In search of great school governance

  In a recent article Vivienne Porritt and Fee Stagg asked an important question “Can governance be ethical if it is not diverse?” [i] . Now, there are many calls on our attention as governors, many plates to spin and an ever-changing education landscape with which to grapple, but some things are absolutely core to our work and ethical leadership, and all that it entails, is right up there in my opinion.  A survey of literature on ethical leadership in education highlights a moral imperative that ethical leadership must be about the ‘ doing’ and not just the ‘saying’.   I have written about this before on this blog [ii] , fine words on the website are not enough, and as governing boards we must ensure that we take action to live our vision and values.   Indeed, I would argue that much has been done to address the ‘saying’ beginning with legislation such as the Equalities Act (2010) and through the development of the Seven Principles of Public Life , known commonly ...

  I'm now in the second year of my doctoral research journey and I am knee deep in reading of all kinds but currently looking at ways of keeping a research journal and recording notes from research.  You might wonder what that has to do with governor monitoring reports – well bear with me! It occurred to me that what we do when we visit our schools, in our link governor roles or with a specific remit from the board, is a piece of research – ethnographic research perhaps? Ethnographic research can be described as “a descriptive, analytical and explanatory study of the culture … values, beliefs and practices of one or more groups” (1). It is about observing people in their every- day settings – so we listen, we observe (to learn not to make judgements and this is an essential distinction) and we talk to the participants about their interpretations of the events.   We might be sitting in on a pupil progress meeting as I did recently to understand the rigour of the proces...

What forms of power do you use in your work as a governor?  I n my new, and slightly daunting, role as PhD student I have been immersed in reading about the relationship between executive and non-executive leadership.   There isn’t a huge amount of academic research about education governance, so I have also widened my reading out to the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.   There is plenty of agreement that this is a pivotal relationship that can have a significant effect on the functioning of an organisation - but what factors contribute to making or breaking this relationship?   A report by National College of Teaching and Learning [NCTL] (2014) highlights a case study that includes a comment by one chair of governors explaining that he shared with the headteacher “the same vision and ambitions” for the school and that they worked as a “relationship of equals” (NCTL, 2014).   How marvellous this sounds - really positive or, on the other hand,...

I nspired to write this post by a recent online event held as part of the Freedom to Learn Festival I have been prompted to draw together all my recent thoughts on diversity and the role of governance.  In the opening remarks one of the speakers stated that it is a 's chools’ purpose to create the next generation of global citizens'  and, not to give the game away too soon, that is surely why diversity matters!  Looking back over  earlier posts that I have written about the core functions of governance and, in particular the one about vision, values and strategy, I can see immediately how the board can lead in this area.  In the strategic aims of the school I chair, agreed by the board after consultation with children, staff and the community, we felt strongly that there was a need to make diversity explicit so we state that we want to be -  A school that is at the heart of the community; a good neighbour and engaged with community groups of all ages. A sch...

We are truly living in strange times and, I don't know about you, but my online presence and my tech skills have increased rapidly in the last couple of weeks. We are all getting used to virtual meetings, virtual parties with friends and family, online shopping and news.  Websites or social media pages are suddenly the front door to shops, schools and organisations of all kinds so what do the ones set up for our schools look like?  Last month saw the launch of the National Governance Association's (NGA) campaign 'Visible Governance'. The aim is to  encourage 'governors and trustees to be bold and be positive about sharing what they do and why they do it, highlight their contribution to the education system and shine a light on the difference that good governance makes to the success of their school/trust.' (1) Never more important than now in these difficult times. Looking around the internet at school websites I am struck by how little information many scho...

Looking up from the boardroom table Now I am a naturally curious person - Ok maybe nosey! So I am always interested in the way other people do things -  they might have better ideas or resources that I can use or they might have contacts who would be helpful to me mightn't they? Curiosity is really important for us as governors because the world moves on a a very fast pace and the world of education is no exception.  We should be curious about our schools, about how do they do things and, importantly, why and to what impact? We should also be curious about governance and the way others carry out this important role in the education sector but also beyond. There are boards of governors out there where very few governors have attended training courses and networking events; where no one has been to a conference, no one has read a book or article on governance or leadership, no one has a social media account to engage in the array of interesting discussions that are available...

At a recent NGA Conference a presentation by Caroline Copeman,  Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness, set me thinking about the topic for this my latest blog post.  One of Caroline's opening slides stated - ' Quality of conversation at board, and the ability to think well, needs quality information and thoughtful question prompts'.  Now  I have been involved in a number of board meetings recently at different schools that required some really im portant decisions to be made in the interests of our children. Reflecting on this, I could see how the quality of the discussion, and ultimately the quality of the decision, was indeed directly linked to the quality of the information provided for those meetings.  So, if quality information is key to board effectiveness, why is it that boards spend so little time discussing, evaluating and agreeing what information best enables them to do their job well?  Or am I wrong about this...