Best Practice

A strategic framework for governors

Setting the strategic direction of a school is one of the governing body’s core functions, but it can be challenging for some. Ellie Howarth explains the elements of effective strategic governance set out in a new resource.

Last November, at the NGA’s (National Governors’ Association) joint conference with the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society, Graham Stuart MP described school governance as being “almost sexy”.

These are perhaps not the first words to come to most people’s minds when they think of governance, but they do summarise Mr Stuart’s wider point about how governance has evolved over the past few years. It has become increasingly dynamic, with any idea of a cosy chat about how nice the school is over a cup of tea left firmly in the past.

One noticeable change is that there has been an increasing emphasis on governing boards’ strategic role – setting the strategic direction of the school is one of the governing board’s core functions, but it can be challenging for some. Therefore in January, the NGA and the Wellcome Trust jointly launched a free resource for governing boards: The Framework for Governance.

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