We’re here to make the big strategic decisions about the school but we don’t get involved in the day-to-day running of it.  We challenge and support the senior leadership of the school.  Above all we make sure the school is improving, maintaining good standards and working to be an outstanding school.  As well as regular meetings, governors visit the school regularly to meet with staff, sit in on lessons and talk with children to get an idea of how the school is running.

The Governors meet twice a term, and they also sit on sub-committees looking at particular issues around the curriculum and standards, finance and premises, and pay and personnel.  The names of the governors, the terms of their appointments, and the different committees on which they sit are given below.

Chair of Governors
Mr James Goodman

Vice chair
Nagina Mushtaq

Meet our Governors

James Goodman

James has lived locally for more than 20 years, and is an academic researcher in computer science. He has been a Governor at the Winns since 2012.

Maz Church

Maz has been involved with the Winns since her son started school in 2017. She has recently switched careers from charity fundraising and event management to primary school teaching. Maz has been a Parent Governor since 2019 and is a Friends of the Winns Trustee.

Jamie Hewitt

Jamie has been a Governor at the Winns since 2016 and is the Safeguarding lead. Jamie has lived in Walthamstow since 2015, and his daughter currently attends the school.”

James Wragg

James lives locally and his children attended The Winns. He has been a Governor since 2016 and Chairs the Resources Committee. He works for a national charity and is also a volunteer Trustee of The Lloyd Park Children’s Charity.

Amina Rawat

Amina has been a parent governor since November 2018. She works as a mental health clinician for the NHS specializing in adults and children with learning disabilities. She is the school’s SEND (special educational needs or disabilities) link governor.

Christine George

Christine became a governor in 2019, to gain understanding of the early years of education. I lived in the borough 25 years, raising my son, and wanted to give something back to the community. I’m also the Training Link Governor encouraging training for all governors.

Bronagh McCloskey

Bronagh lives in Leyton and has been a governor at the Winns since 2019. She works in internet and broadband policy and works with several organisations on tackling abuse and promoting safe behaviour online.

Nathan Burns

Nathan was born and grew up in Walthamstow, attending local schools, and currently lives locally. He joined the Board of Governors in 2021, and has previously been as a local Councillor in the North West of England.

Vicky Noakes

Vicky is an Assistant Head teacher in Hackney and an associate lecturer at London Metropolitan University. She has been a Parent Governor Since 2020 and is a keen Spurs fan!

Heather Alcock

Heather has been involved with the Winns since 2021 and lives locally. She was previously a school Governor in Islington for 8 years and works for an International Development Charity.

Governor terms and committee membership

What we have done in the last year

• Governors have focused on helping the school maintain its good standards, while working towards being “outstanding”. We are very encouraged by the Ofsted inspection in 2017, which shows that we are making progress towards this
• We’ve helped the school with several challenges imposed from the government – changes to the national curriculum and to the way Ofsted checks children’s learning and inspects schools. The Governing Body has worked with school leaders to ensure that the school is well prepared for these challenges, teachers are properly resourced, and children continue to receive an engaging and stretching curriculum
• A reading action plan has included more personalised reading with children in greatest need, more resources for guided reading in class, further training for teachers and more reading volunteers who come in and read with children. Governors have encouraged these plans and looked for progress. It has been encouraging to see the priority being given to reading across the school and this good work has now been reflected in this year’s results, with the school solidly above average both nationally and in Waltham Forest
• We’ve also checked that in the face of these challenges, the school’s ethos of caring about the whole child, is given priority. The school’s aim is that academic progress and personal development go together to help children grow into resilient, happy and responsible people. The Governing Body’s work on this has included supporting school leaders in developing a lively and engaging new curriculum, making sure funding within the school for children who need additional support is spent well, and supporting work with families who require language or practical help. We are also very grateful for the commitment of parents on the PSA (Parent Staff Association) who work to raise funds for school activities and help make the school a brighter, more fun place for the whole community.

Committee Membership

Instrument of Governance

Keeping in touch

The Governing Body has also worked with school leaders to increase ways in which the school communicates with parents. Parents are invited to regular coffee mornings with the Headteacher and Chair of Governors where they can chat, ask questions and meet school leaders and other parents in a relaxed environment.

Specific questions or queries for the Chair of Governors can be emailed to chair@winns.waltham.sch.uk

More general queries about the school can be sent to comment@winns.waltham.sch.uk and a senior member of staff will respond within seven working days. Parents are reminded that any questions about their child’s learning are best raised first with their class teacher.

Where next?

As a Governing Body we also constantly strive to improve the way we work.

• Last year we worked on making our meetings more effective, improving our use of the school’s academic data, preparing for inspection and identifying our training needs.
• We have written a strategic plan for the next few years, which we update annually; this can be read below.

We hope this helps to explain what the Governing Body has been recently so the Winns School maintains its good standards and works towards being an outstanding school. If you have any comments or questions please write to me via the school office or at chair@winns.waltham.sch.uk

James Goodman
Chair of Governors
The Winns Primary School

Strategic Plan 2021- 2024

The Winns Strategic Plan 2021-2024

Register of Business Interests

The Winns Primary Declarations 2020-2021

Declarations Winns Primary

Governor Attendance

Winns Primary Meeting Attendance 20-21

Winns Primary Meeting Attendance 19-20