Top tips to get your governors on school visits

Last reviewed on 19 November 2019
School types: All · School phases: All
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Find out how you, as the chair, can kick-start your board and encourage all of your governors to be active in school life.

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Contents

  1. Set school visits as an expectation
  2. Have a visit schedule
  3. Give each governor a responsibility
  4. Equip your governors with our resources
  5. Use a mentor/buddy system for newer governors
  6. Organise a governor day each year
  7. Include informal visits and events in your schedule
  8. My governors still aren’t participating in school visits

Our associate education experts Keith Clover, Jackie Beard and Jane Owens helped us to write this article.

Set school visits as an expectation

Visits are the bread and butter of a governor's role.

Get new and current governors excited about visiting the school. Explain how valuable visits are for your work as a board, and for supporting school improvement. 

Include it as part of recruiting

Have school visits as an expectation in all role descriptions when you recruit a new governor. Use our templates to help you do this. 

Make it clear as part of induction

Be upfront about what you expect from the start. Explain that visits allow you to develop a meaningful understanding of the day-to-day running of your school, which allows you to ask better questions and to monitor effectively. 

Find out more in our article about how to induct new governors effectively.

Get all governors on board 

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