Governor News

We are constantly changing – obviously as a school, as staff and as students, but also as a governing board also. We say thank you this term to two of the governing board who have completed their 4-year terms of office – Linda Burrows and Ella Wardleworth-Phillips – thank you for your contributions. We welcome Jane Meek as a newly appointed co-opted governor and we will be advertising to elect a new parent governor in September.

I have been Chair of Governors at PGHS for 17 years now (and on the board for 22 years since my daughter started in year 7!) and from September I am going to share this responsibility with the Vice-Chair, Jackie Lord, with both of us as Co-Chairs of Governors. As part of our move forward in the school’s history and into the new build, we will now benefit as a board from new ideas and new ways of working. As with any innovations in our school, our core ethos and priorities won’t change but new blood is always welcome – it gives us different questions to ask! I welcome Jackie into this role.

So, what have we been focussing on this term? We underwent training on Environmental Sustainability early in the term as schools are required to have a sustainability lead and a climate action plan by September. This is now in place; thank you Mr Ward. Later in the term, Mr Ward and I attended the ASCL conference on Sustainability. As a follow-up to this, Mr Bowles took a group of students to the Sustainability Conference in Blackburn in June for a fantastic development day they all enjoyed. Mr Bowles attended a workshop for staff, I led a workshop for governors and the students attended activity workshops and acted as guides. What we have learned from these recent activities is that school already does so much, through the curriculum, through pastoral activities and through leadership responsibilities in the area of environmental sustainability. We have been able to audit current provision and to plan next steps through the climate action plan targets; there is so much more we could be doing and the girls provide us with lots of new ideas! We are excited to see how many sustainable innovations there are in the new build and to compare our carbon footprint in the ‘old’ versus the ‘new’ schools. We, as governors, look forward to receiving progress reports and speaking to students and staff.

So here we are at the end of another school year, awaiting with baited breath the results of all the hard work Year 11 have put into their final exams. I look forward to sharing your excitement with you and your parents in August! On behalf of the governors, I would also like to thank all staff for the many ways in which you have given support in all its guises.

On behalf of the governing board, I wish you all, staff students and families, a safe and restful summer break.

Ms Lorimer Russell-Hayes

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