Your STEM Governor journey

Applied to become a STEM Governor? Your journey starts here.

Thank you for applying to become a STEM Governor

It’s a hugely important role that ensures STEM is embedded in schools at a strategic level and the next generation have every opportunity to consider future careers in STEM.

STEM Governors fulfil all the usual responsibilities of school governors, but with an added focus on STEM subjects and links to industry to support pupils and school staff to understand the opportunities available.

Your employer supports a STEM Governor Programme. Once you’re placed, you’ll be able to build connections with your school and your employer through your internal networks.

Your place on the board

Schools have lots of ‘link’ school governor roles on their boards, some of which are mandatory such as Safeguarding. A link governor role means that you take more responsibility for a specific area, including feedback back to the rest of the board.

Some boards already have a STEM Governor link role, but most don’t. The STEM Governor programme encourages every board to have a STEM Governor.

When we match you with a school, it may be the first time that school has considered having a STEM Governor, and you’ll need to discuss the role with them. You can share the role descriptor as well as this short video about the role of a STEM Governor.

Your school visit

Once you have been matched with a school and they’ve invited you to meet with them, you’ll be able to discuss opportunities as a STEM Governor in more detail. We’ve put together some questions and areas for discussion to help shape your meeting.

Your school visit is a chance for the chair of governors and/or headteacher to get to know you and for you to learn more about them, the governing board and the school. It’s a good idea to visit the school’s website prior to this meeting. You should also take a look at the school’s most recent Ofsted (in England) or Estyn (in Wales) reports which can be found on their respective websites.

Questions and areas for discussion

  • Share your passion for STEM and building links with industry
  • Talk to them about the support from your employer to take on this role
  • What are their ambitions for the school?
  • What are the main challenges they face?
  • What is the make up of the school population and wider community?
  • Do they have any established link with industry already?
  • How effective is the current provision of STEM and how you can best engage with subject leads?
  • Would they be open to additional opportunities from your employer, such as getting the school involved in STEM competitions or holding career-based events?

Practicalities

  • How many school governors do they have?
  • What committees are there and is there one that they’d prefer you to join?
  • When do their meetings take place and how often are they?
  • What school governor training is available?
  • Will I have a mentor (current school governor to help with the role & responsibilities at the start of my term)?

Next steps

Once you’ve been placed as a STEM Governor, you can join your employer network, where you’ll be able to find more information about the opportunities available to your school and how to involve the wider volunteer network such as STEM Ambassadors.