What is STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and maths, but also includes subjects such as design and technology (D&T) and computing/ICT.
Your role
You should:
- Work closely with the subject leads or heads of department
- Champion STEM as a priority for your school
- Be the board's specialist
- Stay strategic
Work closely with the subject leads or heads of department
You're not expected to be an expert, to judge the subjects the same way an inspector would, or to know as much as the headteacher or STEM departments.
You need to work closely with subject leads/department heads through regular school visits (see how to do this below), to get the insights you need to help the board hold staff to account and drive improvement. You won’t be expected to meet with technicians or other department staff, as day-to-day operations rest with the subject lead and/or headteacher.
Your monitoring activities might include:
- Regular meetings with subject leads/department heads and asking questions
- See some questions to ask below, or a wider range of questions in our other article
- Visits to the school to see the school’s policies and procedures in action
- Talking to pupils, parents/carers and staff (or conducting a survey)
- Reports from the subject leads/department heads
We recommend you either meet your subject leads/department heads or visit your school at least once a term.
Champion STEM as a priority for your school
Make sure all governors recognise the importance of STEM within your school/trust. This could be a part of your school improvement plan, or by giving regular reports on monitoring to the governing board. If you’re struggling to raise awareness of STEM in your school/trust, see our other article on how to make STEM a strategic priority.
Be the board's specialist
Your job is to act as the link between governors and staff and to report to the board on things such as:
- Subject delivery
- Use of resources
- Attainment and progress
- Cohesion between the subjects
- Whether your school has relevant, up-to-date policies in place
- Progress towards the school’s STEM strategy
- Quality of STEM careers provision
Bring your more detailed knowledge of the subject to important decisions (for instance, about school improvement priorities or policy approval).
Stay strategic
You shouldn’t get involved with any operational tasks, such as conducting an audit or inspecting what systems your school has in place.
Instead, you’ll focus on your school’s strategic direction in STEM through monitoring – we cover how to do this below.
How to monitor your subject
Work closely with the careers link governor (secondary)
Providing in-depth STEM career information and experiences is crucial to make sure that, if they choose, pupils can pursue STEM careers after they leave school. Work with your careers link governor to look at provision through your STEM lens and make sure it’s effective.
Your careers link governor will be making sure that your provision is developed in line with the Gatsby benchmarks, but you will also want to assure yourself that your school or trust is driving STEM careers in line with the requirements too, including giving information on different routes into STEM (apprenticeships, T-levels, university degrees, etc.)
Read our summary of statutory requirements for careers here.
Establish a focus for each school visit
These should be linked to any STEM priorities in your school or trust improvement plan (SIP/TIP).
If you don't have STEM in your SIP, work with the subject leads/department heads to decide a focus for the visit based on their subject action plans or the curriculum map.
What you should focus on
Key things to monitor might include:
- Attainment and progress, especially:
- At the end of a Key Stage
- For specific groups within your school (including pupils with special educational needs (SEN), pupil premium-eligible pupils, and pupils with English as an additional language)
- Teacher workload and development
- Subject improvement plans
- The quality of resources
- Pupil and parent/carer engagement with the subject
- Work with your subject lead to promote the work your school is doing within STEM to parents/carers and pupils. Get advice on how improve links with parents/carers
- Curriculum and careers guidance policies. You’ll look to see whether:
- STEM is covered effectively in these policies
- It’s clear what they’re aiming to achieve with these policies
- The curriculum (what the school teaches, why it teaches it, and how it teaches it)
- As STEM covers a group of subjects, you’ll want to look at how these connect – for example, in the vocabulary taught and how cross-curricular learning is planned
Questions to ask STEM leads
Adapt these questions to suit your context and choose the ones that fit the purpose of your visit. For example, you could adapt these to ask specific questions to subject leaders/department heads about their subject, rather than STEM as a whole.
- How is the STEM curriculum designed and delivered within the school/trust?
- How do you make sure that the STEM curriculum meets national standards and addresses local industry needs?
- What unique elements or innovations have you incorporated into the STEM curriculum?
- What professional development opportunities are available for STEM teachers?
- How do you support teachers in staying current with best practices and new developments?
- Are there specific training programmes or workshops that teachers attend?
- How do you measure and track STEM performance and outcomes within the school/trust?
- How do you evaluate the effectiveness of STEM programmes?
- How do you use this data to inform continuous improvement?
- How do you promote STEM careers and pathways to students?
- Are there specific initiatives or events that highlight STEM career opportunities?
- Secondary schools: what guidance and support is provided for students considering STEM careers or university courses?
- How do you engage with external STEM organisations and partnerships?
- What partnerships do you have with local businesses, higher education institutions, and research organisations?
- How do these partnerships enhance STEM learning opportunities for students?
- What initiatives are in place to address gender and diversity gaps in STEM within the school/trust?
- How do you encourage underrepresented groups to engage with STEM subjects?
- What specific programmes or interventions have been put in place to promote diversity in STEM?
Find more questions to ask, including subject and phase-specific questions in our article on questions to ask about STEM.
Suggested monitoring schedule
- Term 1: meet with the STEM subject leads/ heads of department to discuss plans for the upcoming year and their expected impact
- Term 2: schedule a learning walk with the subject leads/heads of department to see plans and policies in action, and discuss any problems
- Term 3: meet with the subject leads/heads of department to discuss how the year has gone, and what actions should be taken for the coming year
Use our year planner below to map out your monitoring over your first year in the role and beyond.
Key times in the year
Work with leaders to make sure you’re monitoring the correct things for the time of year. Examples of timely activities to factor into your monitoring include:
- Data reviews
- Assessment dates
- Budget approval
- School improvement planning
- Important dates in STEM
Your first year as a STEM governor: planner
No matter what time of year you join the board or take on your role, use our planner to pick out the most important things to do and questions to ask. Download it below and adapt it to suit your context.