School improvement: how governors can secure it

School improvement: how governors can secure it

In the third of four articles setting out the principles of 'joined-up governance', Ann Holt and Stephen Adamson look at ways in which governors can work to bring about lasting improvement in their school.

Without being able to see the connections between the different jobs governors do it can be hard to get a sense of purpose or achievement. But if you understand the key roles discussed in the previous article you have the foundation from which your governing body can make the relevant links between items on its agendas, between one meeting and the next, and between what it is doing and the rest of what is going on in the school.

However, being familiar with the roles would not be of much use unless you also had the means of carrying them out. As a governing body you have a number of strategic levers in your hands with which to do this: planning, allocating resources and appraisal. When they are exercised in the right combinations these levers can bring about major change. Moreover, there are various tools to use in conjunction with each of them, the principal ones of which are the School Development Plan (SDP), school self-evaluation, the budget and the performance management objectives and review.

The material in this blog article has been drawn from Joined-up Governance book by Jane Martin and Ann Holt, revised edition 2010,Adamson Publishing.

http://www.adamsonbooks.com/book-details.asp?cid=7&iid=24

It was reproduced on the www.school-governor-update.com website which you can sunscribe to for free here http://www.optimus-education.com/school-governor-update-152?r=MSGEbulletin