St Stephen's Primary School Governing Body
Welcome to the ‘Governors’ pages of St Stephen's website. Governors provide their time to help the school on a voluntary basis and come from a range of different backgrounds. There are a variety of different roles within the governing body but ultimately it involves working with the head teacher and senior leadership team to make sure that the pupils at St Stephen's receive the best possible education.
The governors at St Stephen's are a mixture of elected and appointed individuals. There are currently four parent governors, who are elected by parents at the school. There are also five co-opted governors, one local authority governor, and two elected staff members along with the headteacher and an associate governor. All governors, regardless of elected or appointed status are recruited on their skills, knowledge and experience to build a balanced governing board to provide support and challenge to the school leadership. The recruitment of skills is an important aspect of the governing board at St Stephen's.
Our aim is to work together to deliver our vision that the children at St Stephen's will get the best possible education, they will be happy and safe and enjoy their time at school. We will support the headteacher and the dedicated team of staff, but also we will challenge where necessary to ensure that we deliver our objectives.
Our role differs from that of the headteacher; the governing body has a strategic role and sets policy, whereas the headteacher has an operational role and is responsible for delivery of the policies which have been agreed. Governors' decisions are made following informed discussion, whereas the headteacher uses professional judgement.
Governors welcome feedback from the whole school community and we want you to tell us what you think about how we are doing. If you have any comments you wish to make about our school, any of the governors would be happy to hear from you. Please speak to any one of us, or contact us at governors@st-stephens.staffs.sch.uk
If, however, you have a concern about the school, then talk to one of the governors. If you want to make a complaint about an issue at the school then you need to speak to the headteacher. If you are still not satisfied, then the matter can be raised with the Chair of Governors (email:governors@st-stephens.staffs.sch.uk).
The Governing Body consists of:
- 1 Headteacher Governor
- 4 Parent Governors (term of office 4 years)
- 1 Local Authority (term of office 4 years)
- 1 Staff Governors (term of office 4 years)
- 6 Co-opted Governors (term of office 4 years)
- 2 Non-voting associate members
First appointed Term from to
| Chair of Governors: |
Mr Ken Smith 02/12/13 23/11/21 23/11/25 |
| Co-Vice Chair: |
Mrs Chris Evans 01/09/15 01/09/15 31/08/23 Mrs Felicity Davies 07/11/17 07/11/17 06/11/21 (resigned Summer term 2022) |
| Headteacher: | Mr Mike Dowd 01/09/20 |
| Co-opted: | Rev John Allan 01/09/15 01/09/15 31/08/23 |
| Mrs Nikki Hutchinson 16/11/15 19/11/19 18/11/23 | |
| Mrs Chris Evans 01/09/15 01/09/15 31/08/23 | |
| Mr Micheal Wakeham 16/06/20 16/06/20 15/06/24 | |
|
Mr Andrew Sutton 20/07/18 20/07/18 19/07/22 Richard Gould 25/02/21 25/02/21 24/02/25 Ken Smith 02/11/13 23/11/21 23/11/25 |
|
| Staff: | Miss Ellen Hodgkinson 28/02/21 28/02/21 28/02/25 |
| Parent: | Ms Vickie McHugh 12/10/22 12/10/22 11/10/26 |
| Ms Gemma Hill 18/06/19 18/06/19 17/06/23 | |
| Ms Alex Munsami 09/11/21 09/11/21 10/11/25 | |
| Mrs Felicity Davies 07/11/17 10/11/25 09/11/25 (resigned Summer term 2022) | |
|
Mrs Mona Sihota 16/06/20 16/06/20 15/06/24 |
|
| Local Authority: | Ms Nicola Evans 29/03/18 29/03/22 28/03/26 |
| Associate members: | Mrs Maxine Horsnail |
| Mrs Claire Emery-Talbot |
Also here is the link to the National Governor Handbook for guidance on the roles and duties of governing boards, and advice on the skills, knowledge and behaviours they need to be effective:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-handbook