We are proud to be an Endowed School within the Lowther Estate.  The governance of our school is under the Lowther School and Exhibition Endowment (the Endowment) which is a charity (No: 526917) set up to support the school in its maintenance and upkeep as well as providing grants and financial support.  The Endowment appoints the majority of the governors at our school.

The Governing Body is also the Responsible Body for Little VIPs Day Care. 

Role and Responsibilities

School governing bodies are responsible for working with the school to ensure that it delivers a good quality of education. Their key responsibilities are:

• To ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
• To hold the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and for the performance management of staff;
• To oversee the financial performance of the school and make sure its money is well spent.

Members of the governing body include parents, teaching staff and representatives from the local community. Full governing body meetings are held each term and the minutes are available for inspection. In addition, there are several committees which meet during each term:

• Finance, Health & Safety and Premises 
• Curriculum and Staffing 

Our Governing Body is made up of:

• 2 Parent Governors (elected by parents/carers of pupils registered at the school at time of appointment)
• 1 LA Governor (appointed by the Local Authority)
• 2 Staff Governors (1 will always be the headteacher who holds an ex officio role and 1 will be elected by the staff of the school)
• 8 Foundation Governors (appointed by Lowther School and Exhibition Endowment)
• 1 co-opted Governor (to be a member of staff of the nursery)

Our Governing Body is chaired by Cecilia Emery and the Vice Chair is Alice Vince.

Terms of Reference

Our governance arrangements will be characterised by:

• Corporate decision-making in the best interests of its pupils and future pupils.
• Integrity, objectivity and honesty in the best interests of the school.
• Ensure that the school and Little VIPs operate within statutory safeguarding, health and safety and Special Educational Needs regulations.
• Having the right people with the necessary skills, time and commitment, and sufficient diversity of perspectives to ensure internal challenge, all actively contributing in line with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
• Clear governance structures with tightly defined remits, particularly in relation to functions delegated to committees or other bodies.
• Clear separation between the strategic and operational in terms of the role of the board and its school leaders.
• A positive relationship between the board and its school leaders enabling robust constructive challenge on the basis of a good understanding of objective data particularly on pupil progress, staff performance and finances.
• Access to support and advice from LA governor services and a clerk to governors.
• Robust processes for financial and business planning and oversight and effective controls for compliance, propriety and value for money.
• Processes for regular self-evaluation, review and improvement including; skills audits, training and development plans, and independent external reviews as necessary.

Any enquires in the first instance should be emailed to: clerk@lowther.cumbria.sch.uk

Current Governing Body Membership

We do not publish the governing body's diversity data due to small membership size and we must maintain their privacy.