The role of a Governor

Governors play a vital role in providing support to the headteacher in maintaining and developing the school’s strategic vision, ensuring accountability and challenging robustly where necessary – acting as a ‘critical friend’.

We’re looking for people with:

·         A background in finance, HR, data analysis or business.

·         Strong communication skills

·         Ability to raise challenging questions and hold leaders to account.

·         Good listening skills

We are looking for people to bring their life experiences to the role and not necessarily education experts, with a passion for learning and wanting to make a real difference to the lives of children, and who are available to meet around six times per year.

About Fairfields School

Fairfields School is a community special school for pupils aged 3 to 11 years, where every day is a learning adventure. The school meets the needs of pupils who have significant, severe or profound learning difficulties and sensory impairments. Work with us and you will be part of an ambitious team who want to make a real difference.

We can offer you a supportive governing body and leadership team, induction and training opportunities and a friendly environment. Being part of a governing body offers an experience to build a team, develop leadership skills and more transferable skills. We are a local authority school, so further application will need to be made to West Northants Council in due course.

Safeguarding

Fairfields School is committed to safeguarding the welfare of pupils. This post is subject to satisfactory references, an enhanced DBS check (will be completed once the job has been accepted, please refer to DBS code of practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk),) as well as the usual pre-employment checks. It is a criminal offence for an individual to apply to work in regulated activity if barred. Please see our Child Protection Policy here: Fairfields School : - Policy Documents. Appendix C of the Child Protection Policy includes the Recruitment and Selection Policy.

Equality

Fairfields school is committed ensuring and promoting equality of opportunity for all pupils, staff, job applicants, parents and carers; irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, belief, sex or sexual orientation and expects staff to share that commitment. We aim to create a supportive and inclusive working environment and welcome applications from all members of the community.

Please see our Equality Policy here: Fairfields School : - Policy Documents

GDPR

As part of the recruitment process, we will gather and use information relating to you, your “personal data”, including data that we obtain from you directly and indirectly from other organisations (your referees, educational establishments, professional bodies, Disclosure and Barring Service). This will include your name, address, contact details, employment history, qualifications, ethnic origin, sex, religion, criminal record, references etc. If you are successful, this will also include details on immigration status, identity documents, DBS, medical checks, and teacher status checks.

We will hold information relating to your application only for as long as necessary. If you are successful, then how long we need to hold on to any information will depend on type of information. Some of this will be held on the Single Central Record. If you are unsuccessful, we will hold the information for a period of six months before it is securely destroyed.

We will process your personal data during recruitment for the purpose of complying with legal obligations, carrying out tasks which are in the public interest, and taking steps with a view to entering into an employment contract with you including assessing your suitability for the role, checking your eligibility to work in the UK and with children and ensuring compliance with the Equality Act 2010.

We will not share information gathered during your application process with third parties, other than professional advisors such as legal as HR advisors.

Please also refer to our Data Protection Policy for further details on making requests for access to personal data.

If you are interested and would like to find out more about our school, please visit our website www.fairfields.northants.sch.uk. To apply for the role, please complete the application on My New Term. Should you have any questions, please contact our Clerk to Governors – Jodie Walton waltonj@fairfields.northants.sch.uk.

Please note, we reserve the right to end this vacancy early if and when we fill the post. 

Fairfields School is committed to keeping children safe and therefore, the successful applicant will be required to undertake an enhanced DBS check.

We look forward to hearing from you!