Governance impact statement 2025-2026
It is best practice for the Shaftesbury Park Primary School board of governors to publish an annual governance impact statement, providing details of the school’s governance and its work over the year.
The financial and educational context
Shaftesbury Park has faced, and continues to face, significant challenges, all of which are shared by state schools in London and across the country.
The biggest is the financial challenge. School funding has fallen significantly since 2010. Although there have been some increases in funding in the past two years, overall funding remains below pre-austerity levels in real terms. The challenge is compounded by the falling numbers of children in Wandsworth and London as costs continue to rise, and the need to cover increases in teachers pay that are not fully funded by the Department for Education.
The board has continued to set balanced budgets and are cautiously optimistic about the school’s position but continue to monitor the finances closely.
The school continues to see an increased level of need, this creates extra demand on teachers and resources and securing appropriate funding from the council can be difficult. We are incredibly grateful for the work done by staff, especially the school’s SENCO, in ensuring every child gets the best education possible at the school.
Finally, attendance remains a national problem, and Shaftesbury Park is no exception. Individually, it may just be a case of a few days' absence, but cumulatively, both individual children and classes suffer, as staff have to make up for missed learning. The cumulative effect over seven school years is large.
As always, we would like to formally record our thanks to everyone in the school community. Through both our visits to the school, and evidence from external visitors and assessors, we know that the school continues to provide an exceptional education, through its unique curriculum, to every child. Everyone at the school deserves recognition for achieving so much, despite the challenges and pressures they face every day, as they develop children who think about their world, enlarge their world, and change their world.
The core duties of governance
The government requires governing boards to fulfil three core duties:
- Ensure clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction
- Hold the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils
- Oversee the financial performance of the school and ensure its money is well spent
The board
The board comprises thirteen members: the headteacher, one elected staff governor, two elected parent governors, one local authority governor (appointment by the board and approved by the local authority), and eight co-opted governors. All non-staff board members are unpaid volunteers.
The board maintains a skills audit, and the local authority and co-opted governors are appointed based on the skills, knowledge, and experience they can bring to the board. Vacancies are filled using a national charity that specialises in governor recruitment and other networks where suitable governors may be found.
The deputy heads attend all meetings as observers. The board uses the local authority’s clerking service.
There were some changes to board membership. Staff governor, Linnea Sammuelsson, returned to Sweden during the year, while Jon Moore and Pat Taylor both stood down as co-opted governors.
We were pleased to welcome Ro Hulston, who takes one of the co-opted positions, and Susan Diment, who was elected as a staff governor. We will be searching for a new co-opted governor at the start of the next academic year.
Board structure
The full board meets once per term. It has three committees: Resources; Curriculum and Achievement; and Children, Families and Communities.
Attendance details are listed at the end of the governance impact statement.
Governor training
The board recognises the importance of training and development. Over the course of the year, governors undertook training in the following areas:
- Cybersecurity
- Recruitment
- Inclusion
- Information governance and GDPR
- Safeguarding
The board’s work
During the academic year, the board reviewed all aspects of the school’s operation and running, including:
- School Improvement Plan
- Marketing
- Long-term strategy
- Attendance
- Premises management
- Budget setting and monitoring
- Health and safety
- Quality of teaching
- Pupil progress
- Premises plans
- Staffing structures
Governor visits
Governor visits include both those by a single governor with a focus on a single topic, and governors’ days when several governors will focus on a theme.
Areas that have been a focus for governors’ day visits this year include SEND and premises.
We have also benefited from the advice and guidance of our external school advisor, an independent expert, with whom we can compare and calibrate our observations.
The board’s impact
The board believes it has had a positive impact on its core objectives.
The school’s vision
The board is proud of the school’s dynamic mission, which strives to develop children to succeed throughout their lives. We have been particularly impressed to see that vision in action, with children taking ownership and leadership for aspects of school life and applying the skills they learn to their lessons and work.
Holding the headteacher to account
We continue to find the school is well led. While we are not complacent, and always push for more improvement, the headteacher and SLT have created a positive culture in which staff and students can thrive.
