“I liked that I could use the ideas in a definite way. There was no woolly thinking.”
“The training made impact management very easy to understand, really good delivery.”
The job description and person specification for governors is probably the biggest you’ll ever be given, and it’s for a voluntary role on minimal hours.
The legal requirements of what governors are expected to cover as a statutory duty keeps increasing, and the stakes for schools seems to be getting higher too.
As a result it can be really difficult to recruit governors in the first place. It can also be difficult to support and train the governors that are in role.
There’s a lot you’ll be expected to know about the school, without getting involved in the day-to-day running, and many governors report that it is really stressful to focus only on the strategic management and not on the operational side. Particularly when the operational management of the school is the physical manifestation of the strategic decisions made in the governing body meetings.
Impact assessment and management is an ongoing necessity for governors. Not only do you need a comprehensive understanding of what the school is doing well, and where it needs to improve, you’ll need to make decisions that will have a positive impact on one area and a negative one for another. For example, you’ll need to consider whether a decision you take will have a positive impact on the school, but a negative impact on the children or staff. Interventions on maths and English for example, can boost school SATS results, but diminish the enriched curriculum that the children are entitled to. Or, a new marking policy may help you create the evidence you feel you need, but may not increase children’s learning and have a negative impact on your staff.
From safeguarding, to fiscal responsibility, from curriculum decisions to setting the vision and ethos for the school, from scrutinising pupil premium spending to investing in training for staff, from ensuring you are website compliant to understanding pupil progress and achievement, being a school governor is a large and varied role. It is also immensely satisfying.
We provide twilight impact training for governors, or full day governor away days to help you get to grips with concepts you need to feel confident with, and show you how to use them easily and practically.
In a role that obliges you to deliver against someone else’s expectations, from government policies to parental pressure, embedding impact practice is required learning.