A couple of years ago, while on maternity leave, I was asked to become a school governor. At first, it felt like a practical decision, a way to keep my mind engaged during a period that can, professionally, feel both rich and strangely disconnected. What I didn’t expect was how formative the role would be, not just in keeping my thinking sharp, but in reshaping how I understand leadership, schools, and systems.
Governance gave me a perspective I hadn’t fully encountered before, even as a senior leader.
As a member of SLT, you become deeply immersed in the internal life of a school: improvement planning, staffing, curriculum, safeguarding, behaviour, outcomes. You understand the pressures because you live them daily. Governance, by contrast, positions the school within a wider system, financial, civic, and political, and within its local community. It asks different questions, and it does so from a different vantage point.
I’m now chair of the education committee at the school where I’m a governor, and that space feels very natural to me. Conversations about curriculum, standards, and safeguarding sit comfortably within my professional expertise. But I learned just as much from full governing body discussions about finance, estates, and risk. These were areas I understood as a senior leader, but only ever through the lens of my own school. Governance demanded that I understand them strategically, corporately, and comparatively.
And it was there that something important became clear.
While I could access conversations about finance and premises with confidence, it was evident that some governors, particularly those without a background in education, found discussions about curriculum, assessment, or current policy priorities far less accessible. Over my first few months, I had many conversations with thoughtful, committed governors who asked variations of the same questions:
What kinds of questions should I be asking?
Where can I find reliable, impartial information?
What actually is my role here, and where does it stop?
Those conversations stayed with me. They were the starting point for what later became The Governors’ Gateway, developed for Myatt & Co.
In the role, one issue surfaced again and again, in meetings, informal conversations, and post-meeting reflections.
The most common mistake in school governance is also the easiest to fix: confusion between governing and managing.
Even experienced governors wrestle with this, and schools feel the impact when the line blurs. So it’s worth being explicit from the outset.
A governor’s role is to govern, not manage.
Effective governance is less about control and more about curiosity:
We ask questions to understand, not to instruct.
We focus on impact, not process.
We challenge supportively, not intrusively.
The governor’s role is to be a conduit for stakeholder voice, reflecting perspectives, prompting reflection, and strengthening oversight. That’s assurance and oversight, not management.
From this, five essential habits follow:
Focus on strategy, not short-term operational detail.
Hold leaders to account through evidence-informed challenge.
Ensure the budget is well managed and aligned with the school’s vision.
Act in the best interests of all pupils, not individual agendas or groups.
Prepare for meetings, so time is spent on strategic discussion, not basic clarification.
Alongside these sit some equally important non-negotiables:
Acting as a single corporate body
Respecting confidentiality
Avoiding personal agendas
Upholding the Seven Principles of Public Life, also known as the Nolan Principles
These aren’t optional extras, they’re the foundations of trust.
This was exactly the thinking that inspired me to create a platform to support governors in their strategic work.
The Governors’ Gateway is a professional learning platform designed around the realities of governance: limited time, wide responsibility, and the need for clarity. Short, sharp video explainers cut through complexity and build confidence.
The platform is anchored in two strands:
The foundation series: essential CPD for governors, covering strategic roles, safeguarding, data, finance, SEND, curriculum, panels, conduct, and how boards work as teams.
The update series: regular briefings on current issues, policy, funding, safeguarding, SEND, staff wellbeing, explained clearly and without jargon.
Every session is practical, concise, and grounded in real scenarios, with downloadable summaries, reflection prompts, and further reading.
Stay focused on strategy, not operations. That’s where your impact lies.
Governance is collective work. Decisions belong to the board, not individuals.
Constructive challenge builds trust and drives improvement. It’s not about catching leaders out.
Taking time to reflect on these principles after each meeting helps keep governance purposeful and impactful.
Thanks for stopping by. Next time: I’ll go into more depth and walk through a concrete example of how governors can approach complex education issues, even without prior expertise, with confidence, clarity, and the right questions.
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