Holding your school to account

Holding your school to account David Marriott

Spot the connection 1 www.thegovernor.org.ok

The main principles of the code • A: Leadership • B:Effectiveness • C:Accountability • D: Remuneration • E:Relations with Shareholders The UK corporate governance codepublished by the Financial Reporting Council in June 2010 www.thegovernor.org.ok

The board should present a balanced and understandable assessment of the company’s position and prospects. • The board is responsible for determining the nature and extent of the significant risks it is willing to take in achieving its strategic objectives. The board should maintain sound risk management and internal control systems. • The board should establish formal and transparent arrangements for considering how they should apply the corporate reporting and risk management and internal control principles and for maintaining an appropriate relationship with the company’s auditor. Accountability www.thegovernor.org.ok

There should be a dialogue with shareholders based on the mutual understanding of objectives. The board as a whole has responsibility for ensuring that a satisfactory dialogue with shareholders takes place. • The board should use the AGM to communicate with investors and to encourage their participation. Relations with shareholders www.thegovernor.org.ok

Who are our shareholders/ stakeholders? • What are our obligations to them and how well do we fulfil those obligations? • Does the GB have sufficient relevant skills and understanding to review and challenge management performance? • Is it an adequate size and are there appropriate levels of independence and commitment to fulfil its responsibilities and duties? • Is integrity a fundamental requirement in choosing our chair, vice chair, clerk and GB members (where we have a choice)? Questions for corporate governance in schools www.thegovernor.org.ok

Do we clarify and make publicly known the roles and responsibilities of the GB and school management to provide stakeholders with a level of accountability? • Have we implemented procedures to independently verify and safeguard the integrity of the school's financial reporting? Should we set up an audit committee? • Do we receive the information we need to carry out our scrutiny function in good time? • Is the disclosure of material matters concerning the school timely and balanced to ensure that all interested parties have access to clear, factual information? • Do we ensure collectively a satisfactory dialogue with our stakeholders and report to them regularly? • Do we self-evaluate regularly and use the outcomes to improve our performance? Questions for corporate governance in schools www.thegovernor.org.ok

"If local democracy had worked, if local governing bodies had worked in the most challenging schools and for the most disadvantaged children, we would never have needed academies" • "Often governing bodies are the problem, actually“ • Sir Michael Wilshaw • Head of Mossbourne academy, Hackney • New HMCI (Head of Ofsted) www.thegovernor.org.ok

“The new theology of the Coalition government is autonomy and choice…Governors are more important in a more autonomous system. Their ability to challenge and lead is the key.” • Sue Hackman • Chief Adviser for School Standards, DfE • 13.10.2011 Autonomy www.thegovernor.org.ok

The governing body examines the impact of policies on the school's work carefully but it does not hold the school to account sufficiently for its performance. What Ofsted said www.thegovernor.org.ok

Being ACCOUNTable • Taking ACCOUNT of • Giving an ACCOUNT Accountability www.thegovernor.org.ok

Accountability • Being accountable for • Effectiveness: school performance • Efficiency: value for money • Taking account of • Performance data • Feedback from stakeholders • Self-evaluation • Policies, plans, improvement strategies • School environment • GB’s actions • Giving an account • To parents and the community • To Ofsted • To Diocese www.thegovernor.org.ok

Accountable for... • Effectiveness: • school performance • Taking account of: • Self evaluation (inc GB) • RAISEonline • Headteacher performance management • Stakeholder feedback eg complaints and compliments • Policies, plans, improvement strategies • School environment • Efficiency: • value for money • Taking account of • Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) • Financial reports to GB • Finance committee minutes • Financial benchmarking • Value for Money tools www.thegovernor.org.ok

Giving an account • To parents and the community • Reports? • Regular communication: • Newsletter • Website • Presence at school www.thegovernor.org.ok

To Ofsted • When evaluating the quality of leadership and management at all levels, including, where relevant, governors, inspectors consider whether they: • demonstrate an ambitious vision for the school and high expectations for what every pupil and teacher can achieve, and set high standards for quality and performance • improve teaching and learning, including the management of pupils’ behaviour • provide a broad and balanced curriculum that: meets the needs of all pupils; enable all pupils to achieve their full educational potential and make progress in their learning; and promote their good behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development • evaluate the school’s strengths and weaknesses and use their findings to promote improvement • improve the school and develop its capacity for sustaining improvement by developing leadership capacity and high professional standards among all staff • engage with parents and carers in supporting pupils’ achievement, behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development • ensure that all pupils are safe. Giving an account www.thegovernor.org.ok

Holding the school to account? Governors’ roles • ensure school runs effectively, providing best possible education • challenge and support school to do better • take strategic view, set up policies, plans and targets • monitor and evaluate results • delegate enough power to head to run school effectively • accountable to parents and LA for how school is run • appoint head and deputy Head’s roles • organises, manages and controls the school day-to-day • expects GB to challenge and support school to do better • discusses main aspects of school life with GB • reports to GB on how school is managed • So…the head is the “chief executive” • So…holding the school to account means holding the head to account, in practice www.thegovernor.org.ok

