School governors

Being a school governor can be rewarding, providing opportunities to develop your own skills, while giving back to your community and supporting future generations. As volunteers, school governors carry out a valuable role in supporting and constructively challenging our schools in the best interests of pupils.

What experience do you need?

None. You don't need experience in the education sector, and you don't have to be a parent. People with lots of different backgrounds and from all walks of life can make excellent school governors. An interest in education and commitment are key qualities in helping a school to be the best it can be. You could be a great data interrogator, have an eye for problem solving or even be good at fact finding and planning. Perhaps you are a great visionary. Are you good at seeing the bigger picture and able to share your skills and insight for the benefit of young people?

No matter the background or experience, diverse perspectives on governing boards enable good decision making. Don't worry if you don't know what you're doing straight away, it usually takes around a year to get familiar with a governance role and there are plenty of training opportunities to help you on your way. Your governance role may also help you gain skills that you can use in your personal and professional life.

In Norfolk we have about 5,500 governors - all local people serving the schools and young people in their local communities, could you be the next one? All governors have to be aged over 18 and will be subject to DBS checks.

If you'd like to volunteer as a school governor, you can fill out our application form and explore these webpages to find out if the role is right for you or someone you know.

You can also email governor.services@norfolk.gov.uk for more information. 

The main tasks of a governor are to think and to question. This is done in several ways at meetings, exploring data and visiting schools. Your role, as part of the governing board, involves the following.

Contributing to governing board meetings

How often a board meets will vary from school to school, usually around 6 times a year for full governing board meetings. More and more boards are now choosing to hold meetings virtually. The strategic discussions at these meetings will look at:

• The vision and ethos of the school
• What clear and ambitious strategic priorities and targets are set for the school
• Ensuring that all children, including those with special educational needs, have access to a broad and balanced curriculum
• The school's budget, including the expenditure of the pupil premium allocation
• The school's staffing structure and key staffing policies
• The principles used by school leaders to set other school policies

Holding senior leaders to account

Governors and boards are a critical friend to the school; acting in the best interests of the pupils by holding school leaders to account. This involves monitoring the school's performance and includes:

• Agreeing the outcomes from the school's self-evaluation and ensuring they inform the school development plan's priorities
• Considering data and feedback from school leaders and external sources on all aspects of school performance
• Asking challenging questions of school leaders
• Ensuring senior leaders have arranged the required audits and receiving the results
• Ensuring senior leaders have developed policies and procedures for the school's effective operation
• Acting as a link governor on a specific issue. This involves talking to relevant staff and reporting on progress to the governing board
• Listening to and reporting to the school's stakeholders. These are pupils, parents, staff and the wider community, including local employers.

Supporting school staff

Governors should ensure staff have the resources and support they need to do their jobs well. This includes the necessary expertise on, and access to:

• Business management
• Effective appraisal
• CPD (Continuing Professional Development)
• External advice
• Suitable premises

Governors must ensure the way in which staff use these resources has an impact.

Serving on panels of governors

The bulk of the duties carried out by governors are strategic in nature, however there are a small number of occasions where they are needed to be more hands on. Governors may be asked to serve on panels to:

• Appoint the headteacher and other senior leaders
• Appraise the headteacher
• Set the headteacher's pay and agree the pay recommendations for other staff
• Hear the second stage of staff grievances and disciplinary matters
• Hear appeals about pupil exclusions

As you become more experienced as a governor, there are other roles you could volunteer for.

This increases your degree of involvement and level of responsibility. For example, you could become a chair of a committee or take on a link governor role for a specific area such at Special Educational Needs.

To perform the role well, you should:

• Get to know the school. You should, where possible, sometimes visit the school during school hours. You should also gain a good understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.
• Attend induction training, plus regular relevant training and development events
• Attend full governing board meetings and committee meetings. You should also read all the papers before the meeting. More and more meetings for governing boards are taking place online.
• Act in the best interest of all the pupils of the school
• Behave in a professional manner, as set down in the governing board's code of conduct. This includes acting in strict confidence.

Governors have a strategic role; all operational matters must be left to school staff.
Therefore, as a governor it is worth being aware that you do not:

• Write school policies
• Undertake audits of any sort - whether financial or health and safety. This applies even if you have the relevant professional experience.
• Spend much time with the pupils of the school. If you want to work directly with children, there are other voluntary roles within the school.
• Fundraise, as this is the role of the PTA. The governing board looks at income streams and potential income generation but does not do fundraising tasks.
• Undertake classroom observations to make judgements on the quality of teaching. The governing board monitors the quality of teaching by asking for data from senior staff and external sources.
• Do the job of the school staff. If there's not enough capacity within the paid staff team to carry out necessary tasks, the governing board need to consider and rectify this.

