Effective governance is based on six key features: 

 - Strategic leadership that sets and champions vision, ethos and strategy.
 - Accountability that drives up educational standards and financial performance.
 - People with the right skills, experience, qualities and capacity.
 - Structures that reinforce clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
 - Compliance with statutory and contractual requirements.
 - Evaluation to monitor and improve the quality and impact of governance.

The core strategic functions of the governing body at Springwood are as follows:

Establishing the strategic direction, by:

• • Setting and ensuring clarity of vision, values, and objectives for the schools.
  • Agreeing the school improvement strategy with priorities and targets.
  • Meeting statutory duties.

Ensuring accountability, by:

• • Appointing the Executive Headteacher and any Assistant/Deputy Headteachers or Head of Schools
  • Monitoring the educational performance of the schools and progress towards agreed targets.
  • Performance managing the Executive Headteacher.
  • Engaging with stakeholders.
  • Contributing to school self-evaluation.

Overseeing financial performance, by:

• • Setting the budget.
  • Monitoring spending against the budget.
  • Ensuring money is well spent and value for money is obtained.
  • Ensuring risks to the organisation are managed.

The work of the governing body is focused on and driven by the school’s ongoing priorities. The senior leaders report regularly to governors on progress against strategic and other school priorities, however, it is imperative, and indeed expected, that Governors independently gather evidence to judge how effectively the school’s priorities are being tackled and met. Monitoring allows governors to independently evidence that what we are told by the School’s leadership is accurate and to form our own opinion of progress against school improvement priorities.

Please refer to the guidance for all governors below.