'No qualifications are necessary': effective governance in state secondary schools: model guidelines

Since the 19th century School Governors have gone through an extended period of change. The most recent legislative changes related to the New Relationship with Schools Agenda (NRwS) will challenge Governing Bodies and highlights the need for effectiveness and accountability. Today state secondary schools are legally required to have a corporate Governing Body which is responsible for appointing the Head Teacher, for strategic planning and for standards. Governors are representative of the community they serve and are expected to be `critical friend' to the Head Teacher. This research is aimed at developing a method of helping Governors become more effective by: examining empirically their performance and effectiveness; investigating the nature of volunteering; exploring the distinctions between School Governor practices and those of Non-Executive Directors in the business sectors; identifying not only the bathers to effectiveness but individual and organizational factors which enable a Governing Body to become more effective and then developing Model Guidelines which will help them to carry out its role more effectively. To achieve these aims an ethnographic methodology is used and the data gathering methods included: a pilot questionnaire survey; a pilot self evaluation exercise with a school experiencing problems; a questionnaire survey; a pilot elite interview; elite interviews with five experts and fieldwork in two state secondary schools. Most of the literature tends to focus on factual information whereas this study, whilst an academic piece of research, it is also intended to be a working tool for Governors. The findings are largely consistent with the literature; thirty two issues of concern have been identified. These in turn have been translated into five key issues, Governance and Structure, Guiding Principles, People and Processes and Conduct all within a culture of Review and Self Evaluation. The fifth key issue highlights criteria considered essential to the development of the Model Guidelines. The five key issues identified by the research constitute the parameters for the explicit, generic, applicable and hitherto unavailable Model Guidelines for School Governors