Lead Governor and Committee Terms of Reference

Lead Governors

Each governor must have at least one lead role, roles may be shared. 

Lead Governor Roles are:

• Teaching and Learning
• Finance
• Safeguarding
• Student Health and Wellbeing
• Health and Safety
• Human Resource
• Curriculum
• Extended Learning
• Parent Engagement
• Student Council
• Governor Development Plan and Training
• Teaching School Alliance
• ICT

Lead Governors will monitor an identified target on the School Development Plan or a statutory function of the governing body and report to the governing body.

It is expected that a minimum of 3 visits will be made to the school during the year with regard to this role.

Other forms of communication such as telephone calls emails etc may be substituted for one or more visits. A visit does not necessarily have to take place during the time when students are in school, and could be just as effective as a meeting between governors and the lead professional at the end of the day as mutually agreed.

All Lead Governors are:

• To meet with the lead professional within the school to gain an understanding of the scope of the target and the activities the school is conducting to achieve success
• To undertake any necessary training (in or out of school) to enable effective monitoring of the areas/subject
• To monitor the progress of school activities towards the target or duty

All visits to the school will be arranged with reference to the Head teacher

Visit reports will be no more than 1 side of A4 in length (not including any data), be submitted for approval by the Head teacher and/or any lead professional within the school within 2 weeks of the visit.

Each lead governor will provide a brief report for the Termly Full Governors Meetings, these will be circulated in the form of a Governor Activity Report 7 days prior to the meeting date.

All reports will be put on the Governors site of the school MLE and be presented to the Standing and/or Full Body meeting.

Governor Task/Focus/Work Groups Terms of Reference

Governor groups will be established as need arises.

These groups will have a clear remit including arrangements for reporting to the governing body and the time scale for the completion of the task.

Governors must be clear about who is responsible for convening the group and reporting back, all this will be minuted at the time of delegation

Involvement of non-governors may be specified at the outset, left to the discretion of the group, or reviewed when reporting back.

Task Group Governors will

• Submit reports to the Standing Committee or Full Body Meetings
• Undertake any necessary training (in or out of school) to enable them to fulfil their role in the group
• Monitor the progress of school activities towards the task if appropriate

All visits to the school will be arranged with reference to the Head teacher

Reports will be put on the Governors site of the school MLE.

Pay and Performance Management Committee Terms of Reference

Membership:	A minimum of three governors and the Head Teacher
Quorum:	Minimum of two governors (not including the Head Teacher)
Meetings:	Once per year and as required
Reporting:	The committee will give a confidential report directly to the Full Governing Body

The Governing Body has delegated the responsibility to ratify pay decisions for individual teachers as required by the School Pay Policy to this Committee.

However the Governing Body retains the right to perform functions delegated to the Committee where the decision is considered necessary in light of changing circumstances

It is not the role of the Committee to assess the performance of individual teachers.  It’s role to ensure that a proper and fair process has been followed in respect of the individual teacher and that all relevant information has been taken into account in assessing their performance and making a pay recommendation.

It is not for the Committee to set or revise objectives.  Where there are concerns that the elements of are not satisfied, the Committee should discuss these concerns with the Head Teacher.

The Committee should satisfy themselves that objectives

• are sufficiently differentiated between the different pay scales and where appropriate within pay scales
• relate to the priorities and plans of the school in terms of school development plan
• are SMART objectives (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) and that there are clear success criteria.

The Committee will receive and review sample Performance Management (PM) objectives for

• Teachers on the Main Pay Scale
• Teachers on the Upper Pay Scale
• Teachers on the Leadership Scale

Information should be examined and compared to information about the overall quality of teaching and pupil progress/attainment.  Any disparity should be discussed with the Head Teacher.

Information should be anonymous where possible, but should still be provided even where it may be known to which individual they relate (eg there is only one teacher in a particular category). The information provided need not include any personal development objectives.

Teachers on Main and Upper Pay Scales

The performance for each pay scale MS1-MS6, UPS1-3 is measured against a grid of career stage expectations to support teacher performance reviews from the DofE Teaching Standards.

The Committee will look at the following summary of evidence for all teachers

• Grade point currently on and recommended outcome
• If targets have been met (yes/no)
• The last 3 lesson observation outcomes

The Committee will select one teacher from each pay scale at random and look at the following

• Performance Management Targets for the last year
• Evidence to these targets
• Lesson observation reports, including lesson content
• Student performance data
• Targets set for the following year

Teachers on the Leadership Scale

In making decisions for the performance management of teachers on the leadership scale the Committee will refer to the DofE guidance National standards of excellence for Head Teachers.

