What does a school governor do?
Watch this short video about the role of school governor or trustee
School governors have three core functions:
- planning the strategic direction of the school
- overseeing financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well spent
- holding the headteacher or school leadership to account
The governor role is strategic rather than operational. Governors don’t get involved with the day to day running of a school, instead they support and challenge the leadership team to drive school improvement.
As a school governor, you’ll attend full board meetings every term, where you’ll hear updates from the headteacher and discuss any strategic priorities.
Headteachers are experts at what they do, but they don’t always have experience in other key areas like HR, law, or finance. Governors with a background in different areas can support their school in numerous ways including:
- helping hire a new headteacher
- joining disciplinary panels
- assessing the premises
- finding new suppliers
The headteacher focuses on the operational side of running a school, and governors are there to support with the strategic decisions. A strong board means that strategic decisions can be properly considered, leading to improve outcomes both financially and for children’s education.
It’s important that boards are diverse so that:
- there isn’t a danger of group-think
- decisions are made robustly with input from people with a variety of lived experiences – as well as varied skills
It’s also vital that children see people of all backgrounds in board-level positions. Diverse boards help ensure effective governance, which leads to improved educational outcomes for children.
Volunteering as a school governor fits around your day job. Most meetings are outside of working hours and there are usually around 6 meetings a year.
You might be part of a committee as well as a member of the board, which is an opportunity for you to get more involved in a specific area. Often schools have finance committees to look in-depth at the budget, as well as a curriculum committee and safeguarding.
However, it’s important to prepare thoroughly for meetings by:
- reading the papers the week before
- making note of questions to ask
- occasionally visiting the school for learning walks
There may be times that demand more of your energy - if your school is recruiting a new headteacher, for example, or if Ofsted are inspecting.
School governors are volunteers and schools are mindful of this, but in order to get the most out of the role and support the school effectively, you must be able to commit to the role.
Being a school governor is a responsibility, but offers you the chance to see first-hand the impact you can make in improving education for children in your community.
You don’t need to be a parent or teacher to become a school governor. While parents and those with education experience make great governors, neither are requirements to volunteer.
Many schools want an outside perspective and rely on those with business acumen to bring challenge to the board.
Useful resources
See the NGA website to find out more about what a school governor does.The national governance association (NGA) for state schools and multi academy trusts in England says: "school governors and trustees play a vital role in education. By volunteering as a governor or trustee for a school or academy trust you can make a difference by shaping the future of children and young people.
See GOV.UK for the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools.
Statutory guidance setting out the arrangements for the constitution of governing bodies of all local-authority-maintained schools.