This will vary from school to school, but you should expect to spend between 10 and 20 days a year on your governing responsibilities.

The top end of this commitment equates to about half a day per week in term time. It's most relevant to the chair and others with key roles, such as chairs of committees.

At the start we'd expect your commitment to be nearer 10 days a year. There may be periods when the time commitment may increase, for example, when recruiting a headteacher. Some longstanding governors may tell you they give more time than this. It's common for governors to undertake extra volunteering roles over and above governance.

Taking time off work for your role

• Section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 states you can take 'reasonable time off' to undertake public duties. This includes school governance.
• 'Reasonable time off' is not defined in law, so you'll need to negotiate this with your employer.

Governors may receive expenses incurred as a result of fulfilling their role. The National Governors' Association (NGA) recommends governing bodies should have an expenses policy.

Payments can cover incidental expenses, such as travel and childcare. They can't cover loss of earnings.

• All governors must be over 18-years-old at the time of election
• All governors need a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate.
• All governors are expected to adhere to the seven principles of public life.

Who cannot be a governor

• You cannot become a governor if you are a registered pupil
• You cannot hold more than one governor post at the same school at the same time

Rules for certain governor roles

Parent governor role

You cannot become a parent governor if you are:

• An elected member of the local authority
• Paid to work at the school for more than 500 hours in any consecutive 12-month period at the time of election

Local authority governor role

You cannot become a local authority governor if you are eligible to be a staff governor at the school.

Partnership governor role

You cannot become a partnership governor if you are:

• A parent of a registered pupil at the school
• Eligible to be a staff governor at the school
• An elected member of the local authority
• Employed by the local authority in connection with its education functions

Rules due to a governor's failings or actions

You cannot be a governor if you have not attended the governing body meetings for a continuous period of six months. This does not apply to the headteacher, or to foundation governors appointed by virtue of their office. If you do not attend meetings, you are disqualified for 12 months from the day of disqualification.

You cannot be a governor, or continue to be a governor if you:

• Are the subject of any bankruptcy restrictions orders, debt relief restrictions orders, or you have had your estate confiscated
• Are subject to a disqualification order or disqualification undertaking:
  • Under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986
  • A disqualification order under the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 2002
  • A disqualification undertaking accepted under the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002
  • An order made under section 429(2)(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (failure to pay under county court administration order
• Have been removed as a trustee of a charity. Either by an order made by the Charity Commission or the High Court on grounds of misconduct or mismanagement, or under section 34 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005
• Have been removed from office as an elected governor within the last five years
• Are considered by the Secretary of State as unsuitable to work with children or young people
• Have been banned from any regulated activity relating to children
• Are banned from working in schools under section 142 of the Education Act 2002, or section 128 of the Education and Skills Act 2008
• Are disqualified from working with children, for registering for child minding or providing day care
• Are disqualified from being an independent school proprietor, teacher or employee by the Secretary of State
• Have been sentenced to three months or more in prison (without the option of a fine) in the five years before the date of appointment as a governor
• Have received a prison sentence of two and a half years or more in the 20 years before the date of appointment as a governor
• Have at any time been given a prison sentence of five years or more
• Have been convicted and fined for causing a disturbance on school or educational premises in the five years before or since appointment/election as a governor
• Refuse a request by the clerk to make an application to the DBS for a criminal records certificate

You must tell the clerk to the governing body if you are disqualified for one or more of these reasons.

The Department for Education recommends that all governing and trust boards are supported by a governance professional (also known as a clerk). Their role is not only about good and effective organisation and administration, but also about helping the board understand its role, functions and legal duties and supporting the chair to enable and facilitate strategic debate and decision making. This is crucial in helping the board exercise its functions expediently and confidently, so that it can stay focused on its core functions.

High quality professional clerking makes a significant contribution to the effective functioning of a board and the governance professional role has evolved from simply being a minute taker. We have a comprehensive Governance Professional service (formerly known as The Clerking Service), designed to meet school needs, whether their help is needed permanently or to support one-off meetings.

With hundreds of schools in Norfolk, the Governance Professional Service often seeks new recruits to join their network and frequently run recruitment campaigns. Are you interested in supporting schools and governing boards in delivering a good education for every Norfolk learner? Do you have excellent administration skills and the ability to communicate clearly? Do you have the confidence to advise governing boards on policies and procedures? Do you relish becoming an expert in your chosen field? If you think this would be a good role for you, send us an email and we can make you aware of our next recruitment campaign, the address is governanceprofessionalservice@norfolk.gov.uk.