Salford Governor training programme

These briefings are held at the start of each term to give Governors updates on some of the current educational and governance issues relating to schools. The briefings are held in two parts:

• Part 1 – Updates from Local Authority Officers
• Part 2 – Update on latest governance matters from the Governor Services Manager, to support you in your role and during your meetings.

This course will quip you with the essential knowledge and skills needed to manage and promote high attendance rates effectively. Our training session is specifically designed for school governors, providing you with a thorough understanding of your responsibilities regarding school attendance, Children Missing Education (CME), and Elective Home Education (EHE).

What you'll gain:

• In-depth understanding: Learn the legal and procedural frameworks surrounding school attendance, CME, and EHE.
• Practical tools: Discover practical strategies to address and improve poor attendance rates.
• Governor responsibilities: Understand your crucial role in ensuring compliance and fostering an environment that supports regular attendance.
• Proactive management: Gain insights into identifying and addressing issues early to prevent children from slipping through the cracks

• Governing Boards have statutory responsibilities in managing Exclusions.
• This course will explore those responsibilities, which in turn will help to support our school leaders and all children and young people.

The aim of the training is to support governors’ understanding of legislation relevant to all aspects of school attendance and will cover the following:

• Importance of children receiving a full-time appropriate education
• Responsibility of schools to record absences accurately
• Guidance and notification of children missing education (CME)
• Guidance and notification for pupils on a reduced (part-time) timetable
• Guidance and notification on supporting children with medical conditions
• Legislation for removing pupils from a school roll
• School admissions, the In Year Fair Access process and managed moves
• Law relating to school exclusions, including LAC and SEND
• Legislation and good practice guidance where parents choose to elective home educate (EHE)
• Alternative provision process
• Purpose and referral process to Education on Track

This session will cover Emotional Barriers to School Attendance (EBSA). This is a broad umbrella term used to describe children and young people who have difficulty attending school due to emotional factors, which are often multilayered and complex. If not supported early, through whole school preventative approaches and robust early identification and intervention, typically results in prolonged absence from school (severe absence). 

The session will provide an overview in relation to our current understanding of EBSA and Barriers to School attendance more broadly, the multiagency work that is happening in Salford currently, and the support offer available to schools and colleges, parents/carers and children and young people. There will be discussion / reflection prompts to aid your role as School Governors to explore and support schools to effectively identify, intervene and reduce barriers to attendance.

Safer Recruitment is designed to protect children's welfare at every point where they come into contact with professionals in a safeguarding role. The overall purpose of Safer Recruitment is to help identify and deter or reject individuals who are deemed to be at risk of abusing children.  At least one member of a recruitment panel should be trained in Safer Recruitment. This interactive session will cover:

• The principles of Safer Recruitment
• A safer recruitment process
• Making the right decisions
• An on-going culture of vigilance

Keeping Safe in Education 2022 placed an additional safeguarding requirement for all governors to receive Safeguarding and Child Protection training at induction. This session will provide all newly appointed governors, or governors who have not previously attended Safeguarding and Child Protection training, with the necessary information to fulfil this requirement. The course will cover:

• Safe Working and Code of Conduct
• Categories of Abuse
• Domestic Abuse
• Self-harm
• Protecting Ethnic Minority Children
• Gangs
• Child Sexual Exploitation
• Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
• Beds in Sheds
• Risk Factors and Internet Usage
• Practice, Policy and Procedures including Disclosures.

Cared for Children and Previously Cared for Children start with the disadvantage of their pre-care experiences and, often, have special educational needs. As ‘corporate parents’ local authorities (via their Virtual School Heads) have the statutory responsibility to ensure these children have the maximum opportunity to reach their full educational potential in school.  Governing boards have particular responsibilities to ensure that schools are complying with statutory requirements and prioritising the education of this cohort of vulnerable children.

This session will be delivered by members of Salford’s Virtual School Team. They will provide an overview of the guidance relating to this cohort of children and include any recent updates/learning. You will receive clarification about what your responsibilities are, and how to ensure that your schools are undertaking best practice and complying with the guidance.

Key documents:

• Promoting the education of Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children - statutory guidance for local authorities February 2018
• The designated teacher for Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children - statutory guidance on their roles and responsibilities February 2018

Do you want to explore how you can best support the wellbeing of senior leaders in your school?
This session will provide Governors with current information to support their knowledge, understanding and skills around mental health and well-being, alongside discussion and reflection times to consider how they can effectively apply this to their school.

