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Governors' role in monitoring the curriculum

Learn how to monitor the curriculum effectively and what this might look like for your board. Assure yourself that you have a robust monitoring system in place and can hold leaders to account effectively.

Last reviewed on 1 October 2025
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 36400
Contents
  1. Ways to approach curriculum monitoring
  2. Most schools will be using the National Curriculum
  3. Find out how the curriculum achieves your vision
  4. Make sure the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils
  5. Ask for regular reports on the curriculum and challenge them
  6. Monitor the curriculum's design, delivery and impact
  7. Ofsted and the curriculum
  8. Be prepared for questions Ofsted might ask you about the curriculum

Many thanks to our associate education experts Gulshan Kayembe, Hafise Nazif and Ian Preston for their input in this article.

Ways to approach curriculum monitoring

The way you monitor the curriculum in your school may look different depending on your set-up. For example, you could have:

It's important that your board considers which approach would be most effective based on:

  • Your school's size and context
  • Whether there's a lot of change happening with your curriculum
  • Outcomes for pupils – if results are not where they should be, you might need more governors to challenge and support leaders and drive improvement

Fair Oak Infant School in Hampshire has a standards committee (scroll to the bottom to see its terms of reference) Westfield Infant School in Leicestershire