newsletter - Pershore High School

Governors get going with new Agenda….!You may think that your school Governors are a shy lot who stay firmly out thespotlight.Well, all this could change in the near future as a new project to bring Governors involvement in Pershore HighSchool up to speed with the latest Information Technology takes off over the next few months. The project hasbeen enthusiastically endorsed by head teacher Clive Corbett who has expressed his keen interest in seeingGovernors more proactively involved in the future development of the school.A Steering Group led by Chairman, Rob Phillips and Vice-Chair, Nick Young have proposed some radical newideas to bring the work and expertise of Governors into sharper focus so that their role can be more clearlyunderstood by parents as well as staff and students.At the heart of the project will be a dedicated Governors area on the School Website. This will start offmodestly with brief profiles of each Governor but will hopefully be extended fairly quickly to include a messageand discussion board area as well as create opportunities to share ideas and information using the specificexpertise of individual Governors. The responsibility for developing the first stages has been taken on byClaire Rushton who is our project link with the staff of PHS and fellow Governor Trevor West who will be ableto apply his experience of working with the media.Further developments that the working party are considering are to review the structure of the Governing bodyto bring it more into line with changes that are being made by the school in its approach to developing thelearning experiences of students. In addition we intend to recommend a more robust induction process fornew Governors so that they can contribute effectively from an early stage.Finally, Governors are considering the quality standard, ‘Governor Mark’ which acknowledges the level ofexpertise that a Governing body has achieved in relation to standards identified by Government Inspectors.This may not be achievable immediately but will give governors a `benchmark` to aim for before the nextOfsted inspection comes around.Your school Governors are recognising that as part of a multidisciplinary approach to running a communitybased school such as Pershore they do indeed need to be more visible and available to work alongside thestaff and other stakeholders in PHS not least of whom are the parents. To this end they hope that the newinitiatives will encourage more contact with parents and create better opportunities to enhance the contributionof Governors overall.If anyone is interested in knowing more please contact Chairman, Rob Phillips or Vice-Chair, Nick Young,through the school.Setting the Agenda for the coming year:PHS Staff were brought together on the 3 rd September for the annual ‘start of year’ meeting.Staff were warmly congratulated by both the Chair of Governors, Rob Phillips and the Headteacher, CliveCorbett for outstandingly successful examination results this year. This was truly a big step forward on thepathway to achieving the deserved recognition that PHS has the potential to become an outstanding centreof education.However, both Rob and Clive in their respective words to the staff emphasised that the educational function isnot just about examinations and that we must focus on the need to emphasise the worth of all studentswhether they have strong academic potential or whether their assets lie in other directions. Pershore, as acommunity based comprehensive school must serve the needs of all students in helping them to make themost of their educational experience and putting them onto the best pathway for life that that can be achieved.The message was emphasised by Clive’s reference to Cecil Beaton’s words pointing to the potential we allhave if we are encouraged to ‘step outside the box’ of conformity and by the pledge of ‘No child left behindon my shift’!To summarise, we need to keep striving to improve our performance as a school in all directions by doing thebest for each and every youngster who comes to Pershore.5