Welcome from Our Chair of Governors

On behalf of the Local Governing Body, I would like to warmly welcome you and your child(ren) to our school.

Kingsnorth is your local Church of England Primary Academy, and we are proud of the part we are striving to play in our community. We like to promote the feeling that we are the village school even though we serve a much wider community than just the village.

The Governors’ priority is to ensure that your child(ren) receives the very best education and support they can whilst always being happy and secure here with us. We are committed to ensuring an excellent environment and learning opportunities for all, in a place that will provide for and challenge pupils, so they enjoy and achieve success during their time at our schools.

We look to foster a close-knit Christian family atmosphere where staff, pupils, parents and governor’s work together to ensure that all our pupils have the opportunity to develop to their full potential, where nothing is impossible and all pupils and staff can aspire and achieve.

The school is part of a multi academy trust (MAT) called Aquila. The Governors and senior leaders of the school believe Aquila provides the support to help move the school forward and achieve the very best academic results and care for our pupils.

Aquila is the Diocese of Canterbury’s Multi Academy Trust (MAT) and has grown from 3 schools in 2015 to 15 schools in 2022. The growth of Aquila is due to the strength of support it gives to the schools within it and the progress it has been able to help those schools achieve. Kingsnorth School has been supportive of, and been supported by the Aquila Trust and also the other schools within it.

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce you to the work the Local Governing Body does to manage and support the strategic direction of the school along with the Executive Head Teacher and the Senior Leadership Team. The Governing Body consists of a total of 12 governors who are appointed by the directors of Aquila or are elected by the staff or parents/carers of our pupils.

There are also ex-officio representatives from the local church/ Diocese.   Although governors are appointed or elected into various categories they are ALL there to support the whole school and not just the groups who appointed them. Governors are appointed to serve a 4-year term of office, after which they can be re-elected or re-appointed and many of our school governors have found the role so rewarding they have been with us for more than one term of office.

All governors have an equal say in the running of the school and no one category or governor has more influence than any other.

The Local Governing Body has a range of powers and duties laid down by various Education Acts and the scheme of delegation given to it by Aquila. In the main, these responsibilities relate to:

• Setting and monitoring targets that promote high standards of educational achievement
• Setting the strategic framework within which the school operates
• Management of the school’s budget and ensuring value for money
• Ensuring that the curriculum for the school is balanced and broadly based

Governors discharge their statutory responsibilities through scheduled Governing Body and committee meetings, plus regular visits to the school where they will meet with staff, team members and the children to monitor and evaluate progress by collecting evidence of impact and outcomes of the various school daily routines and actions put in place by the school to aid school improvement.

The minutes of all full Governing Body meetings are available to parents/carers as are meetings with Governors should the need arise.  All the Governors, the Aquila Trust and members of our senior leadership team are here to support you, the parents or carers.

The Governing Body is rightly proud of our school, not only in terms of their academic results which in some cases have again this year continued to exceed most other local, county and national results; but also in the solid Christian foundations it provides in preparing our pupils for the remainder of their formative education. The Governing Body wants all the pupils at our school to have lasting and happy memories of their time with us and when they leave, to have become independent lifelong learners.

Chris Myers — Chair of Governors
September 2024