Governors

Welcome to our Governors page!

Who are we?

We are governors who support a federation of two schools – Heathcoat Primary School and Rackenford Church of England VA Primary School.
Until 27 January 2025 we also served Tiverton High School which now has separate governance.
Our governing body is made up of representatives from parents, staff, foundation, the local authority and the local community. The current governors are listed below.

We may also appoint additional people with relevant skills and expertise as associate governors to support our governing body in key areas.

What we do

We work with our schools and leaders to ensure a high quality, inclusive education which enables all students to maximise their potential and make greater progress than expected.

We have three core functions:

  • Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
  • Holding leaders to account for the educational performance of our schools, their pupils, and the performance management of staff; and
  • Overseeing the financial performance of the schools and making sure money is well spent.

Governors are not involved in the day to day management of a school. We are “eyes on, hands off”.

We provide strategic oversight of the processes, policies and practices of our schools to ensure that that they are statutorily compliant and to monitor and evaluate their impact.  For example, we do not set the school behaviour policy – that is the head teacher’s role. Our job is to ensure that school behaviour systems are fair and support inclusion and achievement for all pupils.

How we do it

To achieve this we will:

  • support and challenge leaders
  • have knowledge of the student experience
  • have a comprehensive understanding of how our schools work
  • have the benefit of our pupils at the heart of all our decisions
  • strive to engage with parents
  • ensure governors are well trained

Our structure

The Full Governing Body (FGB) meets monthly. It looks at resources and school budgets as well as learning, pupil progress and welfare in our schools. A separate committee deals with pay

The FGB also has First and Second Committees to deal with Disciplinary issues, Exclusions or Appeals.

In addition the FGB can set up local groups to focus on key issues relating to all or any of the three federated schools. For example – Safeguarding. These groups will be made up of a mix of governors and other members of the school and community who have the relevant skills and knowledge in that issue.

Flora Wood – Chair (Foundation Governor TCLP)
Emma Weaver – Vice-chair (Parent Governor)
Philip Barlow – Foundation Governor (TCLP)
Helen Hyland – Substitute Ex-officio Foundation Governor. Safeguarding Lead Governor
Sarah Child – Local Authority Governor
Emily Pitkin – Co-opted Governor
Giles Greenslade – Parent Governor
Demelza Higginson – Acting Head of School, Heathcoat Primary School
Emily Budden – Acting Head of School, Rackenford C of E VA Primary School

Andrew Rigamonti  – Associate Member
Lucy Bull – Associate Member

 

Associate members have voting rights on the committees they have been appointed to..

Skip to content