MIKE SIMMONDSEducation Consultant

Enabling projects that transform

Good Practice for a governing body

What a well organised governing body can achieve

Sessio

n 1

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”St Catherine of Siena

“the precious light of

ordinariness must be

allowed to shine on expert

activities if those activities

are to be healthy".Joan Sallis

PHILIPPIANS 4.6-7Scripture that inspires

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life. (from ‘The Message’)

2 TIMOTHY 2.22-25Scripture that inspires

“...chase after justice, faith, love and peace; you’ll be in the company of all who call on the Lord from a pure heart.... And the Lord’s servant mustn’t be a fighter, but must be gentle to all people, able to teach, able to bear evil without resentment, able to correct opponents with a meek spirit...” (from ‘The Message’)

“A good experience of governance”

for Head, Governors, Staff, Children

• Time• Relationship• Excellence

• Vision• Faith

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Building Relationships

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The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many,

they form one body.1Corinthians 12.12 (NIV)

Excellence

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The ‘hidden givers’:A study of school

governing bodies in England

PROJECT REPORT

Chris James, Steve Brammer, Michael Connolly, Miles Fertig,

Jane James and Jeff Jones

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

The findings

• School governing is always changing

• The role of the chair – a significant educational and community leadership responsibility..

• Scrutiny, scrutiny, scrutiny . . . .

The ‘hidden givers’: a study of school governing bodies in England

The findings

The ‘hidden givers’: a study of school governing bodies in England“The lack of a capable

governing body is not a neutral absence for a

school; it is asubstantial

disadvantage.”

The findings

The ‘hidden givers’: a study of school governing bodies in England

Headteachers and senior staff value the governing body in the following roles:

a critical and informed sounding board for the headteachera support for the schoola help breaking down the isolation of

the headteachera link with parents and communitya provider of direction and vision in partnership with the staffa provider of a range of non-educational expertise/experience

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Excellence

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• Faithfulness• Efficiency

• Competencies

Competencies

Characteristic ways of behaving shown to be associated with achieving successful outcomes

Finding the spices ‘out of the cupboard’!

School Governing is a corporate activity

Key Competency Clusters

• Thinking• Guiding Action• Achieving Things

Through Others• Managing The Heart

And The Head

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12 Key Competencies

Thinking

Bigger Picture ThinkingAnalysing & EvaluatingResource Management

Guiding Action

Gathering InformationGetting Things DoneAchieving High Standards

Achieving Things Through Others InfluencingInitiating ImprovementsShowing Leadership

Managing The Heart and The Head

Assertiveness & ChallengeManaging Your Own StyleIntegrity & Inclusion

• Time• Relationship• Excellence

• Vision

Vision

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Book of

Proverbs, The

Bible

“Where there is no vision the people

perish”

Barth R

(1990) Improving Schools

from within

“Everyone who works in a school is entitled to a unique vision of the way he or she would like the school to become, but has an obligation to uncover, discover and rediscover what the vision is and contribute it to the betterment of the school community”

George Oliver, former

LEA Inspect

or

“Where there is no vision and the

possibility of perishing is far

away, people muck about”

Leaders…..

• are the GUARDIAN and HERALD of the vision

• ARTICULATE and EMBODY the vision

Cottrell, S. Hit the Ground Kneeling page 37

Canon Charles Smyth, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 150th Anniversary of the Foundation of The National Society, 12.10.61

“it is the task of the Church in every century to serve its generation according to the will of

God.”

#HOPEGOV

“the mission which is defined by the liberating difference that God makes in the world ... is not exclusively about the content of education ... it is about helping to form a human culture that is just that bit more free from the aggression and unintelligent selfishness that imprisons us, individually and collectively.”

Archbishop of CanterburyKeynote Address at Church of England Academy Family Launch Conference, Lambeth Palace , Wednesday 21 October 2009

How do we improvise our role in the

constant climate of change as Heads and

School Governors “according to the will

of God”

• Time• Relationship• Excellence

• Vision• Faith

“I am your servant,” he said. “Tell me what to do.”

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Consultancy

©sxc.hu/svilen001Consultation Chair Mentoring

Bespoke Training Conference Speaking

withMIKE SIMMONDS

GOMikeS

mike@goministries.org.uk