During the session we will:

• understand the links between whole school well-being and children’s ability to achieve in school;
• briefly explore a whole school approach to mental health and well-being;
• develop an understanding of the governor role and responsibility to proactively champion the well-being culture and ethos across school and specifically in the support for senior leaders;
• consider the risk and protective factors for the well-being of senior leaders and how these may apply to their leaders; reflect on how governors currently support their senior leaders and identify any additional support that may be beneficial.

The aim of this two-part course is to support those newly appointed to the role in their induction and to help them feel confident and to contribute effectively to meetings.

We will cover:

• What is the role of the board?
• What is ‘effective governance’?
• What does Ofsted hold boards accountable for?
• Effective meetings
• Visits to school
• Being strategic – What does it mean in practice?
• Monitoring and evaluation: how can the board hold its school(s) to account?
• Accountability: how should governors/trustees fulfil their accountabilities to stakeholders? 

The sessions aim to be informative but informal and will enable you to fulfil your role more effectively.

This session will be particularly useful for governors and trustees with more than twelve months’ experience who either were not able to attend an induction course or want to brush up on the ‘basics’, now they have greater experience to which to apply what they learn. The session covers the following key issues:

The three core roles of boards and what these mean in practice:

• Department for Education and Ofsted expectations of boards
• Any recent changes to guidance and policies
• Our role as strategic leaders

This two-part course is designed to support those that are new to chairing or are considering taking on leadership responsibilities within the board. The sessions will cover: 

• The role of the chair
• The relationship between the chair and the governance professional, the headteacher and the other governors
• Leading the team
• Setting agendas and running effective meetings

Being a Chair or Vice-Chair can be demanding and often presents different challenges to those of other members of the board. These sessions will provide you with support to assist you in effectively fulfilling your role. It will also give you an opportunity to network with colleagues from across the city and to share good practice ideas.

In this session the Education Business Intelligence Unit will explain various elements of education data including outcomes, attendance, exclusions, EHE, CME and SEND. We will go through how these data items are used in schools, by Ofsted and in publications. We will support governors with questions they can ask when looking at this data.

Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) - Primary

The IDSR is an essential document that Governors are expected to have reviewed. The document is produced by Ofsted and is used by them during inspections. The Education Business Intelligence Unit will go through the IDSR, highlighting areas for governors to be aware of and providing example questions to ask when Governors review their school’s IDSR. Governors are encouraged to bring with them a copy of the 2024 IDSR for their school.

*Delegates must have attended “Understanding Education Data” or have a good knowledge of the assessment and outcome data in schools.

Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) - Secondary

The IDSR is an essential document that Governors are expected to have reviewed. The document is produced by Ofsted and is used by them during inspections. The Education Business Intelligence Unit will go through the IDSR, highlighting areas for governors to be aware of and providing example questions to ask when Governors review their school’s IDSR. Governors are encouraged to bring with them a copy of the 2024 IDSR for their school.

*Delegates must have attended “Understanding Education Data” or have a good knowledge of the assessment and outcome data in schools.

This training session will give governors a brief outline of the statutory requirements for delivery of the music curriculum as well as the ‘best practice’ model outlined in the National Plan for Music Education. You will be given information about MAPAS, Salford’s Local Lead Partner in the region’s Music Education Hub, and the support that they offer to all Salford schools. We will also talk briefly about what Ofsted are looking for when they inspect music within a school setting, and the way that music can be utilised to embed a positive school culture.

This session aims to clarify what boards should know about teaching, learning and assessment, and how they can develop that knowledge whilst remaining strategic, regardless of educational experience. The session focuses on the following key areas: 

• What is Ofsted looking for?
• “I’m not a teacher, how can I make a judgment about teaching?”
• How does the governing board know about the quality of teaching, learning and assessment?
• Practical approaches to developing governors’/trustees’ knowledge and confidence 

This session covers the main areas of the current framework with a focus around how governance is inspected and how governors/trustees can ensure they are best placed to achieve a successful outcome.

Every Governing Board is expected to know their school. Governors acquire this knowledge in many different ways, however first-hand knowledge can only be gained by visiting school. Regular planned visits give Governors an insight and understanding about their school and help to strengthen the governing boards strategic and monitoring role. Undertaking monitoring visits is not only good practice but is also essential to knowing your school.  

This session considers the role of governor visits in effective monitoring, including the use of link governors/trustees to maximise their impact, focusing on the following key issues:

• Understanding how governors’/trustees’ visits can add value to governance
• To share current practice around visits
• To consider the impact and how this can be improved 

This course will outline the safeguarding responsibilities of the school and the governing board including the increased responsibilities and duty of care as outlined in the updated Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. 

