Visible Governance - role of governors and trustees

The film is designed to highlight the vital role governance plays in helping schools and trusts to flourish and the impact it has on your local community. 
NGA has produced the film as part of our Visible Governance campaign. It celebrates the power of governance, the people who volunteer and the value of governing to the education system.  

This film is for use by anyone who wants to spread the word about the importance and value of school and trust governance. We encourage you to share this video far and wide, whether you are looking to: 

• Shine a light on what you do as a governance volunteer
• Share what your governing board does to support your school or trust with parents, pupils and staff 
• Recruit new governance volunteers 

We see this film as a way for governors and trustees to highlight what you do and the difference you make, as well as for use in recruiting volunteers to join your governing boards. We want as many people as possible to share this video so everyone can learn about what school governance is and why it’s important. 

With your help, we can achieve a higher profile and better understanding of governance, and further improve outcomes for children and their communities – a goal which we know will be important to you too.

Sharing the film to your personal social media allows people to understand what you do and why you do it. Letting your network know the reasons behind your decision to govern  or work in governance and what you get out of it shows to people who may not be connected to a school the benefit of volunteering their time. This film could be posted with a comment explaining why you proud to be involved in school governance, the difference you make in your role or your favourite part of the role.  Use the #VisibleGovernance to add your voice to the campaign and show others what you are doing to make governance visible. 

This can be on any platform and will hopefully drive questions from your friends and family about how they can get involved. We have included a sample Twitter post below to give you an idea of what you to say. 

This video shows exactly what I do @schoolname. My role as a school governor/trustee is essential in ensuring the school/trust succeeds. I find it so rewarding and I know I make a difference in my community! Pls share #VisibleGovernance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRqJ_bFipHk

It's easy to share the video, simple copy and paste the link and add it to your post. A preview image should also appear. Head over to our Visible Governance resources page for more social media graphics you can share on your social media platforms.  

If you can, ask your school or trust to share the video on social media or a school/parent Facebook group. This will reach a larger audience of people involved in your school, including parents and teachers. 

Doing this will allow your entire school or trust community  to understand why governing is important, its role in ensuring the school or trust succeeds and encourage people to step forward, join the board and take an active role in their school’s management. 

Below is a sample Twitter post to give your school or trust an idea of what to say:

This video explores the crucial role governance plays at our school/trust. Without our dedicated governing/ trust board, the school/trust would be unable to succeed. A huge thank you to all the members of our board.  #VisibleGovernance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRqJ_bFipHk.

We would recommend that you talk to the person in charge of your schools’ communications activities about sharing the post, we can even talk to them directly via visible@nga.org.uk.

This video is a great way to explain what governance is in plain English and why it’s important to your school or trust community. 

The video could sit on the governors or trustee page of your school or trust and serve as an introduction to the role of the board. 

The video can also be used to help recruit new volunteers to your board. We know how difficult it can be to find the right volunteers to join your board and we hope this video, along with your standard vacancy information can help. You can also find more recruitment resources to help on our recruitment page.

You can embed the video directly on your website. For more information or help with using the video, email visible@governance.org.uk. 

Ask your place of work to share the video as widely as possible and help us reach a large amount of people who may have not engaged with governance in the past. 

You can ask your employer to share the video externally and internal along with including it in your biography and a blog highlighting all the great reasons why you volunteer and how it impacts on your work.

Along with highlighting the crucial role school and trust governance plays in the education sector, we see this film as a vital tool in helping governance professionals, local authorities, local associations, multi academy trusts and anyone involved in school governance to recruit people to their board. 

Highlighting the role of governance will attract more people to come forward and volunteer their time. It will also allow people to understand the impact they will have on their school or trust and the importance of their position. This film could be embedded on your website also side your vacancy and could from a major part of your recruitment dive to attract new people to join your board. 

For more information about how you can recruit the right people to your board head to the NGA’s recruitment page.