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

Use our guide to help plan and prepare for governor school visits. Understand how you can link visits to the school improvement plan, and how you can help your governors prepare and report back effectively.

Last reviewed on 20 March 2024
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 34018
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. Getting the most out of remote visits
  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 see 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
  • Visits should be:
    • In line with your school improvement plan (SIP) priorities
    • For an identified purpose linked to the governing body’s responsibilities, such as safeguarding
    • Pre-arranged with your headteacher or executive headteacher 

Share our 1-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