If you  wish to contact a member of the AGC, including the Co-Chairs, please email the school office (school.office@southamstjames.covmat.org) and they will be pleased to forward your query or question to the governors. 

"Governors know the school well. They want pupils to succeed. They provide challenge and support but acknowledge that there is more work to do." 

(Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, January 2023)

The Governors (strictly called “members of the Academy Governance Committee (AGC)”) play a vital part in the work of the school - though usually as back-room operators and certainly not as decision-makers in its day-to-day running.

Our school is one of twenty-two belonging to the Coventry Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust, which plays the major part in their administration. The AGC’s role is:

    “to ensure high standards of achievement for all children in the school by:

    • providing support, monitoring and challenge around educational experience and performance

    • supporting church, community and stakeholder engagement

    • supporting alignment with Trust strategy, approach, ethos and values.”

The AGC meets usually six times per year - but members also have special responsibilities for different facets of school life, such as Safeguarding, Wellbeing, and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. To do this well, they will make regular school visits, question the Headteacher and then report back to the AGC.

Our AGC has a complement of nine members:

• Two are members of staff - the Headteacher and another member;
• Two are parents/carers of current pupils, whose role is not to try to represent the views of all the other parents and carers but to use their own insights and skills for the good of the whole school community;
• Five are ‘Foundation Governors’, appointed through the local church. Some of these will be practising Christians and churchgoers - but others will demonstrate their commitment to the school through their support and  work for it and/or their dedication to the local community.

All AGC members need to be committed to the school’s Christian values (but not to a local church as a practising member).

No doubt school governors all round the country feel that their institution is “special” - and so do we! We have seen the dedication and hard work of staff to support children during the COVID years, including much confidential help offered to individual struggling families. We are now supporting - indeed, urging on - the school’s successful efforts to improve pupil achievement and the richness of their educational experience; this is against the national post-pandemic background, in which more pupils struggle to learn in normal classroom settings and many staff are suffering adverse reactions to the hardships of the last few years.

Do join us in any way you can, perhaps as new parents / carers sending your young ones here, or even by exploring whether you might want to apply to become an AGC member - Southam St James is ‘on the up’!

AGC Membership including term of office, appointment details and meeting attendance. This sheet also includes governors who have stepped down in the last 12 months.