Volunteer Local and cluster governors for primary academies

What will you be doing?

Local governor roles involve attending a minimum of 6 meetings per year (generally around 2 hours in length) and visiting the school as a way of brining the meeting information to life.  Meetings involve challenging the head teacher and senior leaders to ensure school improvement plans are effective and impactful and visits involve investigating school activities and generating a brief report on a focussed topic.  Visit activities would be daytime, whilst schools are open.  Meeting preparation would involve reading papers, which are distributed electronically and preparing questions.  There is also a training offer run by the Trust central governance team, which is available to all governors and offers training and resources on a range of governance related topics. Cluster level boards function across a group of schools, with a particular focus on risk management, educational progress and development of growth opportunities across the area.  Clusters are led by a deputy director of education who attends board meetings.  Non-executives attend as volunteers, with a remit to challenge on the key focus areas.  There are 3 main board meetings per year (one per term) with additional requirements to visit and network with schools and local governors and meet with Board trustees. We are looking for people who can bring some time and commitment to a school or a cluster of schools with some background in a range of areas such as education, finance, risk, HR, health and safety or similar.  We will always consider people who do not have experience of governance but can bring professional and personal skills that will support our schools.

What are we looking for?

Our ideal is someone who has an interest in education and a belief that education can make the biggest difference to children with challenging backgrounds.  We are looking for skills in the education sector, finance or HR, governance but more important is a willingness to challenge robustly whilst encouraging supportive relationships in the school leadership team.  We love to encourage people who want to learn more about the sector and more about governance and the role it plays in supporting schools.

What difference will you make?

Our schools all operate local governing bodies, which are part of the leadership team.  There may be contribution to e.g. inspection by Ofsted and compliance elements such as policy approval.  Governance volunteers are key in providing challenge so that plans, strategies and policies are robust, sensible and work to support pupils and their families.  Governors are a key element of the outward-facing part of our schools, providing links with the local community but also other layers of the Trust.