Taking responsibility for knowing your Governing Body and ensuring it is effective Claire Hudson

The eight elements of effective governance: 1. The right people around the table 2. Understanding role & responsibilities 3. Good chairing 4. Professional clerking 5. Good relationships based on trust 6. Knowing the school – the data, the staff, the parents, the children, the community 7. Committed to asking challenging questions 8. Confident to have courageous conversations in the interests of the children and young people Source: National Governors Association

Why are we governors?

Why do we need to review our governing body?

“Governors have been ineffective. They have failed to hold the school’s leaders to account. They have not monitored the impact of the school’s management of safeguarding, and failed to halt the decline in pupils’ achievement and to close the gap that exists between the standards reached by disadvantaged pupils and those of other pupils." 2016 OFSTED report about a secondary school in the diocese

The 8 elements of governance as questions 1.Have we completed a skills audit? Do we appoint governors on the basis of their skills? 2.Do we understand our role & responsibilities? Is the structure of our governing body effective? 3.Do we hold ourselves to account? Does the chair have a 360 performance management? Do all governors make a contribution to meetings and do we carry out an annual review of our performance? Are the chair and committee chairs re-elected every year? Do we engage in succession planning? 4.Do we have a professional clerk and do meetings run efficiently? Are our minutes ‘Ofsted ready’? 5.Do governors receive the support they need to be effective? Do we carry out training? Do we know about good practice from across the country? 6.Have we developed long term aims for the school? Do we have clear priorities in an ambitious SDP which we regularly monitor? Does our strategic planning drive the FGB activities? Do we understand the school's performance data well enough to hold the school leadership to account? 7.How effective is our performance management of the headteacher? Are our financial management systems robust and do we ensure value for money? How much has the school improved over the last 3 years and what has the FGB's contribution been? 8.How do we listen to and understand our pupils, parents and staff? How do we report to our parents and local community? What benefit do we draw from collaboration with other schools and sectors?

Phew! vs Argh! What do I do next?

Do a governance self review Be honest!

We've done our self review but we need to know where to start... 1.A skills audit. Find out what skills you need on your governing body 2.Re-elect your chair and committee chairs in September. Ask your chair to set a date with either your SIP, an NLG or someone from the diocese to review their performance. NB: this should be done independently and will occur a cost. 3.Ask your clerk when they last had training. 4.Look at your SDP at your first FGB meeting. Does it contain your OFSTED and SIAMS action points? Is it ambitious and does it reflect the school's priorities? 5.Do all governors understand the way the school collects performance data? Arrange training. 6.Ensure that the governors doing the heads performance management and those on the finance committee undertake appropriate training this year. 7.Make sure that during the next school year you do a staff survey and a parent survey.

Useful Resources Bath & Wells Self Review form 10 Key Documents for Governors: NGA Twenty Questions Tools/Twenty-Questions/Twenty-questions-second-edition-2015-v2.pdf.aspx NGA Skills Audit & Matrix Governing-Body/Governance-Tools/Skills-Audit.aspx Governing-Body/Governance-Tools/Skills-Audit.aspx