NOTES FROM THE BOARDROOM
“
Our Vision is for Matravers School to be a world-class centr teaching and lear the heart of our r
e for ning at egion, the
secondary school of choice for young people. (Matravers Vision Statement)
As another very busy academic year draws to a close, I thought it would be useful to provide a brief summary of the past year from a governor’s perspective. This is also an ideal opportunity for me to introduce myself as the new ‘Co-Chair’ of governors at Matravers.
I joined the Board of Governors in October 2014 as a Parent Governor (both my children went to Matravers) and I have been Vice Chair for the last couple of years. Though I was very keen to take on the role of Chair, it seemed pretty daunting initially with my main concern being the time commitment. Guy Davies has also recently taken on additional responsibilities with the Wiltshire Education Standards Board and so he suggested we enter in a co-chairing arrangement. Consequently, Guy and I now share the various roles and responsibilities as co-chairs with Linda Hallowell taking over as Vice Chair. So what? I hear you say. Well this means that we can share the chair’s workload, allowing me to bring a slightly different perspective to the role whilst retaining Guy’s wealth of knowledge and experience.
One of our core functions as a governing body is to set the vision, ethos and strategy for the school. The vision and ethos is encapsulated in our vision statement which says we want Matravers to be a world-class centre for teaching and learning at the heart of our region, the secondary school of choice for young people. That may sound like a grandiose statement utterly detached from reality to many people, and I understand that. But a vision statement is exactly that: a vision, and we genuinely believe that is what the young people in this area deserve and therefore
that is the challenge that we set the Senior Leadership Team at Matravers. Achieving this requires a sustained period of transition for the school and although there remains much still to be done, significant progress has undoubtedly been made in all areas over the past year, particularly with regards to the school site itself.
In this last academic year, much time and energy has been spent bringing the Priority Schools Build Phase 2 Project (PSBP2) through to fruition. We anticipate that when the school returns after the summer break, construction of the new science block will be well underway with completion currently scheduled for late 2019. This will provide the next generation of Matravers students with a truly first class educational facility. There are also plans to refurbish the main block in the next academic year too, with funding being provided from Wiltshire County Council. This will help to breathe some life back into the fabric of the building. Additionally, many of you will also have seen (and hopefully many of you will have had the opportunity to ‘use’) the new Astroturf pitch which has been in use now for about a year. This fantastic sports facility will soon be further enhanced with the addition of floodlighting which will enable it to be used all year round.
So as you can see, even in times of relative austerity for schools and education nationally, Matravers continues on its journey to becoming that ‘world-class centre for teaching and learning’. This message is getting out beyond the borders of Westbury too as the new academic year sees a significant increase in pupil numbers into Year 7 in September. We hope everyone enjoys their (very well-earned) summer break, and we look forward to continuing our transformation of Matravers in the new academic year.
Mr. Brian Ralph Co-Chair of the Board of Governors
www.matravers.wilts.sch.uk
“
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