A partnership of equals? www.thegovernor.org.ok

Where does your governing body sit? High support Partners or critical friends Supporters Club ‘We’re here to support the head’. ‘We share everything –good or bad’. Low challenge High challenge Abdicators Adversaries ‘We keep a very close eye on the staff!’. ‘We leave it to the professionals’. Low support www.thegovernor.org.ok

How do you know how well your school is doing? • Doing…in what sense? • How well should it be doing? • How do we know? • What should we be looking for? • Where might we find it? • What questions should we ask? • Who can we ask? • How do we know if the answers are reliable and honest? • What do we do if we find they’re not? www.thegovernor.org.ok

What do outstanding governing bodiesdo? • Effective governing bodies systematically monitor their school’s progress towards meeting agreed development targets. Information about what is going well and why, and what is not going well and why, is shared. • Governors are well informed and knowledgeable because they are given high- quality, accurate information that is concise and focused on pupil achievement. • Outstanding governors are able to take and support hard decisions in the interests of pupils: to back the head teacher when they need to change staff, or to change the head teacher when absolutely necessary. • Outstanding governance supports honest, insightful self-evaluation by the school, recognising problems and supporting the steps needed to address them. • Governors in the schools visited, use the skills they bring, and the information they have about the school, to ask challenging questions, which are focused on improvement, and hold leaders to account for pupils’ outcomes. • School governance: Learning from the best • Ofsted 2011 www.thegovernor.org.ok

What Ofsted inspectors do How can we find out? • Data analysis • Validation of self-evaluation • Ask youngsters, parents, teachers, governors – triangulation • Lesson observation • Comparison • Work sampling • Discussion between inspectors What we can do Data analysis Self-evaluation Ask youngsters, parents, teachers, governors – triangulation Visit school and classrooms Comparison Discussion between governors and staff www.thegovernor.org.ok

Sources of information • Headteacher’s report • Raw data and league tables • Value Added (VA) data – RAISEonline* • Pupil tracking data (anonymised) • Ofsted report • Self-Evaluation • Subject leader report • Link governor report • School Improvement or Development Plan (and related progress reports) • School Profile • School Awards (eg Investors In People, Healthy Schools, Artsmark; Basic Skills) • Curriculum Committee minutes • *NGA guide www.thegovernor.org.ok

What is our vision? What are we trying to achieve? Strategic improvement plan What are our values? Policies What is the evidence? School self-evaluation etc What information? RAISEonline DfE school comparisons How do we give an account? How do we know it’s happening? Head’s reports; our monitoring What are our new priorities? Narrowing the gap? Progress? How do we contribute to planning for improvement? SDP & HT PM & resources A school improvement cycle www.thegovernor.org.ok

Governing Body meetings: spot the school improvement agenda items • Full governing body • Matters arising • Headteacher’s report • School development plan • School self-evaluation • Committee reports • Subject leaders’ reports • Committees • Curriculum, assessment, teaching and learning • Finance • Staffing • Premises www.thegovernor.org.ok

Problem: In the primary school where I was a governor there was no tradition of the head sharing RAISEonline data with the governors. The head took the view that it was unnecessary, because by the time it was published, RAISEonline data was out of date. She provided governors with lots of performance data when it was fresh and relevant. • Solution: Rather than bang my head against this brick wall, I encouraged fellow governors to undertake training on RAISEonline, which they did. • As a result, they also asked to see the data and the head agreed to share it. • Outcome: When we all looked at it together, the head included, we were able to identify some areas for improvement which had not been revealed by all the other data we had seen. • Now RAISEonline is shared regularly and its usefulness understood. What might it look like in practice? www.thegovernor.org.ok

Problem with maths results • Problem identified through the annual report on results • Solution: Governors requested that the chosen subject co-ordinator report for that year focused on the maths faculty • Governors were pushing at an open door. SLT were as worried as anyone and were keen to have governors’ support for action • Governors, through the curriculum committee, got regular reports on progress • SLT were willing to take on governors’ ideas – eg “A” half of year taught in mixed gender groups; “B” half taught as single sex groups • Major staffing changes took place • “overstaffing” of maths gave small teaching groups • Outcome– over 3 years maths results went from approx. 30% A*-C to 60%+ A*-C • Governors did not manage the changes that brought about the improvement but they did challenge and support the changes A secondary school example www.thegovernor.org.ok

New National Curriculum • New assessment regime and methodology • Progress measures • No-notice inspections from Sept • EBacc and its effects • How well deprived groups do • What happens when they leave? • New floor standards • Value for money – results vs expenditure • What are your internal school performance indicators? What’s next? www.thegovernor.org.ok

Holding your school to account