Welcome to the Governors pages.

How to contact the Governing Body

You can contact us by email governors@themarch.school or by writing c/o the school office.

The March CE Primary, Claypit Lane, Westhampnett, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 0NU

The Local Governing Body

The March being part of Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust is governed by the Trust Board and by a Local Governing Body, which is legally a Committee of the Trust Board, and only responsible for decisions delegated to it by the Board under their Scheme of Delegation. Appointments to the new Local Governing Body have been confirmed by the Trust Board as follows:

Name	Governor Type	Appointed  By	Term From	Term To	Roles	Committee
Stephen Bennett OBE Chair of Governors	Foundation Governor	DCAT	25 Feb 2025	24 Feb 2029	H&S Governor Development & Training PP/SEND/LAC/EAL Governor	Resources
Jackie Chandler VICE CHAIR OF GOVERNORS	Community Governor	DCAT	31 Mar 2023	30 Mar 2027	Maths Governor	Resource's  (Chair)
Vacancy	Parent Governor
Rev. Rachel Hawes	Foundation Governor	DCAT	21 Jun 2022	20 Jun 2026	RE and SIAMS	Ethos
Justine Howard	Foundation Governor	DCAT	30 Nov 2025	29 Nov 2029	Safeguarding Governor EYFS SCR	Ethos Chair
Lorna Jones	Staff Governor	Election	21 Apr 2023	20 Apr 2027		Resources
Nicola Metcalfe	Executive headteacher
Mrs Annamarie Park	Clerk to Governors

Clerk to the Governors

Mrs A Park who can be contacted at apark@dcat.academy

In addition to the above members, Mrs Lisa Hardy, DCAT director of education​​ and other officers from the Academy Trust, may attend meetings. 

The Roles and Responsibilities of the Governing Body

The three main functions of the governing body include:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the academy;
2. Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the academy and its pupils, and the performance management of staff;
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the academy and making sure its money is well spent.

With all of the three items above, the role of the Governing Body is to constructively challenge the senior leadership of the academy (that is, to be a "critical friend"). The Governing Body is not meant to get involved in the day-to-day running of the academy.​

What does the Governing Body actually do?

The Governing Body meets monthly for a full meeting.  Standard items that are discussed at these meetings include: data on how the children as a whole are progressing, academy finance, academy policy updates, safeguarding and SIAMS (the Statutory Inspection of Anglican schools).  A termly headteacher's report is also circulated, which updates governors on various matters to do with the academy. 

Once a year, the Governing Body scrutinises the academy's Self-Evaluation Form (which is the academy's evaluation of how it is doing against previous judgements made by OFSTED), and also the School Development Plan, which is the yearly action plan that follows on from the Self-Evaluation Form.

As well as these meetings, governors regularly visit the academy to focus on a particular element of academy life.  For instance, recent visits focused on school improvement, and looked at the role of both subject leads and class teachers in the detailed and comprehensive planning that takes place for every lesson.  A write-up of these visits are then circulated to other governors, so that the Governing Body can build up a collective picture of the academy.

The lead governor for safeguarding meets termly with senior leaders and SENCO to ensure that the academy is up keeping its safeguarding responsibilities.  Likewise, the lead governor for Health and Safety meets with the business manager and site caretaker to conduct a termly health and safety walk.

Useful Links

You can compare schools results here www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk

You can complete the Ofsted parent view questionaire here www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk

Minutes of the Governing body are available  on the school website for this academic year