Challenge Accepted: Yvonne

Yvonne Barker-Layton is a MAT trustee at Educate Together Academy Trust in Bath.     “We all know how schools are struggling with funding and managing tight budgets. But most people don’t do anything to help, often because they don’t know how. My son’s school had a new headteacher…

Challenge Accepted – Paul

Paul Montgomery is a governor at Humberstone Junior School in Leicestershire. He shares his motivations for the role and talks about the difference governors can make to children’s life chances. “I knew I needed to do something to keep my brain active since retiring recently. Being a school governor…

How and why should schools put mental health on the agenda?

How can schools support mental health in children – and why is it so important?  Hope Virgo is a leading advocate for people with eating disorders, having battled against anorexia. In this guest blog, she shares her story, and explains how schools can support children in looking after their mental…

How can governors support the new statutory Relationships Education?

In this guest blog to mark RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) Day, Catherine Hine, CEO of FASTN (Family Stability Network), and Mary Taylor, Head of Programmes at Family Links: The Centre for Emotional Health and a school governor, share their thoughts on why Relationships Education matters and how governors…

The journey from Inadequate to Outstanding

Langford Primary School is in a deprived area of London, sandwiched between very affluent areas. Five years ago, the school was Inadequate. At the end of last year, Ofsted visited and judged the school Outstanding. We asked Chair of Governors, Dominic McGonigal, to give us the inside story. How…

Meet Jonny Atkinson, Events Manager at University of Liverpool

‘When I first heard about Governors for Schools I was interested in getting more involved with a local school – but I wasn’t sure about what I could bring to the role, or if I was really qualified to be a school governor. I decided to go ahead and started…

The Impact School Governors Have On The Gorse Academies Trust

Anne McAvan is a Director with responsibility for governance at The Gorse Academies Trust in Leeds. It’s Anne’s role to make sure each of the Trust’s local governing bodies are working effectively and governors are well-equipped for the role. We spoke to Anne to find out how the governors…

International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, we caught up with a few of the female team members here at Governors for Schools, to talk about the women who inspire them. https://www.governorsforschools.org.uk/app/uploads/2019/03/IWD-Draft-1.mp4 Abigail’s inspiration What do you do at Governors for Schools? I’m an Area Manager for Yorkshire and…

The motivation behind being a school governor

We caught up with Bav Shah, a governor at Woodlands school in Luton and graduate of Nottingham Trent University, to hear about how he found the role and what motivates him to volunteer. What’s your professional background? I studied Real Estate Management at Nottingham…

Can promoting school governance in communities help fight loneliness?

Our CEO Louise Cooper argues that volunteering as a school governor can be good for mental health, giving people the chance to connect with their community and combat loneliness. Loneliness is an epidemic affecting people of all ages across the UK. The 2016 Co-op and British Red Cross…

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