Governance

The Vine Schools Trust is a multi-academy trust and is the accountable body for all twenty three of its schools. Therefore, the overarching responsibility for the governance of the Trust and its schools lies with the Vine Board of Directors.  They fulfil the three core functions of governance:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
• Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff; and
• Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

To enable the Directors to fulfil their responsibility eight regional Local Schools Board’s work on their behalf and undertake delegated local governance of between two and four schools.  Community Boards in each school enable local support and provide information to enable good governance.

The key principle is that all three Boards together with Executive Leaders will provide an aspect of governance the other cannot as set out in this chart.

Click here for details of the Vine Schools Trust Board

This model of governance is undertaken under delegated responsibility. For full details see below.

St Osyth Church of England Primary School is working in a close collaboration with Mistley Norman Church of England Primary School. From September 2018,  the local governance for these two academies is delegated by the Vine Trust to the Local Hub Board.

The purpose of the LGB is to support and challenge the head teacher and his colleagues within the school to provide an excellent education for all pupils, regardless of their background and abilities. As a church school it is vital that this excellence is achieved through a Christian ethos that helps children of all faiths to develop their spirituality. The governors will work with the staff, parents and pupils to develop this ethos so that it is part of the everyday life of the school.

The LGB is made up of parents, staff and co-opted members of the community. All members have to be approved by the Trust and the chair is appointed by the Trust. The governing body meets every half term in the early evening for approximately two hours. The head teacher and staff bring reports to the LGB of progress of the pupils, budget, premises and buildings, personnel matters and other aspects of school life. The LGB scrutinises these reports and verifies them through visits to the school. Policies are discussed and recommendations given for improvement.

All governors volunteer their services and all have to undergo a DBS check.

If you wish to contact the governors about any aspect of school life, please hand in a note to the school office addressed to the Chair of Governors and it will be forwarded to The Chair at the earliest opportunity. Alternatively Our Chair can be emailed via chair.stosyth@dcvst.org. If you have skills that would be helpful to make the governing body more effective similarly, leave a note for The Chair.

Tendring Local School Board

• Mrs C Adams (Chair)
• Mr M Carter-Tufnell (Headteacher)
• Mrs B Gouge (Safeguarding and Child Protection)
• Mrs G Smith
• Mrs N Bennett
• Mr A Jones (Health and Safety)
• Mrs K Wallace