Each teacher will have 3 performance management objectives and each objective has 3 areas of focus that are

• Strategic Leadership
• Educational Excellence
• Operational Management

The Committee will receive the reports for teachers with details of the objectives, focuses and summarised evidence to each of these points.

The Committee undertake examination of evidence of at least one randomly selected teacher on the leadership pay scale

Pay Decisions

The Committee will discuss the pay decisions with the Head Teacher and should be satisfied that the PM process is robust, fair and consistent.

Any concerns or issues with disparity will be discussed with the Head Teacher.

The committee will ratify pay decisions and provide a confidential report to the Full Governing Body

The Committee is responsible for approving applications to progress to the Upper Pay Scale and up the appropriate range of the leadership pay scale

The Head Teacher’s Performance Review Panel will assess the Head Teacher’s overall performance and make a recommendation on pay progression to the Committee.  The Committee will make a decision on pay progression accordingly and will also decide any additional allowances if applicable.

The Committee has the responsibility for approving other pay related decisions e.g. the award of Recruitment & Retention benefits and/or the allocation of TLRs.  The Committee should ensure that such decisions are made in line with the terms of the School Pay Policy and the Teachers’ Pay & Conditions Document, and that such decisions are made in a fair and consistent manner.

Performance Management of Head Teacher Terms of Reference

Panel:	A minimum of three governors and External Advisor
Quorum:	Minimum of two governors
Meetings:	Once per term
Reporting:	This governor group will give a confidential report directly to the Pay and Performance Committee

The Head Teacher’s Performance Review Panel will assess the Head Teacher’s overall performance and make a recommendation on pay progression to the Pay and Performance Committee.  The Committee will then make a decision on pay progression accordingly and will also decide any additional allowances if applicable.

The procedure and process for Head Teacher performance management will mirror as far as possible the process for teachers.  The key difference being that this panel of governors will take advice from an external adviser.

External Adviser

The external adviser is an agent of the governing body and should not have a close allegiance to the head teacher.  The role of the external adviser is to assist the panel in setting meaningful but achievable targets and in reviewing outcomes.

Both the panel and the head teacher can choose to meet separately with the adviser to discuss the head teachers performance and targets before the review meeting.  The adviser should attend the review meeting and offer advice and support the panel and can be asked to prepare the first draft of the appraisal report.

The adviser is NOT responsible for determining a recommendation to the Pay and Performance committee; this is a matter for the panel alone.

The external adviser should

• Summarise data to give a clear understanding of how the school is performing
• Analyse the head teachers evidence of progress against objectives
• Support the governing body in interpreting information and student performance data
• Bring to bear broad experience working with a number of governing bodies and head teachers
• Support, question and challenge the head teacher
• Be able to gather sufficient knowledge of the school, its history and its context in order to develop the head teacher in leading the schools development

Before the review meeting

• The external adviser should liase with the chair of the panel and decide a date and time for the review
• The adviser will then write to the chair of governors listing the information that is required before review.  This letter should be sent to the chair of the panel and the head teacher.  The head teacher will collect all the evidence needed and forward it to the adviser
• The adviser may ask the chair of the panel if they have any suggestions of possible new objectives
• The adviser will produce a pre-review report after looking at the evidence submitted
• This report should be sent to the chair of the panel at least 7 days before the review meeting.  It is good practice for the head teacher to have a copy of the report who is usually tasked with ensuring all members of the review panel have a copy.

Review meeting

Before the meeting the external adviser and the head teacher meet and discuss progress against the previous year’s objectives.

The adviser then meets with the panel to discuss these objectives and identify evidence required for the review meeting.  The panel should also consider objectives for next year at this point

Conduct and Documentation

• Governors should be challenging but supportive.
• Governors should refer to the advice from the external adviser in addition to receiving a summary of objective achievement from the head teacher.
• A descriptive narrative for each objective and a minimum of 2 pieces of evidence

Discussion

• Review the existing objectives, discuss with the head teacher specific challenges and issues out of their control in pursuit of the objectives.
• Discuss and identify if there was anything that governors or the LA could have done to assist in achieving the objectives

Meeting Outcome

• Agree SMART objectives for the current academic year.  These objectives should have a clear link to school development.
• Agree the performance criteria for these objectives
• Agree support, training and development
• Set dates for in-year monitoring
• Pay award recommendation made to the Pay and Performance Committee as appropriate

After the meeting a confidential performance review statement should be written.  This should include a record of what has been agreed and the focus for in-year monitoring discussions.

In-year Monitoring

These meetings are for the Head teacher to update the governors on the panel in their progress with their objectives.

Discussion should include detailed steps and any unexpected events identified/challenges that have been faced and the strategy to overcome them.

If required objectives can be changed if those set are no longer fit for purpose, in this case an addendum should be made to the performance review statement.