Schools governors work to plan the strategic direction of the school, oversee budgets, and support and challenge the headteacher. As part of the governing board, governors play a vital role in helping schools run efficiently and effectively to give children the best education possible.

Schools with strong governing boards are better equipped to make important decisions that affect the education they provide for their pupils.

School governors have three core functions:

• planning the strategic direction of the school
• overseeing financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well spent
• holding the headteacher or school leadership to account

The governor role is strategic rather than operational. Governors don’t get involved with the day to day running of a school, instead they support and challenge the leadership team to drive school improvement.

As a school governor, you’ll attend full board meetings every term, where you’ll hear updates from the headteacher and discuss any strategic priorities.

Governing boards in schools

Headteachers are experts at what they do, but they don’t always have experience in other key areas like HR, law, or finance. Governors with a background in different areas can support their school in numerous ways including:

• helping hire a new headteacher
• joining disciplinary panels
• assessing the premises
• finding new suppliers

The headteacher focuses on the operational side of running a school, and governors are there to support with the strategic decisions. A strong board means that strategic decisions can be properly considered, leading to improve outcomes both financially and for children’s education.

It’s important that boards are diverse so that:

• there is not a danger of group-think
• decisions are made robustly with input from people with a variety of lived experiences – as well as varied skills

It’s also vital that children see people of all backgrounds in board-level positions. Diverse boards help ensure effective governance, which leads to improved educational outcomes for children.

National governance association (NGA)

The national governance association (NGA) for state schools and multi academy trusts in England says: "school governors and trustees play a vital role in education. By volunteering as a governor or trustee for a school or academy trust you can make a difference by shaping the future of children and young people.

Read more on the NGA website to find out more about what a school governor does.

Statutory guidance

Statutory guidance setting out the arrangements for the constitution of governing bodies of all local-authority-maintained schools.

Read GOV.UK for the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools.