School governors are the largest group of volunteers in England, however, despite this most governing bodies have one or more vacancies.

Governing bodies have three core functions:

Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent
Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils
Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction

Governors and Trustees are supported in their roles

All governors go through a formal or informal induction period, this could be with the Chair of Governors or a governor mentor. In addition, governors have mandatory and optional training. Therefore, although certain skills are preferable, anyone can be a school governor as training is provided.

Norfolk Governance Network represents governors and trustees in Norfolk, we are a voluntary organisation comprised of governors and trustees. NGN runs free events each year and encourages networking, so link to us via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – our details are at the bottom of this page.

What do school governors do?

Appointing and performance reviewing the head teacher and senior leaders, including making decisions about pay
Managing budgets and deciding how money is spent
Engaging with pupils, staff, parents and the school community
Sitting on panels and making decisions about things like pupil exclusions and staff disciplinary
Addressing a range of education issues within the school including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with special needs, staff workload and teacher recruitment
Looking at data and evidence to ask questions and have challenging conversations about the school
Governors and trustees must be prepared to adopt the Nolan principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

Governors are strategic not operational

All Governors should be:

Committed

Devoting the required time and energy to the role and ambitious to achieve best possible outcomes for young people. Prepared to give time, skills and knowledge to developing themselves and others in order to create highly effective governance.

Confident

Of an independent mind, able to lead and contribute to courageous conversations, to express their opinion and to play an active role on the board.

Curious

Possessing an enquiring mind and an analytical approach and understanding the value of meaningful questioning.

Challenging

Providing appropriate challenge to the status quo, not taking information or data at face value and always driving for improvement.

Collaborative

Prepared to listen to and work in partnership with others and understanding the importance of building strong working relationships within the board and with executive leaders, staff, parents and carers, pupils/students, the local community and employers.

Critical

Understanding the value of critical friendship which enables both challenge and support, and self-reflective, pursing learning and development opportunities to improve their own and whole board effectiveness.

Creative

Able to challenge conventional wisdom and be open-minded about new approaches to problem-solving; recognising the value of innovation and creative thinking to organisational development and success.

Next steps…

We hope that you have found the information that you need to encourage you to become a school governor, feel free to get in touch with us via social media or via our contact page.
To find out more about becoming a school governor please head to the following links. National Governance Association, represents Governors and Trustees in England, Educator Solutions works with schools in Norfolk, offering governor and other services to schools and Inspiring Governance is supported and funded by the Department for Education and connects skilled volunteers with schools.