What Do School Governors Do?

Published

22 December 2025

Contents

School governors play a crucial role in how UK schools are run. They form the governing body, a group of volunteers responsible for overseeing the school’s strategic direction, holding leaders to account, and ensuring public money is used effectively.

For teachers, governors may sometimes seem distant from day-to-day classroom life, but their decisions directly influence curriculum planning, workload, staffing, behaviour policies, and school improvement priorities.

This article explains what school governors do, why their role matters, and what teachers need to know about how governance shapes the school they work in.

Key Takeaways

School governors provide strategic leadership and ensure the school has a clear long-term vision and ethos.
Governors hold senior leaders to account for performance, behaviour, safeguarding, curriculum, and teaching quality.
They oversee financial performance, approve budgets, and ensure money is spent effectively to support pupils.
Teachers may interact with governors through lesson visits, data presentations, staff voice panels, and working groups.

What Is the Role of a School Governor?

School governors are volunteers who form part of a school’s governing board. Their role is to provide strategic oversight rather than involvement in daily operations.

According to the Department for Education (DfE), (opens in a new tab) governors are responsible for ensuring schools are well-run, achieve high standards, and provide value for money. Therefore, governors act as a layer of accountability, working alongside senior leaders to shape the school’s long-term direction while ensuring decisions benefit pupils, staff, and the wider community.

The Three Core Functions of School Governors

Governing boards have three core responsibilities. According to the DfE Maintained School: Governance Guide (opens in a new tab), governing boards must ensure ‘The vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined” and “that the headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of the school. Therefore, governors operate at a strategic level rather than managing everyday tasks.

Ensuring Clarity of Vision, Ethos and Strategic Direction

Governors help define the school’s long-term goals, culture, and educational values. According to the DfE School Governance Roles, Procedures and Allowance (opens in a new tab), the governing board must ensure that the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined.Therefore, governors work with senior leaders to set strategic priorities that guide every aspect of school improvement.

This includes agreeing the principles that shape curriculum design, approving the overall behaviour ethos, and determining the school’s expectations for teaching and learning.

Governors also contribute to decisions about attendance priorities, inclusion, pastoral support, and how the school positions itself within the local community. They ensure that these strategic aims feed into key documents such as the School Improvement Plan (SIP), self-evaluation summaries, and long-term development projects.

In practice, governors regularly review progress towards strategic goals, ensuring they remain relevant, achievable, and aligned with pupils’ needs. They may analyse internal data, reflect on external reports, and discuss trends with senior leaders to check whether the vision is being delivered effectively. This creates a stable direction of travel, helping teachers understand school-wide aims and the rationale behind leadership decisions.

Governors for Schools (opens in a new tab), a national charity, states that effective strategic focus supports teachers by creating consistent expectations across the school. Therefore, strategic clarity helps staff understand priorities, reduces uncertainty, and enables coherent planning across departments and year groups.

Holding Leaders to Account

Governors monitor how effectively the school is managed and whether leadership decisions are improving outcomes for pupils. According to the Ofsted School Inspection Guide (opens in a new tab), governors must hold leaders to account appropriately and effectively for the impact of the school’s professional learning programme for staff. Therefore, a central part of their role is holding the headteacher and senior leadership team to account for the school’s overall outcomes, ensuring leadership decisions lead to real, measurable improvement.

This accountability involves reviewing a wide range of information, such as pupil progress and attainment data, safeguarding procedures, behaviour patterns, and attendance trends. Governors also examine the impact of curriculum decisions, ensuring that subject intent, implementation, and outcomes are consistent with the school’s stated vision. They may analyse groups of pupils, compare performance across subjects, or look at trends over time to identify strengths and areas requiring improvement.

In addition, governors consider staff wellbeing, workload, and professional development opportunities. They may ask leaders what steps are being taken to support teachers, manage pressures, or improve working conditions, recognising that staff morale affects teaching quality and retention.

Governors typically carry out this accountability work through structured committee meetings, targeted questions, and regular reports from senior leaders, particularly the headteacher. They do not involve themselves in operational matters or judge the performance of individual teachers, but instead evaluate the effectiveness of whole-school systems, leadership decisions, and whether the headteacher’s actions are improving outcomes.

This ensures leadership remains transparent, evidence-based, and firmly centred on the needs and progress of pupils.

Overseeing Financial Performance

Governors ensure the school budget is managed responsibly and supports high-quality education for all pupils. According to the Academies Financial Handbook (opens in a new tab), the governing board must ensure funds are ‘used efficiently and align with strategic priorities’. Therefore, governors take an active role in approving budgets, monitoring ongoing expenditure, and checking that financial decisions directly support the school’s long-term aims.

This involves reviewing detailed financial reports, comparing projected spending with actual costs, and questioning whether resources are being allocated in the most effective way.

Governors may examine spending on staffing, classroom materials, IT infrastructure, SEND provision, CPD programmes, and capital projects such as building improvements. They consider whether each area of expenditure offers good value for money and whether it contributes meaningfully to school improvement.

Governors also assess financial risks, such as unexpected overspends, fluctuating pupil numbers, or pressures caused by rising costs. They work with school leaders to plan for sustainability, ensuring budgets remain balanced and resilient over time. This strategic oversight allows governors to make informed decisions about staffing structures, investment priorities, and the viability of new initiatives.

The Education Endowment Foundation (opens in a new tab) (EEF) highlights that spending decisions should prioritise ‘evidence-informed approaches that improve pupil outcomes’. Therefore, governors are encouraged to scrutinise the impact of interventions, evaluate whether particular provisions are delivering results, and ensure that funding is directed towards approaches with a strong research base.

