There is no set list of topics that must be covered in a written headteacher’s report to governors. Each report must focus on the priorities of the individual school and contain the information that governors request.
This page lists some topics that could be included, while explaining why you should not just copy a template from another school. It also covers who decides on the contents of the report, the importance of “triangulation” and whether a termly report is a statutory requirement.
What are the most common topics?
The Education Act 2002 says that the headteacher of a maintained school shall provide the reports that are required by governors “for the purposes of the exercise of any of their functions”. In other words, reports that enable governors to carry out their role.
“The headteacher of a maintained school in England or Wales shall provide the governing body with such reports in connection with the discharge of his functions as may be required (either on a regular basis or from time to time) by the governing body for the purposes of the exercise of any of their functions.”
Education Act 2002 (Section 30)
There’s no equivalent law for academies, but in all schools the three key functions of governors/trustees are 1) to set the strategic direction, vision and ethos of the school, 2) to hold the head to account for educational performance and 3) to oversee the finances.
The headteacher’s report supplies the board with some of the key information they need to fulfil these three main functions, although it should not be their only source of knowledge.
Data Reporting
Data is a key feature of the head’s report. This could be internal data or external data from the DfE and OFSTED. The head should provide in particular information about areas that governors are trying to improve.
This ties in to governors’ monitoring role because of course if they are not tracking the impact of their decisions, policies and spending they will never know whether their work has made a difference. Data could be on:
- pupil learning and progress
- pupil literacy and numeracy
- pupil applications and admissions
- attendance and exclusions
- staff deployment, absence, recruitment, retention, morale and performance
- the quality of teaching.
Here’s a more detailed list of topics that might be included in the headteacher’s report, depending on the key priorities at that time and the key weaknesses identified by the board.
- Pupil learning and progress – how far pupils have progressed in each subject or key stage; progress of key groups such as pupil premium or SEN children, or boys versus girls.
- Pupil applications, admissions, attendance and exclusions – governors need to see if income will fall or rise due to the number on roll, if the school may be over-subscribed, if attendance is poor or if exclusions are trending upwards.
- Pupil attainment – what pupils have achieved in terms of exam results, SATs results etc, including data on specific pupil groups and comparisons with previous cohorts.
- Staff deployment, absence, recruitment, retention, morale and performance.
- Quality of teaching – perhaps a report giving an overview of the current quality of teaching and lesson observation data.
- Summary of reports from external advisers or assessors, eg: school improvement officer, OFSTED inspector.
- Feedback from stakeholders: staff, pupils, parents and the local community.
- Updates to the school development plan (SDP) or school improvement plan (SIP) – a key element should be progress that has been made towards the strategic aims set by governors and whether targets have been hit.
- Safeguarding – an overview of incidents recorded, an update on local issues.
- Health and safety – incidents such as emergencies, any audits or external reports, premises and buildings information.
- Details of the school self-evaluation (SEF).
- A summary of complaints.
Detailed guidance on the data that governors should receive can be found in Understanding Your Data: A Guide for School Governors and Academy Trustees.
Consider using a template for data that remains consistent at each meeting. Data should be shown in context, perhaps with graphs, so governors can spot trends and highlight problems that may be escalating. It is no good showing governors an attendance figure of 91% if no-one can remember what the figure was last year!
(There may be occasional exceptions to this, however. For example, a school may not wish to present safeguarding incident figures as a graph that shows previous figures, because staff should be encouraged to record all safeguarding incidents, not to chase a reduction of incidents on paper.)
Budget Reports
The budget may form part of the head’s report or may be a separate report, but governors should receive information on the budget at least six times per year in maintained schools, as recommended by the Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS).
“Does the governing body receive clear and concise monitoring reports of the school’s budget position at least six times a year?
“A clear and concise monitoring report will enable the governing body to review income and expenditure against the agreed budget. It will identify variances, provide meaningful explanations for these and explain what will be done to re-balance the budget.
“It should be in an easy to understand format that can be automatically generated from base financial records.”
Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) for Maintained Schools
Note that the budget report should be “concise” rather than all-encompassing. It should identify “variances”, which means the difference between the amount the school planned to spend on a specific area and the amount it actually spent. It should also provide explanations for these differences in spending.
It should be in a format that can be “automatically generated”; in other words, the business manager should not have to spend hours producing a bespoke report just for governors.
Headteacher’s Report Template
I have not provided a template or example for the head’s report because the National Governance Association (NGA) specifically advise against using a blank template for your own report.
Governing bodies should discuss exactly what they wish to see in the report and how they want it presented rather than pasting into a template that may not reflect the school’s aims, priorities and challenges.
“Like so much to do with governance, reducing the key reporting document for any governing board to a template would not do justice to any headteacher, governor or board.”
National Governance Association (Full Article for NGA Members Only)
Is a termly headteacher’s report statutory?
No. There is no statutory requirement for headteachers to write reports to governors at any set interval, apart from the budget report requirements mentioned above.
Section 30 of the Education Act 2002 requires maintained school heads to provide reports to governors either regularly or “from time to time”.
Many local authorities recommend that a termly written report is produced and I suspect this is because governors must meet three times per year at minimum, so some schools hold one full governing body meeting per term.
Even though a termly written head’s report is not mandatory, most boards will want their headteacher to provide regular written reports. They should ask for as many written reports as they need, while bearing in mind the head’s work-life balance and their own access to other sources of data. Most schools will have a mix of written and verbal head’s reports.
Who decides what goes in the report?
The governing body. I remember reading an account from a despairing governor who said their headteacher’s report was full of trivial, operational information about school trips and assemblies, seemingly unaware that the governing body does not have to meekly sit and listen to whatever the head decides to tell them!
I also remember reading about a clerk who would shush any governors who dared to interrupt the report, sternly telling them “This is the headteacher’s report”, as if the head owned that part of the meeting and was suddenly the boss of the whole governing body.
It may be helpful to think of it as the head’s report for governors, rather than to them. The report is for the governors; they cannot carry out their role without the right information. The head should not be telling them only what he wants them to know and if he is, governors should be challenging this.
The head’s report should focus on the strategic information that governors require. If it doesn’t then governors must ask for the information they need in order to carry out their role.
How long should the report be?
There’s no way to answer this, except to say it should be long enough to contain the necessary information but not so long that it takes ages to write and ages to read. (Or seconds to read because governors see it is 60 pages long and give up immediately.)
Reports should be concise, focused and should not create a large amount of extra work for the head.
Remember that governors must not rely solely on the head’s report for their information. Part of their job is to hold the head to account and triangulate the data they receive, which means using multiple sources of data and knowledge to check that the information is correct.
For example, if the head tells you that the behaviour policy is working well because permanent exclusions have decreased, how can governors check that is true? Have they asked for data on fixed term exclusions and detentions? Have they read reports from a school improvement partner or OFSTED? Have they visited the school to see how the policy is implemented?
Triangulation could involve comparing the head’s report with the view from an external advisor, for example, or data from other sources such as Analyse School Performance (ASP) or the Fischer Family Trust (FFT). Governors must not use the head’s report as their only source.
Should the headteacher’s report be read out in full at the meeting?
No. Governors should have received and read the report in advance because all papers should be sent out in advance.
At the meeting the head can briefly talk through the report, explain the most important points and provide updates on any changes since the report was written. Governors can then ask questions or request further information.
You may wish to make this clear on the agenda, so rather than an item just saying “Headteacher’s report” the item could be called “Questions arising from headteacher’s report”.