What Does a Governor Do?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BEING A SCHOOL GOVERNOR

What are the main duties of a School Governor?

The main responsibilities and duties of a Governor include: 

• Promoting high standards of educational achievement.
• Taking general responsibility for the strategic direction of the school.
• Approving and monitoring the school’s budget.
• Making sure that the curriculum is balanced and in line with the National Curriculum, and receiving reports on National Curriculum assessments and examination results.
• Determining / Approving the staff complement and pay policy for the school.
• Participating in the appointment of the Head and Deputy Head teacher, SLT/ Other staff.
• Supporting the school in  staff conduct and discipline matters.
• Drawing up an action plan after an inspection.

How is the Governing Board made up?

At Whitehall we currently have 13 Governors.
The variety of Governor roles encourages the involvement of a cross-section of the local community into the school’s activities. The different categories of Governor are as follows:-

Parent Governors
These Governors are elected by parents of pupils on the school roll and must be parents of pupils attending the school at the point of election.

LA Appointed Governors
Governors appointed by the LA, but are not necessarily Members.

Teacher Governors
These are teachers working in the school and are elected by the teaching staff at the school.

 Staff Governors
Staff Governors are non-teaching employees at the school.

Co-Opted Governors – Governors who are asked to join the governing body as they have specialist skills or experience

Community Governors
 Community  Governors are people from the local community who wish to work with the school. They are  /appointed by the Governing Body.

How much time does a School Governor have to devote to the role?

This is basically at the individual’s discretion. The following is a typical annual timetable:

• The Governing board meets twice a term. These meetings take on average about  1.5 hours.
• The sub-committees meet twice a term and meetings last approximately 1.5 hours.
• Governors usually become active on 1 or  2 sub-committees.
• Governors will be linked to an area / subject of the school and will meet with the staff member(s) that is responsible for that area / subject. Meetings should take place once a month.
• Governors are warmly welcomed and  invited into school for productions and for open days.
• There is usually some preparatory reading prior to meetings.

How long is a Governor’s term of office?     Up to 4 years

Can you stand for re-election/reappointment    Yes

What do the sub-committees do?

In order to make the work-load manageable, the Governing body appoints sub-committees to specialise in specific key areas. Recommendations and decisions made at the sub-committee level are fed into the main Governing board for ratification.

The sub-committees at Whitehall are:

Finance & Resources – responsible for the approval and monitoring of the budget and the fabic of the school.

Curriculum  & Standards Committee– responsible for oversight of pupil welfare and academic progress, achievement and the quality of teaching.

Do Governors receive training?

Governors are encouraged to undertake relevant training.  The school buys into a governor support package which provides a schedule of training and support for governors and their Clerk throughout the year. Most training is conducted locally.