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We are looking for a new parent governor

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The governing body of Morley Memorial Primary School has a parent governor vacancy.

Governors are responsible for clarifying the school’s vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding the head to account for the performance of the school and making sure the money is well spent. They help to ensure that our school provides the best education it can for children, parents and our local community.

Governors do not need to be experts in education. They need to have an interest in the school and in the welfare of our children as well as the time to get involved.  All governors need to be willing to learn, able to work effectively as part of a team and committed to building good relationships. At the moment, the governing body is particularly interested in hearing from people who have experience of:

    • chairing a board, governing body or committee
    • being a member of a board
    • performance management or human resources
    • law
    • education
    • safeguarding
    • procurement / purchasing

Our governing body expects governors to:

  • Attend approximately 6 meetings a year of the full governing body
  • Sit on either the learning or resource committee (approximately 5 a year)
  • Sit on other committees / panels as required
  • Visit the school formally for monitoring purposes at least once a year
  • Visit the school informally at least once a year.
  • Attend training course, undertake additional research and activities as required and take part in monitoring at least three areas of the school.

The governing body provides an induction program, regular training and on-going mentoring to ensure you are confident and knowledgeable enough to participate fully in all decisions.

All nominations should be sent in to the headteacher via school office by 10am on Friday 24th March  We need a personal statement of approximately 300 words describing what you think you can bring to the role and why you would like to be a governor.

On Wednesday 29th March we will inform parents about the details of parent governor nominations. If more than one candidate puts themselves forward, an election is necessary.  All votes must be in by 10am Thursday 20th April when they will be counted.

Click here for full details of how to apply and for the application form. 

If you would like more information about what being a parent governor involves, please contact the school and we can put you in touch with a member of our governing body for an informal chat.

Parents have their say on school values

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Thank you to all the parents who shared their views on our existing school values during the parent consultation evenings a few weeks ago. Over 150 of you had your say.

We asked parents to vote on which of our current identified values (learning, respect, creativity, relationships, inclusiveness and community) were the three most important. Learning, respect and creativity received the most number of votes in similar numbers with relationships and inclusiveness receiving approximately half the number of votes as the “winners”. When we asked parents what other values they thought were important, some clear themes emerged. Kindness and compassion were seen as key, alongside the need for children to be happy. Parents also prized values around “getting on with others” such as teamwork, tolerance, co-operation, trust and equality. The importance of “character values” such as honesty, persistence and courage were also highlighted.

Over the evenings, we had a number of very interesting conversations with parents. One of the issues discussed was the importance of having values described in a way that a 5 year old might understand. We don’t think our current stated values have got this right and we are looking to make them more child-friendly for the future.

Focus group. A number of parents have volunteered to take part in a focus group looking in more details at our school values. Thank you if you offered to do this – we will be in touch soon. We are looking for more parents to participate in this group so please let governors know if you are interested in taking part. (Either leave a message in the office or email chair@Morley.cambs.sch.uk.) We hope to run the group before the end of term and it should only take about an hour of your time.

This consultation with parents about our school values is part of a wider discussion with all our stakeholders (staff, children and governors) around our school values. Once we have heard what everyone has to say, governors will revise our values to reflect what our current school community feels are important.

Our Culture and Values – Have your Say

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Four years ago we asked staff, governors and parents about the values they believed should underpin everything we do at Morley. We found that there was a great deal of agreement about what everyone thought was important. After a lot of discussion, we summed up the six values that seemed to best represent our collective view.

These values were: respect, creativity, including everyone, learning, relationships, community.

Since completing this exercise, many new children, parents, governors and members of staff have joined our school. We want to make sure that our values reflect the views of our current school community. Therefore, over the next few months we will be asking pupils, parents, staff and governors what they think about our values and whether they need to be revised.

At parents evening this week, governors will be asking all parents to give their opinion on our school values and pick their “Top 3”. We will also be asking you if you think there are any others that should be included. It shouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 minutes of your time but it will help shape Morley’s future.

We are also looking for parents to take part in a focus group where we can discuss in more detail the kind of values parents think should underpin everything Morley does. It should only take about an hour and we can offer a cup of tea and cake. If you are interested in taking part in these discussions, email the governors at chair@morley.cambs.sch.uk or sign up at the parents evening.