This helps ensure that every pound spent contributes effectively to improving teaching, learning, and pupils’ life chances.

How Do School Governors Work With Teachers?

Teachers may work with governors more often than they realise. Although governors do not manage staff or evaluate individual classroom performance, they do engage with teachers to understand how school policies and strategic priorities operate in practice. These interactions help governors make informed decisions and ensure their oversight reflects the realities of teaching and learning.

Teachers might interact with governors through:

Data presentations, where subject leaders or classroom teachers share information about pupils’ progress, attainment, or curriculum developments.
Staff voice activities, such as surveys, focus groups, informal conversations, or structured meetings designed to gather insights about workload, wellbeing, and classroom pressures.
Learning walks or lesson visits, where governors observe the learning environment to understand how strategic priorities, such as curriculum intent, behaviour approaches, or inclusion, are being implemented. These visits are never used to judge individual teachers.
Curriculum or improvement panels, where governors meet with staff to discuss subjects, year groups, or whole-school initiatives in more depth.
Behaviour, safeguarding, or SEND-related panels, where governors review how particular policies or decisions are impacting pupils and staff.

These interactions are designed to build a clear, accurate picture of school life. For teachers, working with governors can strengthen communication, help them share successes or challenges, and contribute to informed, supportive strategic leadership across the school.

What Makes a Good School Governor?

Effective school governors bring a combination of skills, mindset, and willingness to learn. Their impact comes from asking thoughtful questions, engaging with evidence, and keeping pupils’ interests at the centre of decision-making.

Strong governance is not about having expert knowledge from the start, but about being committed, curious, and able to work strategically alongside school leaders.

Qualities that help governors make a meaningful contribution include:

Strategic thinking – such as focusing on long-term direction rather than daily operational decisions.
Analytical skills – such as interpreting pupil data, budget reports, and improvement plans with clarity.
Good communication – such as listening carefully, asking constructive questions, and contributing professionally to discussions.
Objectivity and fairness – such as being able to challenge decisions without personal bias and consider multiple viewpoints.
Commitment to inclusion and safeguarding – such as prioritising the wellbeing and safety of all pupils.
Professional curiosity – such as seeking to understand the ‘why’ behind leadership decisions and using evidence to inform questioning.
Teamwork – such as working collaboratively with fellow governors and school leaders to support improvement.
Reliability and preparation – such as reading papers in advance, attending meetings regularly, and engaging fully in training.

In addition, ongoing governor training and development is essential. Even the most experienced governors benefit from updating their knowledge of curriculum expectations, finance, safeguarding, SEND, and inspection priorities. Training ensures governors can contribute confidently and make informed decisions that genuinely support the school’s improvement efforts.

Can Teachers Become School Governors?

Teachers can become school governors, either within their own school or in another setting. In maintained schools, teachers may serve as staff governors, representing the views and experiences of the workforce.

In academies, they may be elected as part of the local governing body or academy council. Staff governors have full voting rights but cannot take on certain roles, such as chairing the governing board, to avoid conflicts of interest.

Teachers can also volunteer as governors at a different school, which is often encouraged. Serving elsewhere allows teachers to gain governance experience without being directly involved in operational decisions within their own workplace.

Being a governor offers several benefits for teachers:

It provides valuable leadership experience, offering insight into strategic decision-making.
It deepens understanding of how budgets, policies, and school improvement plans are created and monitored.
It strengthens communication and analytical skills, as teachers learn to interpret data, question decisions, and contribute to rigorous discussion.
It builds confidence in working with senior leaders and external professionals.
It supports career progression, particularly for those considering middle or senior leadership roles.
It offers the chance to influence positive change within education, supporting another school and its community.

For teachers, becoming a governor is a professionally rewarding way to broaden their perspective, strengthen their leadership skills, and contribute to improving outcomes beyond their own classroom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do school governors visit lessons?

Yes. Governors may visit lessons to understand how strategic priorities are being delivered. These visits are purposeful and linked to the school improvement plan, but they are not used to judge individual teachers. The focus is on gaining insight into curriculum delivery, behaviour, and pupils’ experiences rather than evaluating staff.

Can governors influence teaching policies?

Yes. Governors approve policies that shape classroom practice, such as curriculum, assessment, behaviour, and SEND. They do not choose teaching methods, but their decisions set the framework within which teaching happens. This gives them an important, indirect influence over expectations and priorities.

How often do governors meet?

Governing boards typically meet at least three times a year, with additional committee meetings for areas like finance or curriculum. Meetings may be more frequent during periods of change or school improvement. The aim is to meet regularly enough to carry out their strategic responsibilities effectively.

What’s the difference between the governing body and SLT?

The governing body provides strategy and oversight, while the senior leadership team manages daily operations. Governors set long-term direction and hold leaders to account, and SLT makes the day-to-day decisions needed to run the school. In short, governors decide what the school aims to achieve, and SLT decides how to achieve it.

Final Thoughts

Good governance is essential to the success of any school. Governors provide strategic direction, challenge leadership decisions, and ensure that resources are used effectively to support pupils. Their work shapes the culture, priorities, and long-term development of the school, making their role highly relevant to teachers’ everyday experience.

Understanding how governors operate helps teachers see the bigger picture behind school decisions, from curriculum choices to behaviour policies and budget pressures. When staff and governors communicate openly and work towards shared goals, it creates a more coherent, supportive, and well-led environment for pupils and staff alike.

Ultimately, governors are partners in delivering great education. By engaging with them, offering insight, and contributing to discussions when invited, teachers can help strengthen the link between strategic leadership and classroom practice. Strong relationships between governors and staff ensure that decisions are grounded in real experience, focused on pupil wellbeing, and aligned with a shared vision for improvement.