Improving School Governance (2^nd Ed.) How better governors make better schools

About the first edition:

"School governors will find this a sound and practical guide to the nature of their responsibilities and the process of managing their workload. It is well researched, based on vast experience, illustrated from the best practice, free from jargon ? and always interesting." Joan Sallis.

Described by the National Association of Governors and Managers as "definitely a ?must? for your bookshelf"; reviewed in the Times Educational Supplement as an "essential guide to help governors".

This book is about governing schools ? about how a governing board made up largely of ?ordinary? people with no professional educational experience, working in partnership with professional leaders, can help to make schools better. It is intended for governors in schools in England and Wales, in other parts of the world where lay people engage in school leadership, and for people who work with governors.

Improving School Governance examines:

• How school governors got to be where they are today
• How governing boards do their jobs
• How individual governors can best contribute to their schools
• Governors? accountability
• The nature of governors? meetings
• The rights that governors have
• The relationships between governors and the headteacher
• The role of governing boards in school inspection
• Governors? relationships with parents and the wider community
• How to evaluate the performance and impact of governing boards
• What the future might hold for state-funded schools and their governance
• What national strategic issues will need to be addressed by governing boards in the next five to ten years

Acknowledgments Preface Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 People and their Schools How lay governors, after a long history, came to have an important role in school governance Chapter 2The Revival of School Governance How governing schools came to make a meaningful contribution to school improvement Chapter 3 The Strategic Governing Board How the governing board brings about school improvement Chapter 4 The Responsibilities, Roles and Rights of Governors In which we look at some ideas about governing Chapter 5Governance, Leadership and Management Being an investigation of the relationships that governing boards have with their headteacher and staff Chapter 6School Governance and School Inspection A consideration of the impact inspection has on school governance Chapter 7Schools, Parents and the Community In which we consider the relationships of schools with parents and other local people Capter 8Evaluating Governance How do we know how well we are governing the school? Chapter 9 Schools in an uncertain future What the present looks like and what the future might hold; the state of the nation and its schooling; what governing boards might need to think about in planning for the future. Chapter 10 The futures of governing schools School governance in the uncertain future Reading listBibliographyAppendicesIndex

Nigel Gann is an independent education consultant working with school governors and headteachers and has been involved in managing and governing schools for more than thirty years. He has written, spoken and trained on school leadership for the Department for Education, Ofsted, the British Council, BBC TV and Radio, the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the Universities of Leicester and Southampton, CfBT Education Trust, the National Governors’ Association, Governors Wales, Worklife Support, most of the local authorities in England and Wales, and in Russia, the Middle East and Cyprus. He has been a governor in eight schools, including spells as chair in three of them.