What do school governors do?

School governors are people from the community who volunteer with the aim of making a positive contribution to children’s education.  Some, but not all, are parents of pupils at the school.  Others are members of the local community.

School governors play an important part in raising school standards through four main roles:

• Overseeing the strategic direction of the school in order to support the raising of standards;
• Ensuring accountability to parents, staff and others for the school’s overall performance and for decisions taken by the Governing Body;
• Monitoring and evaluating school performance in relation to agreed priorities and targets;
• Supporting the Head Teacher and staff as well as offering constructive challenge.

Through this strategic leadership and accountability, governors:

• support school improvement;
• are a ‘critical friend’, offering both support and advice constructively;
• help the school to be responsive to the needs of parents and the wider community;
• allow the Head Teacher and staff to get on with the day-to-day management of the school.

School governors appoint the Head Teacher of the school and are often involved in the appointment of other staff.  It is the Governing body that holds the main responsibility for financial management but works closely with the Head Teacher in making the tough decisions about the best use of the resources available.

Governing Bodies typically make decisions on the advice from Committees. At Two Mile Hill Primary School, we have two committees:

• Finance
• Recovery

Most governors serve on at least one of these committees. In addition, some governors have specific responsibility as a “Named Governor” (e.g. for Child Protection) or as a “Link Governor” (e.g. to maintin links with a specific class or year group).

In law the Governing Body is a corporate body.  This means that individual governors are protected from being held personally liable for any actions and decisions that the Governing Body makes.