What is good governance?

There is a huge mismatch between the government’s desire to professionalise school governance and the current reality of governance practice.

If you don’t believe me, think how much effort schools take to appoint a new head compared to how they appoint governors. A recent headship appointment I was involved in took six hours of governor, diocese, local authority planning; there were two selection days involving panel interviews, lesson observing and feeding back, leading an assembly, data exam, finance exam, group discussion.

In another school, with a budget in excess of 

£8 million, there were three staff governor places up for grabs and three candidates, all of whom were impressed that recent staff governors had gone straight on to senior leadership positions. There was no election, no interview, no matching of skills to board requirements.