Welcome from the Board of Governors at the start of 2024.
As Governors, we are responsible for overseeing the wider management of St Matthew’s: strategy, policy, budgeting and staffing. Our task is to enable the school to run as effectively as possible, working alongside senior leaders and supporting teaching and non-teaching staff to provide excellent education to our children.
Whilst all our Governors are volunteers, we bring a wealth and diversity of experience and knowledge from both private and public sectors including Education, Finance, Faith, Technology and Legal. Several of us are also parents and carers of current and former St Matthew’s pupils.
The Board of Governors performs its functions through a variety of mechanisms. We set targets and priorities for each academic year and measure outcomes against those targets. We conduct quarterly reviews of progress against our School Development Plan and convene as a full body every half term.
We also have a number of sub-committees working alongside designated staff leaders. The committees focus on the quality and standards of pupil performance, staff performance and development, finance and premises, faith and safeguarding.
The Board considers the work of the sub-committees and overarching strategic direction of the school, ensuring all activity is aligned to our school values, is financially sustainable and delivers against our key performance targets. In addition, every Governor links to a subject or aspect of school life and meets regularly with their linked subject lead teachers.
We were recently fortunate enough to be able to spend a whole day in school as a group, observing lessons, collective worship and playtimes. We got to speak to many of our pupils about their learning and wider experience at St Matthew’s. It was a hugely informative and inspiring day, and brought home the richness and fullness of life at St Matthew’s and the hard work and dedication of all our staff.
Governors provided the following feedback on the day:

•  “Thank you very much to staff and pupils for warmly welcoming us to the school for our Governors’ Day. Highlights from the day included seeing the enthusiasm with which students engaged in their writing and how clear they were about the purpose of that writing. The prospect of sharing their work with a younger year group or their parents / carers (which staff had arranged) was a key motivator. It was good to observe 1:1 reading with a sensitive and experienced Teaching Assistant, and to reflect on how these interventions are making a difference.”
• “Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) was, as always, a joy to see: fostering creativity and teamwork, overwhelmingly child-led and incredible fun. I feel very proud to be Governor of a school where pupils are so clearly flourishing both inside and outside the classroom.”
•  “As one of the Play Governors playing an active role throughout the OPAL project it has been a privilege to observe staff, children and parents working together to bring about such a constructive, positive change to school life. The sheer delight, curiosity, hard work, commitment, and sense of fun that are apparent enabled a deserved Platinum Award. It is encouraging to see ongoing opportunities for training and development of the Play Team's skills and expertise.”
•  “During our lunch-break visits children often show us how they look after each other, take care of their environment, tidy up and return calmly to class for the afternoon. We look forward to seeing ongoing development of resources and the opportunities for OPAL over the coming terms.”
•  “I was impressed with how far the Reception children have come in just one term of being in school. After time together on the carpet, the children were able to choose their own activity and all were engaged in their tasks, giving the class teacher the opportunity to do some one-to-one work with a pupil who needed more support. In Year 2, I saw good evidence of adaptive teaching with short manageable tasks supported by topic related table resources as well as The Big Picture wall resource. This supported every child to succeed; the children I spoke to knew what they were learning and why.”
• “Having the opportunity to observe Opal Play was a delight - seeing how the children played with others outside their own class or year group and how much they enjoyed the variety of activities they had access to. The opportunity for the children to develop their ability to assess risk within a safe environment is one that will benefit them beyond the school environment.”

As Governors, we share the school’s overriding duty to our pupils: to keep them safe and free from all forms of harm. Safeguarding was therefore an important theme of our recent Governors’ Day. Our dedicated Safeguarding Governor reported:

• “As Governors we continually note how St Matthew's acknowledges the claim that 'safeguarding and child protection are everyone's responsibility.' We all undertake safeguarding training, with updates as required. This term we have been impressed with the way staff and children have engaged with a detailed audit undertaken by the Borough's safeguarding lead that helps us all to continually seek ways to fine-tune our provision for the benefit of all. Children will certainly challenge us now if we don't have our white Governor lanyards on!

As the Board of Governors of St Matthew’s, we would like to salute the professionalism, energy and dedication of all the staff and volunteers who make our school such a bustling, lively, supportive and nurturing place for our children to learn and play.
We would also like to express our admiration and gratitude for all the hard work undertaken by our parents’ association, FoSMPS.
With very best wishes for the rest of the 2023 / 2024 academic year and beyond,
Andrew Buckley
Chair of Governors, on behalf of the Board