Message sent on behalf of Ian Domville, Wallingford School Chair of Governors:

Dear parents & guardians

· Parent Governor Election Process

The Governing Body of Wallingford School is introducing a new process for the election of Parent Governors.

In common with most schools, we have for many years used a very simple process where voting slips have been sent home via the students. While this simple process has served us reasonably well, providing the school with many capable and committed Parent Governors, it has become clear that a new, more robust process is needed.

During the most recent ballot in December 2015, the old process was challenged. After reviewing the situation, I decided that I had no choice but to annul the election and start again with a new, more robust process. I must stress that this is absolutely not a reflection on the parents who had put themselves forwards as candidates for that election - it was the process we were using that was being called into question.

We have now established a new online voting process. In addition, in order to be as inclusive as possible the new process has a facility for parents to vote via a paper slip if they are unable to access the online system.

A key element of the new process is that we need a formal register of all the eligible parents and, where possible, a unique email address for each parent. If you are receiving this email then your email address has been included in that list. Note that by "parent" we are referring to anyone with parental responsibility for one or more children at the school.

Establishing the list of email addresses has been a challenge, partly because many parents choose to use a shared email address for communication with school.

Action Required - If this email has been sent to a shared email address and each parent wants to be able to have their own vote, please provide the school with a unique email address for each parent. If it is not possible to provide unique email addresses, please advise the school - it is possible to work with a shared email address but the process requires some additional manual steps by the school and the parents.

· Second Parent Governor Position

The aborted ballot in December was for a single Parent Governor position. Since then, a second position has become vacant.

If we were simply rerunning the December ballot then we would have done so with the same list of candidates. However, having a single vote for two positions is a more prudent use of school funding.

In order to do so, it is a requirement that we reopen the nomination stage of the process.

Action Required - if you would like to be included in the new ballot as a candidate, please send a completed nomination form to the school. Nominations forms are available on the VLE, the main office, or please email Bee Hibbin to request one is forwarded to you. Completed nomination forms need to be received by the school by 1pm on Tuesday 12 April 2016.

Yours faithfully

Ian Domville

Chair of Governors