A warm welcome to St Bartholomew's C of E Academy.

The aim of the Academy Governance Committee (AGC) at St Bartholomew's is to work with all the staff in helping the children to achieve their full potential in a happy, caring and Christian environment. All the AGC Members are volunteers from a wide cross section of the community.

The AGC Members work closely with the Head to ensure that the school is constantly seen to bear witness to the faith in every aspect of its work and to provide the best possible education for pupils.

We do this in these main ways:

• Setting the schools's values, vision and strategic aims
• Agreeing plans and policies, including admission arrangements
• Monitoring the performance and progress of our children
• Working with the staff to help them teach and care for our children
• Deciding on how the resources of the school are best used
• Acting as a critical friend to the Head to support and challenge them in leading the school
• Ensuring that the school is accountable to the children and parents it serves, to the local community and the Diocese

To deliver this effectively the AGC Members are representatives of all the key groups involved in our school – the Parents, the Staff, the Community and the Church. Some are appointed and some are elected. All serve for a term of four years.  Further information in the Diocese of Coventry Multi Academy Trust Committee Terms of Reference, available here.

The school is part of the Diocese of Coventry Multi Academy Trust and the AGC is part of the governance structure of the Trust which is responsible for overseeing strategic decisions of the school. The governance structure for the trust as a whole is outlined in the governance structure documents here. As an Academy Governance Committee we work in close partnership with the Headteacher and senior leadership team to ensure the best quality education is provided to every child. It is our responsibility to support, challenge, ask questions and ultimately represent the school community. The Academy Governance Committee acts as a ‘critical friend’ to the senior leadership team, questioning and challenging decisions in a constructive and professional way.

Academy Governance Committees have key roles in relation to: providing support, monitoring and challenge around educational experience and performance; church, community and stakeholder engagement and supporting alignment with Trust strategy, approach, ethos and values. The AGC Members meet regularly, visit the school when possible and during special events.  As a team, we are able to support the school to function well and strive to provide a high standard of education.

We meet together at least twice a term as a whole Academy Governance Committee, working parties also meet as appropriate. In addition each AGC Member has an area of responsibility that they are responsible for monitoring, including SEN provision and Safeguarding. AGC Members will regularly visit school to help them to monitor progress against targets set.