Governors for Schools was delighted to host our second annual online conference last week (Tuesday, 27th September and Wednesday, 28th September). I’m sure delegates and speakers will agree the event was a resounding success, featuring a host of important panels and workshops. As a charity, we’re delighted that the Institution of Engineering and Technology was able to sponsor this year’s event and deliver a valuable session about STEM education. We’d like to express our appreciation for their support and contributions.

We were thrilled to host sessions covering a broad range of timely themes affecting the governance landscape, including academisation, safeguarding, improving attendance rates, the new Welsh curriculum, and much more. We also had the opportunity to discuss our recently launched Trustee Recruitment Service and discuss key findings from our new Wellbeing Report. We hope attendees found these sessions informative and are able to use what they’ve learned to improve their governance practices. This year’s speakers offered impressively insightful presentations, tips, and discussion points, and we thank them for their invaluable contributions.

Each of this year’s sessions are now available to stream on our conference resources page, along with any relevant session slides and resources. These materials will remain on our website for the foreseeable future, so please feel free to browse at a pace that suits you. If you enjoyed this year’s conference panels, keep an eye out for further webinars throughout the year. We regularly host panel discussions on a wide range of topics affecting the governance field.

Many thanks to all who opted to receive a certificate from the CPD Accreditation Service to confirm their attendance at this year’s sessions. If you missed out and would like to receive a certificate, please email Louisa Hann with your name and session details.

With our 2022 conference wrapped up, we’re already thinking about next year’s event. While we were delighted with the speakers in our final line up, we recognise there was a lack of ethnic diversity among our speakers. We know this is a symptom of the sector as a whole, however, we are determined to ensure a greater degree of diversity next time, and are exploring how best to go about this.

We’re keen to continue to offer a free, CPD-accredited timetable of panels, and are working hard to find a sponsor to help us achieve this ambition. As online events tend to offer greater accessibility, we plan to run a digital event once again. We’re also looking to include more networking opportunities and work with volunteers to platform all parts of the governance community in our programme.

Discover more about Governors for Schools

If you’re feeling inspired to volunteer as a governor, please do apply on our website. You will also find information about our new Trustee Recruitment Service, past campaigns, corporate partnerships, and much more. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].