1. Make school visits an expectation
School visits are essential to a governor's role.
Get your governors on board by explaining how valuable visits are for your board’s work, and for supporting school improvement.
Give your governors our 1-page summary, so they understand the different types of school visits.
Include expectations when you recruit new governors
Make visits an expectation in all role descriptions when you recruit new governors.
Use our role description templates to help you write yours, and store them in a folder on GovernorHub for everyone to access.
Be upfront about expectations straightaway
During induction, explain that visits develop a meaningful understanding of the day-to-day running of your school, so you can ask better questions and monitor successfully.
Read our article to learn how to induct new governors effectively.
Make sure all governors understand their responsibilities
Give your governors a code of conduct and/or a written commitment statement.
Also consider having a school visits policy, to keep your governors on track during visits.
2. Have a visit schedule
It’s a good idea for you and the headteacher to plan next year’s visits in the last 6 weeks of the school year, or at the start of the school year.
Use our template schedule to plan your visits, then set your schedule on the GovernorHub calendar, to give governors time to plan.
Plan the purpose of each visit
Link visits to the school improvement plan (SIP), so governors can check progress towards objectives in your SIP.
Read our chair's guide to governor visits, to understand how to link visits to your SIP.
Consider having an appointment week, when governors can book meetings with relevant staff, such as subject leads.
3. Give each governor a responsibility
Keep governors engaged by giving them ownership of monitoring their area, including with school visits.
Do this by linking each governor either to:
- A specific subject or area, or
- An objective or action in the SIP – see the section ‘How do I monitor it?’ in our school improvement planning article for advice
4. Make visits easier using our resources
Share our how-to guide with your governors so they:
- Understand the different types of school visit
- Have questions ready to ask
- Know how to report back to the board
5. Mentor new governors
Use experienced governors to mentor new governors, or less confident governors.
They'll feel more confident if someone shows them how school visits work in person.
6. Organise an annual governor day
Have this mid-way through the year, in the spring term, but double-check when's best with the senior leadership team (SLT).
The day can include:
- A school tour
- All governors, new and experienced, should go on the tour – schools change all the time and governors can meet different staff members
- Try to visit every class, and every year group and/or faculty, depending on your school’s size
- A staffroom coffee break
- Governors can chat with staff and get a feel for school life
- Lunch with the pupils
- Governors can queue with the children and sit with them, so they can chat together
- Lunchtime duty
- Pair up governors and staff, so they can see what lunchtime supervision is like
- Bus duty
- Pair up a governor and member of staff to go on bus duty
- As the local community, and parents and carers often complain about this, it’s helpful to see how your school’s system is managed
Examples of governor days at other schools
- St John's Angell Town Church of England Primary School, Lambeth
- Higher Failsworth Primary School, Oldham, organises governor days twice a year
7. Schedule informal visits and events
Explain that informal visits get governors known and involved in their school, with no formal admin needed.
Remind governors that going to events means they can give extra help and support to the staff and school community.
Include the following as part of your visit schedule, so governors can plan to attend:
- Listening to pupils read (primary)
- Attending whole-school assemblies and awards assemblies or, for link governors, subject-specific assemblies
- Attending school productions
- Check governors are available beforehand to chat with pupils and the SLT
- Festive events, e.g. the Christmas fair
- INSET days or focus weeks, e.g. anti-bullying week or art week
- This might include helping children with classroom projects
- Parents’ evening
- Governors can walk around school talking to parents/carers and staff
- Have a governors' table where parents/carers can chat about any concerns
- Include a governor appointment slip with appointment forms/a governor appointment option if booking is done online
8. Ask governors why they don't visit the school
Lack of confidence? Consider:
- Using a school visit buddy system to build confidence before they visit on their own
- Giving them our how-to guide so they feel more prepared
Lack of time? Consider:
- Making sure governors are aware of their right to time off work to carry out their governor duties
- Changing their link governor role if they can’t get in to school to monitor their subject
If you’ve tried everything
Have a 1-to-1 meeting to discuss whether being a governor is right for them.
Read our article about having difficult conversations with governors to help you plan your meeting.