Active School governance

Active governance

Like all responsible and professional bodies, the governing body should commit to its own
professional development and training should be seen as an entitlement. Visiting the school provides important opportunities for governors to better understand both the strengths of the school and the working environment. All visits should arranged by appointment in accordance with an agreed protocol.

Training

Governing bodies should make it clear that there is an expectation that all new governors (including staff governors) commit to undertake both school based induction and professional induction training.

All governors should commit to specific issue based training as it arises.

It is essential to have a properly trained governing body and appropriate budget allocations should enable this to happen.

Effective training should be planned to include both internal and external providers and should consist of a manageable programme combining activities for individual and small groups of governors and occasional activities for full governing bodies working in partnership with leadership teams.

Visiting the school

Visits should be planned in advance and agreed with the leadership team.

Governing bodies should expect school leaders to welcome governors to visit the school, both formally to monitor agreed priorities and developments, and less formally to broaden their knowledge of the school.

School leaders should expect governors to adhere to visiting protocols, to be professional in their monitoring role, and to be sensitive to the pressures of the school calendar.

Taken from a joint document entitled 'What governing bodies should expect from school leaders and what school leaders should expect from governing bodies' The document was written in 2008 by the NGA (National Governors Association) working together with the two main headteacher’s unions, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT).

http://www.nga.org.uk/uploadfiles/documents/HEGagreementamended.pdf