St Christopher's International Primary School

I look forward to welcoming you to the SCIPS "family" and assure you of the Board's continuous support.

As Chairman of the Board of Governors, let me briefly outline to you the role of the Board and provide you with some details as to how it functions. St Christopher's is registered as a Company in Malaysia (not for profit), and is therefore required to have a Board of Governors (similarly to a Board of Directors). The School's Board works in partnership with the Principal to ensure that the School -

• Obeys the Law
• Meets it's published aims and values.

The law applying to a School includes legislation, which is specifically about education and more general matters relating to such issues as health and safety, employment and financial probity. Together with the Principal and the Staff of the School, governors share responsibility pledges made to parents in the school prospectus. These are concerned both with the ethos of the School and mostly importantly - to what children learn. So - it’s an important job, and one, which can have an enormous effect on the quality of education, provided by the School.

The governing body is responsible for:

• Agreeing the aims, ethos and values of the School
• Agreeing policies that will help the school achieve its aims
• Contributing to school improvement
• Overseeing the budget and other resources
• Taking action to ensure that the School's aims are achieved

In most respects it is the Principal and the other school staff who take day-to-day responsibility and action. In practical terms the governing body is likely to take on the role of deciding on overriding principles, discussing and approving documents produced and receiving reports.

At St Christopher's, we are fortunate to have committed and highly professional team of Governors, who give a tremendous amount of their time voluntarily to the progress and development of the School. Some Governors are parents of children at St Christopher's, whilst others are representatives of the community.

Four Sub-Committees are delegated the tasks of monitoring and evaluating the development within the School, and each governor agrees to be represented in at least one of the Sub-Committees.

These are:

• Staffing/Admin
• Buildings
• Curriculum
• Finance.

Each of the above meets prior to every Board meeting and their proposals and recommendations are tabled, discussed and decided upon. The Board presents its annual report at the Annual General Meeting of the Association, which is usually held in February of each year. Governors respect and value the opinions of the School's broad community and are particularly aware of parents' perceptions and expectations.

It is important for the Board to maintain a positive and productive partnership with the staff, parents and friends of the School. In this respect, we are always available and approachable and attempt to regularly communicate with parents as to what is going on at School.