Governing Body

Bergvliet High School is Section 21 organisation, which ensures that effective governance structures are in place to support the processes within the school to deliver a quality, relevant and effective education for all our children. School governance is about creating, implementing, supervising and evaluating policies and rules, which guide and govern the actions of the school and its members. In other words, school governance is concerned with the creation of policies for the school and making sure that the school is run according to the set policies. School governance is also about raising money for the school.

Parents or caregivers form most of the members of a SGB, and as per the South African Schools Act they are the ones who have the primary responsibility for ensuring that the school is run efficiently. SGB elections are once run every three years, and on an ad-hoc basis, should a parent member resign.

The South African School Act states that the following groups of people can be elected to a school governing body of an ordinary public school:

1. The parents of learners at the school.
2. The staff members who are not educators (for example the ground staff, finance, secretary etc.).
3. The educators.

The governing body must:

• Decide on an admissions policy for the school.
• Decide on the language policy of the school.
• Decide on what religious practices will be followed at the school.
• Adopt a code of conduct for learners which sets out disciplinary procedures.
• All these decisions and policies must be in line with national policies.
• Adopt a constitution setting out how the SGB will operate.
• Adopt a school mission statement setting out the values and beliefs of the school.
• Decide the times of the school day.
• Administer the school’s property, buildings and grounds.
• Make recommendations regarding the appointment of educators at the school.