Parent governor/trustee elections

If you're the chair or clerk, follow this process to make sure you carry out parent governor/trustee elections efficiently, and in line with the rules.

Last reviewed on 11 January 2024
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 3703
Contents
  1. Use our document templates
  2. Who's responsible for organising the election?
  3. Who's eligible for election?
  4. Plan and write your recruitment literature
  5. Notify parents of a vacancy and invite applications
  6. If not enough parents stand for election
  7. Running an election by ballot
  8. When do parent governors' terms of office start?
  9. How does re-election work? 

This article refers to the Department for Education's (DfE's) constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools statutory guidance and governance structures and roles guidance, and schedule 1 of the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012.

We also refer to articles 53 to 56 of the DfE's model articles of association - version 1 for MATs and version 2 for single academy trusts. Check your own articles of association first in case they differ.

Use our document templates

Download and adapt our collection of template parent governor election documents to save you time. 

You'll find a letter to parents inviting candidates, a ballot paper and a letter outlining the voting procedure, a letter to the successful candidate(s) and a letter announcing the result to parents.

School type Responsibility Community Local authority (can delegate to the headteacher) Community special Local authority (can delegate to the headteacher) Voluntary controlled Local authority (can delegate to the headteacher) Maintained nursery schools Local authority (can delegate to the headteacher) Voluntary aided Governing board  Foundation Governing board  Foundation special  Governing board  Single academies Board