The role of governors has been praised at Pembroke Dock Community School in an Estyn report published today that suggests most governors need further support to help them to act as effective “critical friends”. 

Governors play a vital role in an effective education system and their voluntary efforts add value. Getting the right balance of challenge and support for senior leaders is an important aspect of a governing body’s role. However, Estyn found that often governors rely too heavily on the information provided by school leaders, particularly the progress that the school is making towards meeting their priorities. 

The findings show that most governors work productively with senior leaders in schools, but a majority do not challenge them sufficiently. Whilst most governors are committed and enthusiastic, they do not have a wide enough understanding of their role in ensuring high expectations in all aspects of the school’s work. 

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector, says, ‘Governors can play an important role in supporting and holding a school’s senior leaders to account. Our latest thematic report shows that whilst school governors across Wales carry out aspects of their roles well, their ability to challenge senior leaders on key areas, such as educational performance, is lacking.

‘The role of governors in holding leaders to account is essentially about monitoring improvement. This should involve establishing clear expectations, ensuring defined lines of responsibility, putting in place systems for monitoring appropriately and ensuring that evaluation leads to actions that secure improvement.’

The report’s findings do show some strong examples of governors challenging senior leaders effectively and helping to drive whole-school improvement – but these are in the minority. Ensuring that governors in Wales have regular and worthwhile opportunities to observe first-hand the progress that their school is making towards meeting its priorities will be key to them acting as “critical friends”.

Inspectors found that in the schools where challenge is strongest, governors used the information presented to them by leaders alongside their own experiences and first-hand evidence. These governors were better able to formulate questions that challenged leaders on different aspects of the school’s work. This work is particularly strong in Pembroke Dock Primary School and Ysgol Plas Brondyffryn in Denbighshire.

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In Pembroke Dock Primary School, the governing body has appointed governors as ‘poverty champions’. These governors seek out available grants to help them to support the local community. The poverty champion governors regularly canvas parents to find out how best they can help them. They organise fundraising events and use grants to buy things that parents need. For example, they have recently purchased blankets to add to their ‘help yourself’ trolley as this was something that parents had asked for.

School Governors Acting As Critical Friends… p.19

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In Pembroke Dock Primary School in Pembrokeshire, governors are regular visitors to the school. They undertake regular learning walks, led either by staff or pupils to look at progress that the school is making in addressing school improvement priorities. For example, there has been a recent whole-school focus on improving mathematics, so governors have observed mathematics lessons to look at the changes in practice, talking to pupils and looking at their work. They ask pupils questions about new school initiatives to gain their views.

Link governors make learning walks linked to progress that the school is making towards introducing areas of learning and experience, also linked with improvement priorities. They meet leaders and spend time in classrooms.

Following each visit, governors complete a questionnaire on their findings, outlining any strengths and areas that they think need improving. They are mindful of their role as governors and that they are not there to make judgements on, for example, standards of teaching. There are other aspects of the school’s work, however, that they are in a place to judge.

For example, governors had concerns over the learning environment in the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) as it needed painting. They reported this at the next governing body meeting, the concern was actioned, and they then revisited the classroom again to see what changes had been made.

School Governors Acting As Critical Friends… p.28

In many schools, governors say that they challenge school leaders effectively, however, in too many schools, head teachers do not agree that governors’ challenge is robust or useful. Challenge appears to be most effective when there are governors with an educational background or experienced governors who have a very good understanding of a successful school.

Owen Evans added: “I value the input of headteachers, governors and other stakeholders who took part in our sample of schools across Wales. Today’s report shares some important findings and recommendations that I encourage policymakers and the education sector to take note of. The governing body of a school can play an important role in maintaining and improving standards – but there is work to do.”