What do Governors do?

There are three main responsibilities on which governors in a College such as KEVICC have to focus:

• To ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• To hold the Principal to account for the educational performance of the College and its pupils
• To oversee the financial performance of the College and make sure its money is well spent.

This means that governors must have an overview of what goes on in the College, and make sure that that our co-operative values underpin our decision-making and strategic thinking. To this end, there should be priorities, aims and objectives in place, and policies, plans and targets which guide progress towards them. Mechanisms should be devised to allow such progress to be monitored and measured.

In reality, this means information and reports about all aspects of school performance will be sent to governors, who should be able to ask searching and informed questions at meetings. Reports might be in the form of data about examination results, the school budget, information from OFSTED or other outside agencies.

Most of the stakeholders who have an interest in KEVICC are represented on the governing board, including staff, parents, the local authority, and the community.

Governing boards should play a strategic role, focusing strongly on holding the Principal to account. Governors must not be involved in the day to day running of the College, which is the responsibility of the staff. It is essential to have skilled governors, but equally important to emphasise that the skills required are those to create robust accountability, not to do the College’s job for it. For example, a governor with financial expertise should use their skills to scrutinise the College’s accounts, not to help prepare them.

The governing board as a whole is accountable for the performance of the College. We act as a corporate body and this means that governors are not able to act or make decisions as individuals, only as a body. Once decisions are agreed by the governing board, they become the decision of the whole governing board whether or not an individual governor voted in favour of the decision. 

Our full governing board meets termly, with three Committees focusing on Operations, Standards and Site Development issues also meeting once each term.  Governors have specific areas of responsibility (see governor profiles) and report back to the governing board at such meetings. See the 'Governors' tab to view meeting minutes and further information about our board.

If you are interested in being a governor at KEVICC please contact the Clerk to Governors via  Email: GovClerk@kingedwardvi.devon.sch.uk