Roles on the governing board

Read our top tips on how to chair a full board meeting – including how to prepare in advance, stick to time and keep things on track. Use our audit to evaluate how effective your meetings are.

Make meetings with the headteacher more productive with our advice on why you should meet and what you should focus on.

Get tips on how to develop a positive working relationship with your CEO so you can support your trust effectively.

Learn how you can use GovernorHub effectively to manage your governance as well as complete a range of common clerking tasks.

Know how to provide an effective induction for your new governance professional/clerk so they can hit the ground running. A thoughtful induction process will also serve as evidence of your commitment to training. Download our checklist to make sure you've got everything covered.

Governance professionals play a key role in school and trust governance and should expect to be paid accordingly. Use the findings from our report on benchmarking pay and working patterns to ensure you are paid fairly for the work that you do.

Find out what link governor roles your board should have and get advice on how to allocate them.

Get clarity on your role as the link governor for assessment. Find out how to monitor assessment and save time with our example questions to hold school leaders to account.

Find out how to carry out your role as an attendance link governor or trustee effectively. Learn what the role entails and use our questions to hold leaders to account.

Learn about the division of responsibilities between the board and the headteacher, and read advice on keeping your role strategic, not operational.

Whether your board is in a maintained school or academy, or works with a headteacher, principal or CEO, make sure you understand their role and rights on your board, so your meetings run smoothly.

Use our template to make sure the headteacher's report has all the information it needs to do its job well. It includes the topics you'll likely want to cover, and the evaluation areas in Ofsted's 2025 inspection framework.