Effective governance

Get the right people with the skills you need

Having a strong foundation when it comes to the structure, people and running of your board is crucial. Lean on the expertise of your governance professional to provide advice and guidance, and help with recruitment and training. Remember to measure the skills and knowledge of your current board members, and think carefully about whether the structure of your board works best for your school. 

Get these fundamentals right and you'll have a great starting point to be able to develop skills across the board, allow for effective succession planning, and keep momentum going when effectively challenging and supporting your school. 

Remember your role: stay strategic

One of the trickiest things to do as a governor is to avoid straying over the line from strategic oversight to operational thinking. It's natural that you'll want to help in any way you can, but it's vital that you remember your role and stick to it.

Remember: you're responsible for holding school leaders to account for their decision making, asking them questions like, how they know whether something is working, or what plans they have in place to move the school forward. Your role is not to suggest how school leaders should be doing their jobs, to make judgements about individual teachers or to get involved with the day-to-day running of the school. 

Trust your school leaders to use their professional expertise, and provide effective support and challenge to hold them to account. 

Strategic vs operational: practical examples

Stay organised and prep for meetings thoroughly

Allow yourself enough time to go through all the papers before your next governing board meeting and prepare your questions in advance. This way you'll have a much deeper understanding of how your school is performing and be able to think of sharp questions that will get the most from your school leaders.

Top tip: send your questions to school leaders in advance – this gives them time to prepare more in-depth answers for you. 

By preparing for meetings thoroughly, understanding your school's unique context, strengths and weaknesses, and keeping up to date with what's happening in the wider sector, you're in the best place to be able to provide the most effective oversight for your school.

How to prepare for your next governing board meeting

School visits are a fundamental part of governance

Getting into school to see everything in action is vital – you need to triangulate the information you're given by school leaders with what you actually see happening in the school. This part of governance is often the most challenging, with governors juggling their role alongside busy lives. 

It doesn't have to take hours every time, and visits can look different depending on what you're there to monitor. These could include chats with subject leads or senior leaders, informal learning walks or even just attending a parents' evening or school play. The important thing is that you focus on a particular area linked to your role on the board or your school improvement plan (SIP), and then report back to the board to keep everyone in the loop.