Governance, Community and External Relations
Governance is strategic oversight held at arm's length. The board - governors or trustees, working through committees and sometimes local governors - sets vision, approves budgets and key policies, holds leaders to account and ensures statutory compliance. The headteacher leads the school day to day: implementing strategy, managing staff, delivering the curriculum.
The governing principle is support and challenge - the "critical friend" who is neither a rubber stamp nor a manager. Understand the scheme of delegation (who may decide what, and at what financial limit), quorum rules, declarations of interest, and the standards of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
Stakeholder engagement matters: parents, pupils, staff, the wider community, employers and external agencies. Know how consultation, complaints procedures and communication strategies operate, and how to handle a reputational crisis with honesty and speed rather than defensiveness.
Traps: governors writing improvement plans or directing staff (operational drift); the head treating the board as a formality and withholding bad news; confusing accountability (answerable for outcomes) with responsibility (doing the work); discussing confidential business outside meetings; and answering a parental complaint personally rather than through published procedure.
Rule of thumb: the board owns the what and the why; the head owns the how. If a governor is selecting a reading scheme, something has gone wrong.
Worked example: a head wishes to shorten the lunch break. This is a whole-school change requiring board approval; the head prepares the rationale, consultation evidence and impact assessment, presents it, and implements only after the decision.