Governors should regularly go into school to conduct monitoring visits. These visits let governors check that what they are told in meetings is really happening in practice.
A common criticism in OFSTED reports is that governors have relied too much on information they hear in meetings without actually verifying it is true by seeing it for themselves.
“Governors should not just rely on information provided by the headteacher. Rather, they should…use visits to verify what they are told.”
DfE Departmental Advice on Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations
What should governors monitor during visits?
Below you can see what the DfE Maintained Schools Governance Guide says about the purpose of school visits. The same principles apply to academies, although academy governors/trustees need to check their scheme of delegation to see what issues they are responsible for monitoring.
“Occasional visits to schools enable governors to fulfil their statutory responsibility for the conduct of the school, see whether the school is implementing their policies and improvement plans [and] see how their policies and improvement plans are working in practice.
“Focused governor monitoring visits should be in line with SIP priorities, for an identified purpose, linked to the governing body’s responsibilities, such as safeguarding [and] pre-arranged with the headteacher or executive headteacher.
“It is not the governing body’s role to assess teaching and learning or to interfere in the day-to-day running of the school.”
Maintained Schools Governance Guide
In practice, governors visiting school should:
- focus on the key priorities of the board
- check that action points from the school improvement plan (SIP) or school development plan (SDP) are being tackled
- check that statutory duties are being fulfilled, for example that safeguarding records are kept and concerns acted on promptly
- investigate how policies are being implemented – for example, whether a new behaviour policy has been put into practice and what impact it has had
- see how money has been spent and whether resources are being used effectively
- talk to staff and pupils to get feedback and build relationships.
Visits will usually focus on the volunteer’s link governor role and/or the school improvement plan (SIP) (also known as the school development plan). This plan describes the current weaknesses of the school and the actions that employees and governors will take to address them.
For example, the link governor for maths might speak to the maths subject leader about their action plan to improve maths results and ask questions on the impact of that strategy.
Or the link governor for SEND could speak to the special needs co-ordinator and ask how they are addressing the SIP key priority of improving results for SEND children. They could ask for evidence that progress is being made towards that goal and investigate what barriers might make things difficult.
What do visits never cover?
Governors do not judge the quality of lessons or conduct lesson observations.
Governors can sometimes go into classrooms but they are not OFSTED inspectors. Even when governors happen to be teachers by profession their governor role does not involve judging the quality of teaching.
Governors should not try to decide whether individual children are making progress. The board needs to focus on groups of children and the bigger picture.
They should also avoid getting involved in operational matters, for example questioning why one child has been given a particular reading book or whether a lesson plan is suitable for that class.
The headteacher is the education expert. Governors hold the head to account but they cannot overrule the head on the day-to-day management of the school.
Do we need a governor visits policy?
It is not a statutory requirement to have a governor visits policy in either maintained schools or academies, because a visits policy is not listed in the DfE Governance Guides.
However, it is a good idea to at least agree some ground rules so that both staff and governors understand the purpose of visits.
Some schools call this a visits “protocol” rather than visits policy, while other schools might cover visits under their code of conduct. (The free NGA code of conduct briefly covers school visits.)
I’ve provided an example governor visits protocol on my templates and letters page. It covers issues such as how to arrange the visit beforehand, what to do if a teacher says it is not a convenient time and how often governors are expected to visit.
Can governors visit school whenever they wish?
No. Visits should be pre-arranged with the headteacher or the staff members the governor needs to speak to.
Governors should not just turn up with no notice. Staff have other commitments and pupils’ work may be disrupted. It is rather rude to pop into school unexpectedly and expect staff to drop whatever they are doing to accommodate you!
“Individual governors do not have an automatic right to enter the school whenever they wish.”
Maintained Schools Governance Guide
Should questions be sent in advance?
They can be, although I think most governors ask questions on the day. You could send some questions in advance if the employee prefers that, but try not to create unnecessary work for staff.
If you send in 20 questions or ask for very detailed answers the staff member may spend hours providing a written reply, which could be time better spent elsewhere.
How often should governors visit school?
This will vary according to factors such as the size of your governing body. In general it might be reasonable for governors to visit school perhaps once or twice per term.
Just for completeness I’ll mention that the clerk does not attend any governor visits or carry out visits themselves.
Can all governors visit on the same day?
They can if it’s agreed with relevant staff. Some schools hold a “governors’ day in school” (or a governors’ morning/afternoon) where all governors are invited to attend at once.
The advantage of a governors’ day is that people can discuss issues and swap ideas, so it can be particularly helpful for new governors. It can also allow governors to see several different aspects of school on the same day and gain a more rounded view of school life.
The disadvantage is it can take up a lot of staff time and be tricky for the headteacher to arrange. A governors’ day cannot replace all individual governor visits because you cannot cover all possible areas on just one day.
Can staff governors conduct monitoring visits?
They can, but should not be assigned visits that overlap with their job. This is often explained as governors not being allowed to “mark their own homework”.
For example, a staff governor who is in charge of maths must not conduct visits focused on maths, because they will be monitoring work that they have done in the first place!
However, if for example the staff governor is your IT Technician they should be able to conduct monitoring visits on maths with no problems. In a similar vein a staff governor who is a geography teacher could conduct health and safety visits.
Common Pitfalls of School Visits
It can be tricky to get governor visits right. Here are some common mistakes that governors make during school visits.
- Getting involved in operational, day-to-day matters, such as parking problems or the state of carpets in a classroom. I remember one governor visit where the main topic of discussion was a cupboard shelf!
- Trying to judge how good lessons are or decide how much progress children have made in their work books. Even if governors are trained educators they should not be making these judgements.
- Listening to all complaints staff may have, even if they are not matters for governors. Some feedback from staff needs to be gently redirected to their line manager.
- Making promises on behalf of the governing body such as “I will fix that for you”. Governor decisions are made by majority vote and other governors may not agree with you – or the governing body may have no power to make the desired change at all.
- Forgetting how scary a governor visit can be for staff! This is especially true for inexperienced staff who may see governors as all-powerful or as inspectors. Visits should offer challenge to staff if necessary, but they should not intimidate employees.
- Being too eager to challenge and forgetting that governors are also there to offer support. Supportive questions can be as valuable as challenging ones. What could you do differently if you had more funding? What do you feel is holding the team back from improving further and how can we help? Is there any training we could provide for you?
- Not following up actions or areas of concern from previous visits. It can be useful to add actions to the action list in your minutes so they are not forgotten.
Governor Visit Form
On my templates and letters page you can download a governor visit proforma so that governors can write a report of their visits. The report needs to include:
- name of the governor
- date of visit
- the focus of the visit, eg: “To discuss safeguarding procedures with the designated safeguarding lead”
- a summary of the discussions or activities that took place
- any questions or observations that need to be discussed at a governors’ meeting
- next steps or actions points, eg: “Safeguarding link governor to check the training log again in three months.”
Remember that all governor minutes and papers are public unless the board marks them as confidential and even confidential papers can be requested under subject access or freedom of information requests.
Therefore you should not include names of any children in your visit reports. Staff can be named but keep reports professional and be sensitive if you are criticising staff in any way.
Reporting Visits Back to the Board
Each visit should be reported back to the governing body or the relevant committee. The clerk can distribute written visit reports with the meeting papers and the governor can summarise their findings at the meeting and ask for questions. Follow-up actions should be recorded in the minutes.