Governors

Welcome to the Governors’ section of the Markyate Village School and Nursery website. Governors have an important part to play in the life of the school and in this section you will find information on: the Role and Responsibilities of the Governing Body, composition of the Governing Body and information on how we work. We can be contacted on governors@markyate.herts.sch.uk and we would be pleased to hear from you.

James Rourke (Chair of Governors)

The Role and Responsibilities of the Governing Body:

The Governing Body does not manage the school. That is the role of Mrs L Johnson, as Headteacher,  and as Governors we aim to support her in doing this. The Governing Body have three main areas of responsibility:

• Setting vision, ethos and strategic direction, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring statutory duties are met;
• Holding heads to account for teaching, achievement, behaviour and safety; challenging and strengthening leadership; contributing to school self-evaluation;
• Ensuring financial solvency and probity with effective management of financial resources, including the Pupil Premium, to raise standards.

They are also responsible for specific actions such as ensuring that there is a procedure in place for handling complaints; approving the school budget; and appointing the headteacher.

In addition to these statutory responsibilities, Governors do a wide variety of other things, either through formal committee activity or through personal involvement with the day-to-day life of the school. As we want Markyate Village School and Nursery to be the very best, an ‘outstanding school’, our task is to help Mrs Johnson and her team of staff make this happen.

Composition of the Governing Body

We are very fortunate to have a committed and very hard working Governing Body, where people come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with a wide variety of skills.

The Governing Body at Markyate School is made up of representatives from a number of different areas;

Headteacher – Mrs L Johnson

Chairperson – Mr J Rourke

Staff/ DHT   – Mrs L Karmock

Staff/SLT     – Mrs H Vaites – Senior Leadership Team/ PE Co-ordinator

Co-opted      – Mrs T Willis – Assessment/Maths/Curriculum

Co-opted     – Mrs Horsnall - Early Years 

Co-opted     – Mr E Balfour  – Safeguarding

Parent Governor – Mrs Aylward - Curriculum

Clerk to the Governing Body- Mr Patrick Aikman

How to Contact Us

Any queries about the management of Markyate School and the progress of any individual pupil should be directed in the first instance to the school itself. I or other governors will be happy to answer any more general questions, particularly in relation to the role of the governing body.

We can be contacted via the School Office, with any letters marked for the attention of the Chair of Governors, or we can be reached via governors@markyate.herts.sch.uk