Foxes Piece School

Code of Conduct for Governors

We will abide by the Seven Nolan Principles of Public Life:

Selflessness

We will act solely in terms of the public interest

Integrity

We will avoid placing ourselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try and inappropriately to influence us in our work. We will not act or take decisions to gain financial or other material benefits for ourselves, our family, or our friends. We will declare and resolves any interests and relationships.

Objectivity

We will act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias

Accountability

We are accountable to the public for our decisions and actions and will submit ourselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

Openness

We will act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information will not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for doing so.

Honesty

We will be truthful

Leadership

We will exhibit these principles in our own behaviour. We will actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour whenever it occurs.

We will focus our core governance functions: -

- Ensuring there is clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction

- Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils and the performance management of staff

- Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent

- Ensuring the voices of stakeholders are heard

As individual board members, we agree to:

Fulfil our role and responsibilities

- We accept that our role is strategic and so will focus on our core functions rather than involve ourselves in day

-to-day management.

- We will develop, share and live the ethos and values of our school.

- We agree to adhere to school policies and procedures as set out by the relevant governing documents and law.

- We shall fully cooperate with individual requests that are necessary to ensure organisational compliance, such as disclosure and barring checks.

- We will collectively for the benefit of the school.

- We will be candid but constructive and respectful when holding senior leaders to account.

- We will consider how our decisions may affect the school and local community.

- We will stand by decisions that we make as a collective.

- Where decisions and actions conflict with the Seven Principles of Public Life or may place pupils at risk, we will speak up and bring this to the attention of the relevant authorities.

- We will only speak or act on behalf of the board if we have the authority to do so.

- We will fulfil our responsibilities to school staff, ensuring a safe working environment, support for their wellbeing, and acting fairly and without bias.]

- When making or responding to complaints we will follow the established procedures.

- We will strive to uphold the school’s reputation in our private communications (including on social media).

- We will have regard to our responsibilities under The Equality Act and will work to advance equality of opportunity for all.

Demonstrate our commitment to the role

- We will involve ourselves actively in the work of the board, and accept our fair share of responsibilities, serving on committees or working groups where required.

- We will make every effort to attend all meeting and where we cannot attend, explain in advance why we are unable to.

- We will arrive at meetings prepared, having read all papers in advance, ready to make a positive contribution and observe protocol.

- We will get to know the school well and respond to the opportunities to involves ourselves in school activities.

- We will visit the school and when doing so we will plan with relevant staff in advance and observe school and board protocol.

- When visiting the school in a personal capacity, (for example, as a parent or carer), we will continue to honour the commitments made in this code. -

We will participate in induction training, prioritise training in requires areas (such as safeguarding) and commit ton developing our individual collective skills and knowledge on an ongoing basis.

Build and maintain relationships

- We will strive to work as a team in which constructive working relationships are actively promoted.

- We will express views openly, courteously and respectfully in all our communications with other governors.

- We will support the chair in their role of always ensuring appropriate conduct both at meetings and we accept that all governors have equal status, and our overriding concern will be the welfare of the school.

- We are prepared to answer queries from other governors in relation to delegated functions and consider any concerns expressed, and we will acknowledge the time, effort and skills that have been committed to the delegated function by those involved.

- We will actively support and challenge the headteacher.

Respect Confidentiality

We recognise the need to observe complete confidentiality when required to do so by the governing board, especially regarding matters concerning individual staff or students and we will: -

Not divulge information about members of staff or pupils inappropriately

- Exercise great care if a discussion of a potentially contentious issue of the school arises outside the governing board - Declare an interest if an item under discussion at any full or committee meeting of governors impinges upon our personal, family or financial situation

Declare conflicts of interest and be transparent

- We will declare any business, personal or other interest that have in connection with the boards’ business, and these will be recorded in the register of business interests.

- We will also declare any conflict of loyalty at the start of any meeting should the need arise.

- If a conflicted matter arises in a meeting, we will offer to leave the meeting for the duration of the discussion and any subsequent vote.

- We accept that the Register of Business Interests will be published on the school’s website.

- We will act as a governor, not as a representative of any group.

- We accept that in the interests if open governance, our full names, date of appointment, terms of office, roles on the governing body, attendance records, relevant business and pecuniary interests, category of governor and the body responsible for appointing us will be published on the school website.

- We accept that information relating to board members will be collected and recorded on the DfE’s national database, (Get Information about Schools), some of which will be publicly available.

General

- We are responsible for determining, monitoring and keeping under review the broad policies, plans and procedures of the school.

- We recognise that the Headteacher is responsible for the implementation of policy, day-to-day management of the school and the implementation of the curriculum.

- We accept that all governors have equal status, and, although appointed by different groups, our overriding concern will be the welfare of the school.

- We have no legal authority to act individually, except when the governing board has given us delegated authority to do so.

- We have a duty to act fairly and without prejudice, and in so far as we have responsibility for staff, we will fulfil all that is expected of a good employer.

- We will encourage open government and will act appropriately. - We will consider carefully how our decisions may affect pupils and other schools.

Communication

- As governors we owe a duty of mutual trust and confidence to our school, and to each other, which may be breached if unsuitable material is contained in any communication or correspondence, including all types of electronic communication, personal blogs, websites and social networking sites

- We will gain the agreement of the Chair and Headteacher prior to posting any content (written, vocal or visual) to the internet which identifies us as members of the governing board

Breach of this code of conduct

- If we believe this Code has been breached, we will raise this issue with the chair and the chair will investigate; the governing board will only use suspension /removal as a last resort after seeking to resolve any difficulties or disputes in constructive ways. -

Should it be the chair that we believe has breached this code, another governor, such as the vice chair will investigate