Clear and organised agendas are vital for well-run governor meetings. This page looks at when agendas should be sent out, who controls the agenda, mandatory agenda items and provides editable agenda templates for a standard meeting of the full governing body and the first meeting of the autumn term.
Agenda Templates
Downloadable agenda templates which can be easily edited to suit your school are available on my templates and letters page.
These agenda templates highlight any items that will need a decision from the governors by using wording like “to ratify the budget” or “to approve the lettings policy”.
This is optional, but it can help governors differentiate between items that are just for information and items where they will be taking a decision.
If your school is very organised you may also wish to highlight on the agenda whether an item has a relevant report or paper that governors need to read and where that paper can be found, eg: if it is attached to the email or on the governors’ section of your website.
The most vital issues should be first on the agenda to allow for a long discussion if needed. Confidential items are often placed at the end of the agenda so any observers can be asked to leave, or school employees can leave while governors discuss pay decisions or staffing matters.
Example Yearly Agenda Planner
Your local authority or academy trust may provide a suggested annual plan of agenda items that need discussing throughout the year. You can also download an example of an annual planner from my templates and letters page.
This type of planner can only be used as a rough guide as each school board must set its own priorities.
When must the agenda be sent out?
For all meetings in a maintained school, both full governing body meetings and committees, the agenda must be sent out “at least seven clear days” before the meeting.
The same rule applies to meetings of academy trustees if they follow the model articles of association (June 2021), but academy committees including local governing bodies will need to check the rules set by their academy trust.
“Clear days” means complete days (24 hours) and you should not count the day the agenda was sent out or the day of the meeting itself. Just for your amusement, here is the not remotely clear explanation of “clear days” from the model articles for academies.
“‘Clear days’ in relation to the period of a notice means the period excluding the day when the notice is given or deemed to be given and the day on which it is given or on which it is to take effect.”
Model Articles of Association (June 2021)
In practice schools will sometimes send the agenda out with less than seven days’ notice. Both the law and model academy articles allow the chair of governors or trustees to agree to send an agenda at shorter notice if there are items needing “urgent consideration”.
Committee chairs in maintained schools also have the right to agree to this. Academy committee chairs will need to follow the rules set by the trust.
Three issues cannot be considered with less than seven days’ notice in a maintained school (but do not appear in the June 2021 model articles for academies.) They are:
- removal of the chair or vice-chair from their role
- suspending a governor, and
- closing down the school.
Note as well that there are some decisions that must be confirmed by a second vote held within a specified period of time – see the list of mandatory agenda items later in this article.
“The power of the chair to direct that a meeting be held within a shorter period does not apply in relation to any meeting at which—
(a) the removal of the chair or vice-chair from office
(b) the suspension of any governor, or
(c) a decision to serve notice of discontinuance of the school under section 30 of the SSFA 1998
is to be considered.”
Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013
When must papers be sent out?
In maintained schools papers, reports or other documents to be considered at the meeting must also be sent out seven days beforehand.
Law from 2013 refers solely to sending out agendas in advance and doesn’t mention papers, but this was apparently a drafting mistake as an amendment to the law from the same year added that any “reports or other papers” to be considered at the meeting must be sent out seven days in advance too.
Model articles for academies (June 2021) don’t refer to papers at all, but it’s still sensible to send papers seven days in advance as trustees can’t possibly read reams of paper at the meeting itself.
Timings In Agendas
I have seen some agendas where the timing for each item is decided in advance: apologies will be allocated two minutes, safeguarding given twenty minutes and so on. I haven’t included timings on these templates as in practice I suspect they are ignored.
They may be useful to remind a new chair of governors of how long they expect to spend on each item (or to remind loqacious governors of the need to get out of the room before midnight) but they can only be a rough guide and inevitably some items will be take up more time than planned.
Standing Items
Some items should appear on every agenda and are known as standing items. They are:
- apologies (and whether they were accepted or not)
- declarations of interest – my LA recommends splitting this into two sections, the first for declarations of interest for any item on the agenda, the second for any changes to the register of business interests
- minutes of the last meeting – to be agreed by governors as a true record and signed by the chair
- action points from the last meeting
- reports from any committee meetings and individuals with delegated responsibilities
- many boards also use AOB (any other business) as a standing item at the end of the meeting to cover smaller issues
- date and time of next meeting.
Beware spending too long on “reports from committees”. There is a statutory duty for committees and individuals in maintained schools to report back to the board on their delegated functions, but there’s no need to talk through an entire committee meeting and rehash the decisions made.
Simply sending out the minutes of the committee and and minuting any questions asked at the full board meeting should be enough.
“Any individual or committee to whom a function of the governing body has been delegated or that has otherwise exercised a function of the governing body, must report to the governing body in respect of any action taken or decision made with respect to the exercise of that function.”
Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013
Items That Must Be On The Agenda To Be Resolved
There are a number of issues that schools must specify as an agenda item in order to vote on them – in other words, it’s no good bringing them up spontaneously under any other business because governors must know in advance that they will be discussed.
statutory agenda items for maintained schools
- A proposal to remove the chair or vice-chair of governors from that role must be an agenda item. (A vote to remove the chair or vice-chair cannot be held at a meeting called with less than seven days’ notice.) (Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013)
- A proposal to suspend a governor must be an agenda item. (This proposal cannot be heard at a meeting called with less than seven days’ notice.) (Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013)
- A proposal to “serve notice of discontinuance of the school” (close it down) must be an agenda item at two meetings held at least 28 days apart. (The first vote cannot be held at a meeting called with less than seven days’ notice.) (Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013)
- A decision to change the name of the school must be an agenda item. (Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013)
- A proposal to remove a governor must be an agenda item at two meetings held not less than 14 days apart. (Constitution Regulations 2012)
- A proposal for a school to join a federation must be an agenda item. (Federations Regulations 2012)
- A decision to remove excess governors must be an agenda item (Constitution and Federations Amendment 2014). A school could have surplus governors if they decide to reconstitute the governing body (change the numbers of each type of governor) and there are more governors available than vacancies.
Mandatory agenda items for academies
In model articles of association for academies (June 2021) the following issues must be agenda items to be discussed.
- Removal of the chair or vice-chair. This must be confirmed by a second vote held within 14 days.
- Any decision that trustees have already made and wish to reverse or alter at a future meeting. This rule doesn’t apply to maintained schools anymore (although it was included in old law from 1999) but it seems like a sensible rule for any governing body.
“A resolution to remove the chair or vice-chair from office which is passed at a meeting of the trustees shall not have effect unless:
a. it is confirmed by a resolution passed at a second meeting of the trustees held not less than fourteen days after the first meeting; and
b. the matter of the chair’s or vice-chair’s removal from office is specified as an item of business on the agenda for each of those meetings.
“A resolution to rescind or vary a resolution carried at a previous meeting of the trustees shall not be proposed at a meeting of the trustees unless the consideration of the rescission or variation of the previous resolution is a specific item of business on the agenda for that meeting.”
Model Articles of Association (June 2021)
In addition, any special resolution that is passed by academy trust members must be listed on the agenda as a special resolution to be valid. The agenda must also include the text of the proposed resolution.
(A special resolution is “special” because it requires 75% of trust members to vote in favour, instead of just a majority.)
“Where a resolution is passed at a meeting—
(a) the resolution is not a special resolution unless the notice of the meeting included the text of the resolution and specified the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution, and
(b) if the notice of the meeting so specified, the resolution may only be passed as a special resolution.”
Companies Act 2006 (Section 283)
Who owns the agenda?
There can sometimes be confusion as to who is in control of the agenda, but the answer is simple – the governing body as a whole. If there is ever a dispute about what should be on the agenda the disagreement can be resolved by a majority vote of governors/trustees in both maintained schools and academies, because that is the way all questions are resolved.
In practice the agenda is usually drawn up by the clerk, chair of governors and headteacher, but that certainly doesn’t mean these three people dictate what governors discuss. If a governor wants to add an item to the agenda they should do so, usually by emailing the chair and/or clerk.
If there are frequent disputes about adding agenda items it might be a good idea to set up standing orders, agreed by the full governing body, stating how to add items to the agenda.
What items can be in Any Other Business?
The law for maintained schools gives the chair explicit power to allow any item of business to be discussed at that meeting, whether or not it is an agenda item (barring the mandatory items listed above).
This power is not explicit in model articles for academies (June 2021) but is implied by the fact that decisions such as removing the chair must be agenda items to be discussed, implying that less important items can be raised at the meeting spontaneously.
“At the discretion of the chair, any item of business may be discussed at a meeting irrespective of whether the matter is specified as an item of business on the agenda for the meeting, subject to the exceptions [the mandatory items listed above].”
Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations 2013
This means that the chair has the power to refuse to discuss items under any other business (AOB). A chair might wish to use this power if the item is important and should have been its own agenda item, if it’s going to take up a lot of time and should be postponed to another meeting, or if it’s just not a matter for governors (for example, it concerns a complaint about a teacher that should be directed to the headteacher in the first instance).
If there is a dispute about raising an item under AOB, governors should vote on whether to add it to a future agenda.
Any Three Governors Can Call A Meeting
If a chair or headteacher is vetoing agenda items then the law for maintained schools and model articles (June 2021) for academies say that any three governors/trustees have the right to call a meeting, whether or not the chair or head wants one, by giving written notice to the clerk.
The regulations don’t specifically state who controls the agenda in this case but it seems fair to assume that the three governors do, unless the whole governing body decides to alter their agenda at the actual meeting.
This was explicit in old, revoked governor law for maintained schools from 2003 which said that the written notice to the clerk from the three governors must include “a summary of the business to be transacted”.