Governors visiting schools

Individual governors do not have an automatic right to enter the school whenever they wish. However, they need to be able to visit from time to time in order to develop their understanding of the school.

These must always be agreed by the governing board and headteacher in advance.

These visits enable them to fulfil their statutory responsibility for the conduct of the school. While not a statutory requirement, the DfE recommends that the governing board draws up a policy on governor visits to the school.

An example policy is available in Ealing's governor toolkit (section:monitoring progress)

It is important that governors remember that the purpose of governor visits is not to assess the quality of teaching provision or to pursue issues that relate to the day-to-day management of the school other than as agreed with the headteacher or senior leadership team.