Governor school visits: a chair’s guide and template schedule

Last reviewed on 5 October 2021
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 34018

Use this guide to help plan and prepare for governor school visits, including any remote visits. Find out how to link visits to the school improvement plan, and how you can help your governors prepare and report back effectively.

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Contents

  1. Be clear on the purpose 
  2. Link the visits to your school strategy
  3. Set the frequency of visits and use our template to map out a schedule
  4. How to carry out a remote visit
  5. Make sure governors are clear on reporting back

Be clear on the purpose 

In a nutshell

  • 'Monitoring visits' are where individual governors go into the school to see how specific aspects of the school work in practice
  • Visits allow governors to ask, and witness, whether the things people say are happening are actually happening
  • They might involve a 'learning walk', where governors are taken around the school to chat to staff and pupils, or a sit-down meeting with a relevant staff member
  • They're not for governors to inspect the school, judge individual staff members or interfere with the day-to-day running of the school

Share our one-page summary on the purpose of school visits with all your governors to make sure they understand what's involved, and what they should and shouldn't do on visits  Then direct them to our how-to guide, which will help them with what to do before the visit, template reports and dos and don'ts Use our top tips to encourage

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