How to prepare for your next governing board meeting

Prepare fully for your governing board meetings to make sure you add value and can hold the school to account effectively. Download our pre-meeting checklist to stay on top of the agenda, get to grips with the critical information in the headteacher's report, and plan questions to ask.

Last reviewed on 3 March 2021
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 32644
Contents
  1. Address action points from previous meeting
  2. Ask for agenda items to be added, if appropriate
  3. Tips for reading your meeting pack at pace and with a critical eye
  4. How to ask the right questions, plus example question stems
  5. Review policies that need to be ratified

The steps and supporting guidance below will help you prepare for your next meeting. You can also download the steps as a quick-reference checklist:

Download: pre-meeting checklist for governors DOCX, 526.9 KB

If you're looking for possible agenda items for your upcoming summer meeting, this article will tell you what most governing boards will be talking about this term. 

Address action points from previous meeting

You should have made a note of any action points that were assigned to you in the last meeting and acted on them. If you haven't already done so, read the previous meeting's minutes and follow up on any points relevant to you as soon as possible.

You can expect to see actions such as:

If you have an action to contribute information and documents ahead of the meeting, get

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