It will explore the Governing Boards' statutory responsibilities and provide useful tools to help improve the governance of safeguarding practice moving forward.

The LADO Team are excited to share the session with a focus on Managing Allegations against people that work with children from an education perspective.

This session will cover:

• Managing allegations process including safeguarding elements
• Roles of Governors as employers, LADO and other professionals involved
• Latest government guidance with a focus on Keeping Children Safe in Education
• Lessons learnt from National, Regional and Salford cases.

The attainment gap between children in more disadvantaged contexts and their peers is one of the greatest challenges faced by schools and society in this country.

This session supports governors/trustees in understanding the pupil premium and focuses on the following key issues:

• what the pupil premium is and who is eligible for it
• how schools are held accountable for how the pupil premium is spent and what needs to be published online
• the range of ways that pupil premium funding can be used effectively to diminish the differences between different groups
• how governors/trustees can effectively monitor the use of the pupil premium

It is the Governing Boards role to oversee the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent. Setting the school budget is a key part of ensuring this happens. During this session we will cover:

• How the school receives the schools block funding, pupil premium and other grants
• How these can be spent and how the expenditure has an impact on pupil outcomes
• The principles of budget management and how these are used in the school
• The school’s annual expenditure on staffing and non-staffing and any data against which this can be benchmarked against
• The school’s internal control processes and how these are used to monitor expenditure and ensure propriety to secure value for public money

The aim of this session is to address the requirements in the framework and provide a detailed introduction to financial governance for schools. 

The session is presented by a Local Authority Principal Auditor, who is also a serving governor with many years of experience.

Ensuring the health and safety of the pupils, staff and members of the public on the school premises is an essential part of risk management and should be led by the governing board at the appropriate level.

This course will:

• Help governors to understand general health and safety principles that are pertinent to schools
• Support governors in their role of holding leaders to account
• Support governors in helping them to make schools a safer place for all.

Governors play a central role in setting the inclusive ethos of their school.

This session will provide practical advice for all governors in particular those with responsibility for SEND; on how to strategically monitor and review SEND provision.

It will focus on and be an opportunity for discussion about how the relationship between SENCOs, SEND Governors and Headteachers works in practice.

This session is aimed at Governors who would like to know more about the framework around SEND legislation in education, helping them to understand SEND law in the context of their settings. The session consists of a short input on the legal framework exploring duties on schools/settings and then a discussion of ten real scenarios plus live case law examples and whether these would be considered lawful or unlawful.

By the end of the session attendees will have an understanding of their role in setting the vision and ethos of the school/trust and how to ensure that this is monitored effectively. The session covers the following key issues:

• What are vision and ethos?
• What role should the board play in setting these and what does this mean in practice?
• How can governors/trustees effectively monitor the vision and ethos in their school(s)? 

The DfE Governors Handbook states that Boards should regularly evaluate their effectiveness. 
This session will support you in managing and prioritising the Boards development, through the auditing of current practice and effectiveness. 

This session will enhance governors understanding of their role in promoting an inclusive approach to governance and will focus on the following key areas: 

• Why is inclusion important in education settings?
• Differences between Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
• The Legal framework – Equality Act 2010
• What are the benefits of Inclusive Governing Boards and Inclusive Schools
• Practical advice on how to oversee and maintain effective governance of inclusive practices in schools:
  • Language
  • Governance processes
  • Membership of Board and sub-committees; Positions held
  • Data and Key indicators 

Attendees will gain a clearer picture of how Equalities law is applied, how inclusivity enhances their board decision making and what their role is their role in ensuring that school effectively manages this critical area. 

It is a statutory requirement for the Governing Board in maintained schools to undertake performance management of the Headteacher on an annual basis and academies must have a robust procedure for awarding executive pay.

Strong performance management is also a key contributor to effective school improvement. This course aims to familiarise the Governors appointed as reviewers for the Headteacher's Performance Management with the knowledge and skills required to undertake the review.

This training session has been tailored to provide valuable insights and practical skills necessary for conducting thorough and fair investigations into complaints within the school setting. The knowledge gained will not only empower you to address concerns promptly but will also contribute to maintaining a positive school climate.

The session will cover best practice in gathering information and evidence, the role of the Headteacher and Chair in the investigation process and the importance of effective complaints investigation. 

All courses are free for SLA subscribers. There is a charge of £95 for non-subscribers, please check with your school to determine if a cost will be incurred.