A Huge Heartfelt Thank You

Volunteers Week is 40 years old this week – and it gives us at NGA the perfect excuse to say another thank you to all the volunteers in school and trust governance.

Blog

07/06/2024

Volunteers Week is 40 years old this week – and it gives us at NGA the perfect excuse to say another thank you to all the volunteers in school and trust governance. We shouldn’t need a particular occasion and we do make sure we thank you at all NGA member events. But there are almost a quarter of a million of you across England taking on this important role of ensuring our schools do their absolute best for their pupils.

I know those who volunteer to govern our schools and trusts do not do it to get a stream of ‘thank-you’s’ which is probably a good thing as they are not always everywhere, regular and forthcoming.

Governors and trustees can be taken for granted, quietly getting on as the first line of accountability for schools. We don’t want to put any potential volunteers off by stressing the responsibility of this work, but we shouldn’t get people into the role under false pretences. Our visible governance video tries to get that balance right.

Governors and trustees develop a lot of knowledge and put a lot of care and time into looking out for other people. Just yesterday we held a forum with HeadsUp4HTs on the role that governing boards, and especially chairs, undertake to look out for their headteachers, an absolutely crucial task when leadership can be a lonely place with challenges from many angles and on many levels. I hope today that favour can be returned and school leaders use the opportunity provided by Volunteers Week 2024 to remember to say thank you to their governors and trustees.

Like leaders, boards are now having to consider more complex family, sector and societal needs. Some of this can be linked directly to the impact of the pandemic, but also to growing child poverty and the reduction of other support services, leaving schools to act as the fourth emergency service and boards trying to allocate funding for this additional work. Some families are fragile, and some schools are fragile given the funding situation and the challenges in recruiting teachers and other staff.

Trustees and governors – together with the leadership team – aim to ensure that despite these external challenges, trusts and schools are in a sustainable position and can continue to be the happy, healthy and productive places we all want and need them to be.

This may be the last time I have the opportunity as Chief Executive of NGA to say thank you in this way (although I am looking forward to being able to do that in person at NGA’s National Governance Conference on 12 July here in Birmingham). And I very much want you to know that after all these years of leading NGA -14! – I am still in awe of all that you all contribute. It has been a privilege to work with you and for you.

What you do is remarkable and essential to the future of our young people. It is an important civic role and long may you continue to be rewarded by being part of your school or trust community.

Just thank you