The purpose of the governing body is to help the school provide the best possible education for its pupils and thereby raise standards. Effective governors are essential for this to be successful. 

 

As governors have only limited time and resources you need to focus on where you can make the most difference.

 

Using a monitoring calendar enables governors to agree on how you will access and handle the information you need to review progress through the School Development/Improvement Plan. 

Governors start the year by reviewing the school's key priorities for improvement. You then decide what information you will need to monitor the successful implementation of each priority area and how you will evaluate the information you receive. These decisions are then recorded on the calendar, so everyone is clear what and how the governing body will be monitoring and evaluating during the year. Governors should focus on two questions:

The governing body could agree a standing agenda item every term to check progress through the calendar and review their overall achievements at the end of the year. This will enable the governing body to ensure that current priorities are being successfully addressed and also to identify new priorities for the future.

You are free to modify or expand the model monitoring calendar in any way you wish. The entries on the model are there as examples to show you how it might work and should be removed before you write your own version. Discussion about the questions you will need to ask is a valuable way of establishing how you will carry out your role and should make your meetings more focused. The calendar is simply a tool to help you carry out your strategic role more effectively.

Governors do not need to keep track of everything. The governing body needs to decide the key indicators they should monitor and evaluate and then share the responsibilities for monitoring different aspects of the School Development Plan within the governing body and its committees.