Here are some example questions you could use when hiring a clerk to governors in a maintained school or academy. Where relevant I’ve also provided a brief sample answer.
The first section contains questions you could ask to any candidate. The second section lists questions that would be suitable for a candidate with clerking experience.
Ask A Clerk offers training for clerks in maintained schools which is suitable for both brand new clerks or people with some experience of governance.
Questions For All Clerk To Governor Candidates
Q. What is the role of school governors?
A. The three main roles are setting ethos, strategic direction and vision of the school; holding headteacher to account for educational performance; financial oversight and budgets. Could also mention hiring headteacher and staff, approving policies, asking challenging questions and offering support.
Q. Do you know what areas governors are not involved in?
A. The day-to-day running of the school and operational matters. Low level parental complaints, fundraising, talking about individual children.
Q. What are the duties of a clerk to governors?
A. Taking minutes at board and committee meetings, offering advice to ensure the board works within the legal rules or articles of association, drafting agendas with the headteacher and chair, keeping records of training and attendance, other admin duties such as updating Get Information About Schools (GIAS).
Q. What are the most important functions of the clerk?
A. Keeping accurate minutes but also advising the board on procedural and legal matters and helping them to comply with the regulations.
Q. What skills and knowledge do you have that would be useful in this role?
A. Minute-taking, IT skills, proofreading, literacy, relationship-building, working to deadlines, ability to understand complex documents, knowledge of and interest in education, local knowledge of the school.
Q. Do you understand how a governing body is formed?
A. A candidate could talk about the different types of governor, how governors are elected or appointed, whether the headteacher can be a governor, how many governors the school is allowed to have.
Q. What are the most important aspects of a meeting to record in minutes?
A. Decisions made, any challenging questions, support given to headteacher and staff, action points for individual governors or committees to address. Also basic features such as apologies, attendance (to check if quorate), declarations of interest.
Q. Have you looked at past minutes? Can you think of ways we could improve them? (If minutes are on the school website or you have provided them.)
Q. Do you have experience of taking minutes/setting agendas/providing admin support to a board?
Q. Can you give an example of when you were required to show keen attention to detail?
Q. Have you been in situations where you needed to keep issues confidential?
Q. Have you dealt with sensitive issues before and how did you go about it?
Q. Can you be flexible if meetings are held at different times of day or change times?
Q. Would you feel confident advising governors on the law and procedural issues if we provided appropriate training?
Q. Are you able to work mostly from home when typing minutes and preparing agendas?
Q. Are you self-motivated?
Questions For An Experienced Clerk
I would not expect a brand new clerk to be able to answer the questions below -it is the school’s responsibility to provide them with training – but it may be useful to ask an experienced clerk more detailed questions and see how they would respond to some common situations.
Q. What is the regulatory framework for this school’s governing body?
A. For a maintained school the main regulations are the Constitution Regulations 2012 and the Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013. Also statutory guidance and terms of reference for any committees.
For an academy it is the articles of association, Academy Trust Handbook, your funding agreement, terms of reference and scheme of delegation.
Q. What would you do if the board was badly criticised by OFSTED?
A. Answers could include seeking external advice from LA governor services or the National Governance Association. Asking for an external review of governance. Asking local chair of governors in a successful school for advice. Helping the board produce an action plan and conduct a skills audit to identify training needed. Recruit governors where skills are lacking. Suggest removing or establishing committees.
Q. What has been the most challenging situation you faced as a clerk and how did you overcome it?
A. Possibly solving disputes between governors, handling situations where your advice is questioned or ignored, understanding complex and changing legislation.
Q. What happens if the chair and vice-chair both fail to attend a meeting?
A. Usual practice is for another governor to be chosen by the board to chair that one meeting. You could consider postponing the meeting if there are important decisions to be made.
Q. What happens if a meeting becomes inquorate?
A. In a maintained school the meeting can continue if governors wish it to, but no decisions can be made. In an academy it depends on your articles of association – they may say the meeting must end immediately.
Q. For what reason might a board wish to remove a governor and can all types of governor be removed?
A. Reasons for removal can include long-term failure to attend meetings or school visits, repeatedly breaking confidentiality, misunderstanding of governor roles (eg: interfering in operational matters). All types of governor can be removed by somebody (even ex officio governors can be fired from the office that allows them to be a governor) but who has that power will depend on whether it is a maintained school or academy and the governor category.
Q. Describe a situation where a governor has a conflict of interest and how you would deal with that.
A. A governor could own a business that the school wishes to buy from or be married to a staff member. They would need to declare the interest on the business interests register and whenever it arose at a meeting, leave the meeting and not vote on the matter.