Governance Training

To understand:

• Roles and responsibilities around attendance
• Attendance codes and their meanings
• Attendance and Persistent Absence targets
• Data and how to use the figures for action planning
• Attendance policy and procedures
• Legal processes
• How to hold leaders to account

This training is run by the Inclusion and Attendance Team at Sheffield City Council

This course is for chairs, vice chairs and aspiring chairs, in both trusts and maintained schools, to develop their key leadership skills and knowledge and to understand the role. To understand your own leadership style, strengths and areas for development. Delegates will be able to develop an action plan to develop their own boards. Understand the education landscape and working with leaders and the clerk. Understand how the governors and trustees fit into school improvement and how to be effective in leading the board in effectively challenging the school or MAT on its performance. There will be opportunities to work and network with other chairs. The course will run over more than one session, to enable between session actions and reflection. Please note that governors must commit to attending all three training sessions to make the most of this training.

The training is delivered by Mark Coppel, National Leader of Governance (NLG) and an experienced chair.

This workshop will focus on how special schools will be inspected under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF). It will provide information about types of inspection and the four judgement areas in the EIF as well as insights into how inspectors gather and evaluate evidence in EIF inspections. The governance aspects of the leadership and management judgement area and the role of governors in inspections will also be included in the workshop.

This session is run by Nick Whittaker, Learn Sheffield School Improvement Partner.

This session will provide governors with an overview of school and governors’ roles around Data Protection and Freedom of Information against the background of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018.The session will support governors in understanding the school’s responsibilities as a data controller and will cover best practice in drafting and updating policies and procedures, managing information risks and also in dealing with information requests and data breaches. The session will be delivered by a Certified GDPR Practitioner who acts as a Data Protection Officer for a number of schools in Sheffield.

This session is run by Andy Wynne, Governance Lead at Learn Sheffield.

This training is designed to support governors and trustees with the opportunities and challenges of governance in faith schools. The session will be delivered by a colleague from the catholic sector who is highly experienced in both school leadership and governance but will also have relevance to those who are engaged in governance of schools in a variety of faith settings.

This session will be delivered by Alan Dewhurst – Diocese of Hallam

Effective appraisal of the Headteacher is one of the ways that Governing Boards can carry out their roles of providing strategic direction to the school and holding the Headteacher to account. This course will help those governors who are responsible for the Headteacher’s appraisal by considering:

This course will help those governors who are responsible for the Headteacher’s appraisal by considering:

• The legal requirements
• Ofsted expectations
• Good practice guidance for the whole process, including choosing and deploying an external adviser, agreeing performance objectives, on-going review of progress and end-of-year review

This session is run by Dean Linkhorn, education consultant and chair of governors.

This course focuses on the essential behaviours involved in governors holding school leaders to account. We will look at the key questions – What to hold leaders to account for at your school? And How do you hold someone to account for things they probably know more about than you?

The training is delivered by Mark Coppel, National Leader of Governance (NLG) and an experienced chair.

This course will examine what is meant by Online Safety in 2023/24 It will look at the major safeguarding risks in the online space and correlate them with the concerns and experiences of children and young people in Sheffield.

This session is delivered by Sue Finnigan, Education Consultant - Learn Sheffield.

This session will help governors to understand the main principles of the Public Sector Equality Duty, what they need to do to ensure compliance with duty, and how the duty fits into the inspection framework.

The training is delivered by Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner.

This session will be led by Richard Ellam, Midlands Regional Manager for Inspiring Governance, the national school governor recruitment service funded by the Department for Education (DfE).

Inspiring Governance (IG) is the National School Governance Recruitment Service funded by the DfE and based around an online platform. As Head of School and Trust at IG, Richard is responsible for its engagement with all schools, academies, MATs, LA’s, Diocese, governance professional and school improvement agencies across the country and during his time with IG almost 7000 new governors have been matched onto governing bodies. Outside of IG, Richard has been a school governor, a Trustee, a governance consultant, and a Chair, recruiting volunteers to become governors in all these capacities and recently building an entire LGB from scratch navigating through a successful Ofsted inspection, stepping down as Chair and handing over to his successor in less than 9 months.

