Stockport Governor Association

No doubt you are a firm supporter of your school and a major cheerleader on its behalf. Support, though, is not just about telling your staff and pupils what a good job they are doing. Support is also about challenging them to do better. Good teachers do this all the time, and children and young people rise to such challenge. Adults, too, respond to a belief that they can go a bit further, but they may need a friend to support them. So, while governors have a duty to challenge their headteacher and staff to achieve more,

So how do you set about challenging? First of all you need information. There is plenty of it about. Go to training sessions if you can. You don't just learn from the trainer, you meet other governors and learn from them. Use the internet. Several sources of useful information are listed below.

You also need information about your own school. Your headteacher certainly already provides you with some facts and figures, and you will have studied the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and the Self Evaluation Form (SEF). You should expect the school to provide you with all the information which you need to carry out your role, and you can ask for what you need. Be reasonable in your requests, understand the need for confidentiality, explain why you need the information, and give fair notice of your needs.

It is clear that outstanding schools have usually got where they are because they have outstanding leadership. That includes the governing body. Governors who challenge their schools to do more, and successfully support them as they do it, are a crucial part of successful schools. For many governors, though, the idea of challenging professionals is a serious problem. "We didn't sign up for this", they say. "How can we challenge teachers? We don't have the knowledge to do that." "Don't we employ the headteacher to raise standards in the school?" "Surely it is the local authority's job to help schools to raise standards?" Well, there are answers to all of those!

There is probably a good reason, but you need to be reassured about that. Ask why boys achieve higher grades than girls in practical science. Ask whether young carers in your school are achieving as well as their peers. You do not have to know how these things may be put right, that is the professionals' job. You do need to have raised the issue, to ensure that it is thought through and that pupils are being helped to succeed. And you do need to check whether the situation changes for the better over time.

Of course, for challenge to be effective, you need a relationship of trust and respect with your headteacher. If those are in place, confident headteachers welcome questions. As one Stockport primary headteacher has said, "I welcome questions from my governing body. Not only do they make sure that I've thought of all the angles, but they ensure that I can explain what I've done and why I've done it".

Challenge, if used in a relationship of understanding, trust and respect, is not a threat but an opportunity. A continuing dialogue of challenge and questioning will be healthy, and your school will steadily move forward towards its own shared vision for its future.