Governors' meetings

The main rules for Governors’ meetings

Meetings need rules, so you may find this short summary useful. Use these questions to test your knowledge.

How often should meetings take place?

Every Governing Body must meet at least three times per school year, but usually meet more often, especially now when there are so many important decisions to be made. Any three Governors can request that a special meeting be called.

How much notice should be given?

All members are entitled to have at least seven clear days’ written notice of the date and the agenda of the meeting, unless something has to be discussed urgently.

How many people need to attend?

There must be at least a certain number of Governors (a quorum) for a meeting to take place. The quorum for Governing Body meetings is one half of Governors (not including vacancies).

What time of day are meetings held?

It is up to the Governors to decide on the timing of a meeting and to fix the arrangements which suit them best.

What about other meetings at school?

Besides meetings of the whole Governing Body there may be meetings of committees for areas like the curriculum or finance. Associate Governors can be appointed to these committees and can be given limited voting rights by the Governing Body.

Who else attends meetings?

Associates may attend at the discretion of the Governing Body. If the Headteacher is not a Governor he or she still has the right to attend. Other people may be invited to attend, for example, a LA Adviser or Inspector might attend a meeting where a curriculum matter is on the agenda; a member of the ethnic minority community could be invited to discuss relevant matters in relation to equal opportunities and the curriculum.

What if I don’t understand something on the agenda?

Try to contact your Chair before the meeting to discuss any difficulties you may be having. You can also contact the Governor Support & Advisory Service.

If you wish to raise an item for discussion, discuss this with the Chair prior to the agenda being set.

Meetings are important as they are the only way to take discussions and to make policy within the framework laid down by the law. Decisions are usually made by the Governing Body as a whole or on a majority vote after discussion. They are then recorded and acted upon. Except for confidential matters they can be read by anyone, including those who may be affected by them, for example, staff, parents and pupils.

You will receive, and be expected to read, a lot of information for each Governing Body meeting. It is important that you are aware of this. The information is provided to help you in your decision making.

How can meetings be made more productive?

Everyone resents sitting through bad meetings. If necessary some immediate improvements can be made by preparing for and following up meetings thoroughly.

Use this checklist of jobs before the meeting:

Check through the minutes of the last meeting and the agenda and mark up items to question;
Make sure you have all the information you need;
Contact colleagues on the governing body on any important agenda topic;
Plan any contribution you may wish to make;
Make a note of any issues you have been asked to raise by those you are representing.

After the meeting:

Check what action has to be taken following a decision;
Speak to individual governors about, for example, a committee meeting;
Agree dates for other meetings or school visits.

Making meetings more productive

Read through this list of quotations and decide, as honestly as you can, which apply to you. You may feel you can manage some well. Others you’ll need to practice in order to improve your contribution at meetings; below you’ll find some ideas on how to start working on them.

“I feel I have little to contribute; everyone else seems to know so much”

At first you may feel that you have little to contribute. But your confidence will increase when you get involved in visits and other activities in the school.

If you sometimes feel like this, talk through a topic that you find difficult with a colleague on the governing body. This will help you learn more, but you may also find that others don’t know as much as you might think. Develop your own special area of interest, so you can speak from experience on that topic.

Towards the end of your first year, look back at your first set of papers. You will be surprised how much you’ve learnt.

“I do have things to say, but I have difficulty in making my views heard”

If you sometimes feel like this, mark up your papers and jot down any questions you want to raise. You need to show that you want to speak by catching the eye of the person in the chair. If you know before the meeting that you want to speak at a certain point you can let them know beforehand. You are there to contribute; you’ve as much right to speak as anyone else and you should make your views known.

“People say I ramble on a bit; I probably like the sound of my own voice”

Try to keep to the point;
Keep a tally of how many times you speak;
Can you justify the time you have taken?

“I can’t always sort out what is important in the meeting”

Sometimes meetings seem to cover so much ground, you may feel it’s hard to know what to remember for further action and discussion. The minutes obviously help, but you may want to check on something before they are circulated.

If you sometimes feel like this, good preparation will make it easier for you to spot the important points, before the meeting begins.

During the meeting, keep your own record, maybe in the margin of the papers or in a notepad. This will help you check the accuracy of the minutes more effectively.

“I wish they’d speak so that I could understand; I’ve never heard so many initials!”

There’s a lot of jargon around in education. If you sometimes feel like this, ask for an explanation of anything you don’t understand. Don’t apologise for not knowing; others will probably not understand either. If you find this difficult, keep a list of points you don’t understand and go through them after the meeting with a more experienced member of the governing body. You should have a ‘Glossary of Terms’ to help you decipher common ‘jargon’.

“I get impatient when the meeting just drifts along aimlessly”

You may sometimes wish the business was managed more effectively.

If you occasionally feel like this, remind yourself that in the end you get the meetings you deserve. As a group you can agree to allocate time to each agenda item. As an individual, you can:

Keep your contributions to a sensible length;
Help terminate drifting items by formulating a proposal or asking for a summary;
Ask if time can be set aside to review ways of making meetings more productive.

“I don’t like to disagree with people in public”

Differences of opinion are bound to crop up from time to time. You may feel unsure of yourself in putting a particular point of view, if you feel others will disagree with it.

If you sometimes feel like this, make sure you state your position clearly and objectively:

Avoid taking disagreements personally;
Avoid being drawn into arguments;
Re-state your position if it doesn’t seem to have been heard or responded to.

You can help effective decision making by, for example:

Offering to work on a committee or working party so that some of the more detailed business can be delegated;
Offering to help new governors by providing guidance on meeting procedures or items they don’t understand;
Offering to find out what training is available for governors, including meeting skills;
Offering to summarise a lengthy report which has come to the governing body from the LA.

Committees

A committee or working group often provides a better place to exchange ideas and do the more detailed work for the governing body. It can then report back to the main governors’ meeting. People who aren’t governors can be asked to join these groups, but in most cases will not be entitled to vote.

You may want to provide a committee with some guidelines such as:

Keep reports short, no more than one page;
List the key points objectively, so people can reach their own decisions;
End with a short set of recommended actions, “What our governing body needs to do is …”