Friday 15 July 2011

School Governance Self Review Tool: GB Organisation and Relationships

GB Organisation and Relationships

1 Governing Body Operation

a) Do you regularly discuss how the GB operates as a team?

b) How do you enable all governors to contribute positively to discussions and activities?

c) Do you have effective arrangements to build and maintain good teamwork within the GB and with the school staff? Identify.

d) Do governors have a clear understanding of the respective roles of Head teacher and governors in line with DfE guidance? Where are these identified?

e) Do you keep under regular review the timing and frequency of GB meetings and committees?

f) Are the membership and terms of reference for you committee reviewed and updated regularly? When were they last updated?

g) Is there a Clerk appointed for each committee; could be internal or external clerk? (is this something that needs to be planned for in the future?)

h) Do you conduct an annual review of your schools clerking arrangements? i.e. is the GB/committee clerking efficient and meeting your requirements?

2 New Governor Induction

a) How do you welcome new governors to the GB and make them feel valued and needed?

b) How do you provide them with information regarding school context, roles and responsibilities?

c) Do you provide them with an induction pack specific to the school?

d) Do you provide them with a preliminary visit to the school accompanied by the CoG or Head?

e) Do you appoint a mentor (an experienced governor) to help them settle in and find information?

f) How do you welcome them to their first GB and make introductions?

g) How do you identify key CPD needs for new governors?

3 Have you assigned those tasks to individuals as are legally required?

a. Child Protection, Safeguarding

b. SEN and looked after children (LAC)

4 Has the GB published the school’s Complaints Procedure? Where?

5 Extended Schools

a) Do you have arrangements to monitor extended schools arrangements?

b) Are these arrangements reviewed on a regular basis? How/when?

6 Do you meet the legal requirements in respect to the School Prospectus?

7 Does the school have a process for identifying all Health and Safety risks and issues, and are these documented and reviewed regularly? (could be at committee level)

8 Business and Pecuniary Interests:

a) Do you have a register of such interests for governors and staff?

b) Is it up to date? How often is it reviewed?

c) Is there a process for governors and staff to make declaration whenever their interest or circumstances change? What/how?

9 Critical Friend

a) Have you established a climate of mutual respect? How?

b) Do you support the school management team by appropriately challenging advice and proposals, in order to test their robustness from the perspectives of the various constituencies of the community that the school services? How do you do this effectively?

10 Governor and GB development

a) Do you have a GB development plan? Who was involved in writing this document?

b) Do you have a Link Governor to organise training and is there a training plan for individual governors and the full GB?

c) Do you have a succession/rotation plan for key roles e.g. GB and committee Chairs SEN to ensure development of skills?

d) Do Governors receive sufficient information i.e. policies. Heads report, committee minutes etc to feel well informed to enable them to play an active part in GB business? What key documents provide this info?

e) Do you regularly audit the skills the GB needs to carry out its work and cross-reference this to its members?

Each question in the Self-Review Tool should be answered using a simple traffic light status indication by writing in the status column one of three letters:

G – green We fully meet the requirements in this area

A – Amber We partially meet requirement – see notes for outline action plan

R – red We do not meet significant elements in this area – see notes for outline action plan


The full Self Review Tool from Ealing

http://www.egfl.org.uk/categories/governance/support/selfreview.html

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