Sessions aims:

• Consider how to create the right environment and structure to recruit.
• Consider the different elements of the recruitment process.
• Consider the different channels and networks to use when recruiting.
• Suggest important factors you might want to consider when recruiting.
• Share our recruiting experiences together as a group.
• A whistle-stop demonstration of the Inspiring Governance platform.

A key priority of the city’s education policy is to promote research and evidence-based practice in schools and settings. This session will look at research-based learning and help governors to understand what it is and to consider examples in which research-led practice is used to improve schools. The course will enable governors to understand the role of the governing body in promoting and monitoring a research-led approach. If you have attended a similar session in the past this briefing will still be of use as we will also look in more detail at what the research has to say about successful implementation of initiatives in school and the features of effective teacher professional development.

The session will:

• Give delegates an overview of the educational research and summaries that already exist to support different aspects of school improvement
• Introduce governors to the research informed guidance and assistance that exists for schools when implementing change.
• Guide governors in the sort of challenge questions that they can bring to senior management teams in relation to their use of the existing research to support school improvement

This session will be delivered by Alastair Gittner – Evidence lead in Education at Notre Dame High School.

It is a statutory responsibility for governing boards to adopt and publish their policy and procedures for managing complaints.

The Department for Education issue best practice guidance that boards should consider when adopting their policy.

Dealing with complaints can be a daunting prospect for governors and this course aims to provide you with the skills to undertake this process confidently.

During the course we will cover:

• The complaints policy - regulations and best practice
• How to manage the stages within the policy
• Good practice when investigating a complaint
• The role of the complaints panel

Truly understanding the role of governance and the three core functions. Where the roles and responsibilities lie depending on if you are a MAT, or a maintained or academy school. For MATs understanding the three tiers of governance (members, trustees and local), the scheme of delegation and where the three core functions lie. Ensuring leaders understand the roles and responsibilities of governors at different levels.

The training is delivered by Mark Coppel, National Leader of Governance (NLG) and an experienced chair.

This Safer Recruitment course is designed for governors who are involved in recruiting people to work in schools. The course will look at the ways we can identify and deter unsuitable candidates whilst embedding safeguarding into the culture of your school.

This session is run by Scott Glover, Associate Learn Sheffield Partner (Recruitment).

This session will provide an overview for school governors of the SEND Code of Practice and Sheffield's procedures around SEND including its graduated approach strategy. The session will cover the role of the governing body and the legal duties of schools and governors in respect to special educational needs and disabilities.

The training is delivered by Mark Coppel, National Leader of Governance (NLG) and an experienced chair.

• The Department for Education Suspensions and Exclusions Guidance requires Governors to receive training before being on Governing Board Disciplinary Committee (GBDC). A permanent exclusion can happen at any time and Governors need to be prepared and trained. Following a permanent exclusion the Chair of Governors has 15 days to source available trained Governors, plan and prepare for, and hold the GDBC hearing, leaving little time to source external Governors. It is recommended therefore that every Governing Board has at least 2 trained Governors.
• It is essential that governors/trustees are fully informed of the statutory guidance and legal framework around suspensions and exclusions as they may be required to participate in the process in the event of a permanent exclusion.
• Governors/trustees are also required by the guidance to have an oversight to ensure that they review data and consider the level of pupil moves and the characteristics of pupils who have been permanently excluded or suspended to ensure the sanction is only used when necessary, as a last resort.
• The sessions will cover the statutory framework for suspensions and exclusions, highlight new requirements introduced by the guidance, the school behaviour policy, Managed Moves and Off-Site Direction, Independent Review Panels and the responsibility for Governing Bodies and Boards.

This session is run by John Bigley, Admissions and Access Team at Sheffield City Council

The importance of Vision and setting the strategic direction in governance, how having the right vision informs governance work, whether in a trust or maintained school, including agenda setting, performance management, school/trust improvement and feeds into the board’s self-evaluation. Understanding the difference between a vision, a mission statement and school values. Guidance to boards about the process of how to set a vision and what makes a good vision.

The training is delivered by Mark Coppel, National Leader of Governance (NLG) and an experienced chair.