How you can become a school governor

Why I chose to become a school governor

Since leaving the classroom in 2017, I’ve taken many opportunities to continue working directly with young people but have found few which let me engage with schools and education at a strategic level. That’s why two years ago, I decided to become a school governor.

In the UK, a school governor is responsible for holding the leadership of the school accountable, as well as providing scrutiny and input on strategic decisions. While this role is hugely important, there are several challenges that governing boards face across the country. Some challenges in school governance today

Firstly, the pool of people interested in governance varies hugely with phase and location. Generally, urban secondary schools are able to fill governor positions well, while rural primary schools struggle to get the people they need on their boards.

Secondly, the makeup of governing boards often doesn’t reflect the communities they serve. This is not only applicable for gender and race, but also includes having an understanding of the local context and even age.

Teach First programme members, trainees and ambassadors, as a diverse group of geographically-spread professionals are ideally placed to tackle these dual challenges.

Enter the Deloitte Network

As Chair of the Deloitte Network, a collective of Ambassadors now working at Deloitte, I was well placed to hear the needs of our community and take steps to address them.

The Deloitte network provides opportunities for Ambassadors to remain connected to education and create a community with similar networks at other organisations. Now approximately fifty- strong, our members are engaged in work in the education sector, school governorship, mentoring and more.

Our response to barriers in pursuing governor roles

Through many conversations with current participants, it seemed that lack of confidence and a perceived lack of skills were significant barriers to becoming governors, despite strong interest. Our response to this was for the Teach First Network Connector, Asima Lone, and I to set up a pilot Governor Mentoring scheme, matching potential and existing governors. They would work together over a period of four months, increasing their understanding of school governance and guiding prospective governors through the application process.

We matched eight pairs of mentors and mentees in April 2021. I was matched with Krishan, a History teacher in Ealing and a current Training Programme participant. He told me this when we spoke about the process so far:

“The Governor Mentoring scheme has been really beneficial to explore the experience of being a governor, the range of expertise a governor can offer to a school community and the skills required to be successful in the role. The open communication between Leopold and I, and his insight and direction has supported me, and has helped advance the process of me applying to be a governor. I am grateful to Leopold and Teach First for the opportunity.”

As our pilot comes to an end, we’ll be evaluating its success and how we can best support more participants and ambassadors into governor roles in the future.

So, what should you do if you’re interested in becoming a governor?

1. Take advantage of some of the free resources on offer. Governors for Schools is a great place to start.

2. If you’re a current trainee, find out who your current staff governors are and speak to them about their roles or speak to your Development Lead.

3. If you’re an ambassador, find out if your workplace would give you dedicated volunteering leave and ask around for colleagues who already have roles on governing boards- there may be more than you think.

4. Get in touch with the Teach First Governor Network.

Leo Sutton is a Teach First Training Programme ambassador and Chair of the Deloitte Network.