintain and improve on success rather than, as in some schools, dealing with failure.

Governors are responsible for the strategic vision of the school and for supporting the Headteacher and his staff in achieving that vision. Governors have responsibility for appointing the Headteacher, managing the school’s budget, setting annual targets and monitoring performance against those targets, all in the interest of raising standards of achievement. In addition to these statutory responsibilities, Governors do a wide variety of other things, either through formal committee activity or through personal involvement with the day-to-day life of the school