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

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

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 2019 – 2022

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