Education has become a difficult environment, and each year brings new challenges and increasingly restrained resources with which to meet them. However, the school has continued to provide an exceptional experience, not just for the children, but for everyone in the community.
Although the head and the SLT are always quick to defer credit to others, as governors we are always pleased to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate them for all they do.
Financial performance
The school continues to set a prudent, balanced budget. We are grateful to the school’s admin team for all the work they do in monitoring the budget and ensuring the school gets the best possible value from every penny.
For the school to remain sustainable will require constant effort and imaginative thinking. We were pleased to see successful pilots of holiday schemes taking place this year, and look forward to exploring other ways the school can leverage its assets to support its core mission.
The board’s future work
The board’s work for the next year will be focused on addressing the challenges faced by the school.
- Continuing to improve the school’s marketing. Although this has been a focus for several years, and has helped keep pupil numbers relatively stable, we are very aware there is no room for complacency. We will continue to push the school to ensure it gets the recognition it deserves, both locally, and in the wider education world.
- Raising attainment. The school continues to use data effectively, targeting the lower and higher attaining children to drive improvement.
- Improving attendance. All schools have seen poorer attendance since Covid. The reasons behind this are complex, but the board wants to ensure the school supports all children to get as much benefit from their primary education as possible.
- Maximising revenue. The school has a number of physical and intellectual assets that it can leverage to support its financial situation, but progress in taking advantage of these has been slow. We hope that changes within the admin structure will finally allow progress on these to be made.
- Celebrating the school’s 150th anniversary. 2027 will mark 150 years since Shaftesbury Park was founded. While this is a major milestone in its own right, the board is keen that it also provides educational opportunities for our children, promotes the school, and emphasises the school’s place at the heart of the local community.
Contacting the governors
The governors are always happy to hear from parents and carers. You can contact them via the school office or contact the chair of governors directly at james.cousins@shaftesburypark.wandsworth.sch.uk.
Meeting attendance
Attendance at meeting is only part of the work a governor does at the school, and should be viewed in the context of the other visits governors make and support they offer between meetings. The data below shows the number meetings a governor attended and the number of meetings that took place when they were a member of the board or committee.
Full governing board
| Rebecca Caldecott | 3/3 |
| James Cousins | 3/3 |
| Susan Diment | 1/1 |
| Rachel Fleming | 2/2 |
| Maya Haria | 1/3 |
| Stephanie Hemelryk Donald | 2/3 |
| Ro Hulston | 1/2 |
| Philippe Mior | 1/3 |
| Jonathan Mogford | 2/3 |
| Celine Monteiro | 3/3 |
| Bunmi Richards | 3/3 |
| Moya Wilkie | 3/3 |
| Former governors |
|
| Jon Moore | 0/1 |
| Linnea Samuelsson | 1/1 |
| Pat Taylor | 1/2 |
Children, Families, and Community Committee
| Rebecca Caldecott | 2/3 |
| James Cousins | 3/3 |
| Rachel Fleming | 3/3 |
| Maya Haria | 1/3 |
| Celine Monteiro | 1/1 |
| Bunmi Richards | 3/3 |
| Moya Wilkie | 3/3 |
| Former governors |
|
| Jon Moore | 2/2 |
| Pat Taylor | 0/3 |
Curriculum and Achievement Committee
| James Cousins | 3/3 |
| Maya Haria | |
| Stephanie Hemelryk Donald | 1/2 |
| Philippe Mior | 1/3 |
| Jonathan Mogford | 3/3 |
| Celine Monteiro | 3/3 |
| Bunmi Richards | 3/3 |
| Moya Wilkie | 2/2 |
| Former governors |
|
| Linnea Samuelsson | 1/1 |
| Pat Taylor | 0/1 |
Resources Committee
| James Cousins | 3/3 |
| Maya Haria | 2/3 |
| Stephanie Hemelryk Donald | 2/3 |
| Ro Hulston | 2/2 * |
| Philippe Mior | 1/3 |
| Jonathan Mogford | 3/3 |
| Celine Monteiro | 3/3 |
| Bunmi Richards | 3/3 |
| Moya Wilkie | 1/1 |
* One attendance was as an associate member of Resources Committee.