Governors

Each Compass school has a local governing body composed of a group of volunteers drawn from the community, each bringing a range of skills, expertise and professional experience. Our Governors provide essential links between the school, parents/carers and the local community. Governors work with staff and parents in an atmosphere of co-operation to provide the best possible framework for educating our children. They are involved in all aspects of school life and meet regularly with leadership teams.

Governors fulfil their responsibilities by:

• Supporting the school and its ambition by working strategically to develop and implement vision and ethos;
• Ensuring that the children are receiving the best education and achieve the best outcomes by monitoring the quality of teaching and standards across the school;
• Setting a budget and making sure that financial resources made available to the school are used effectively;
• Accounting to all stakeholders for the school’s performance and for the decisions they make.

Chair of Governors - Orla Ralston

Orla qualified as a solicitor in 1998, having graduated with a joint honours degree in Law and Accountancy. Orla practised as a corporate tax lawyer in a City of London law firm from 1998 until 2005. She then worked at Goldman Sachs, advising on corporate tax matters in relation to various corporate mergers and acquisitions and lending transactions across Europe, where she remained for 11 years. Orla recently joined the London office of a Canadian pension fund to advise on the tax aspects of their various European investments. Orla was elected as a parent governor of Halstow Primary School in January 2011, and was first elected as Chair of Governors in the autumn of 2013. The Halstow governing body was selected as one of six finalists for the National Governors Association Outstanding Governing Body Awards in 2013.

Orla can be contacted at Halstow's school contact address.

Halstow Governance Structure