Governors Information and Duties

Governors oversee the development of the school but don’t manage it day-to-day. Governors are responsible for providing strategic management, being a ‘critical friend’ and making executive decisions. The governing body makes sure the school provides a good quality education, and sets the school aims and policies together with the Head teacher.

There are different categories of governor on a governing body, some elected and some appointed. This mix ensures a diversity of views and experience, but doesn’t mean that governors of a particular category “represent” that group. For example, parent governors don’t act as representatives of the parents of the school and don’t report back to them – rather, they bring a broad parental perspective to discussion and debate.

Governors are responsible for promoting high standards of educational achievement and enabling the head teacher and the staff to deliver these, as well as planning the school’s long-term future, overseeing its aims, values and ethos, and monitoring its performance. This involves:

• setting the school’s vision and aims
• establishing & maintaining the school’s ethos
• setting the school’s plans and policies
• monitoring and evaluating school performance
• agreeing budgets, policies and objectives and making sure these are met

Meetings of the full governing body are held at least once a term, normally in an evening, with governors normally giving up around 6-8 hours per month. Governors can also sit on some of the committees that look at things like finance, curriculum, staffing and premises. Occasionally, being a governor can be hard work. There may sometimes be a lot of papers to read, meetings to attend and, sometimes, difficult decisions to be made.