Exploring on behalf of a City Council the role of school governors, their support needs and perceptions of the support and training provided for them.

Examples of our Work - Education and Training Market Research

Background

Governors provide an invaluable support to schools and to the education of the children within them. It is essential to provide support to governors to help them perform effectively. The Governance Unit of the client City Council was established to provide this support and give advice in response to a wide range of queries as well as to provide a number of training services. Our client wished to review the service which the Governance Unit provided, to understand the views of governors on their role and establish whether they felt they had been given adequate assistance to help them fulfil this role.

Objectives

The broad objectives of the research were to explore and understand:

• The motivations for becoming a governor and level of involvement required

• How different types of governors perceived their role

• Whether, and if so how, their role had changed recently

• What support they had been given on becoming a governor and any training they had subsequently undertaken

• What their experiences and perceptions of the Governance Unit were

• What further support or training they would find useful in helping them fulfil their role

Methodology

A series of 5 focus groups was conducted, each consisting of 6-8 governors of a particular type: Head Teachers, Teachers, Parents, Members of the Local Education Authority and Chairpersons.

Each group contained a mix of governors from primary, secondary, state and voluntary aided schools.

Outcome

The insights gained from the qualitative research contributed to a greater depth of understanding into how different governors perceived their roles and how the council could best help them meet their challenges by providing support services and training. A consensus view emerged from each type of governor that there were several respects in which additional support could and should be provided.

Many of the findings from the research led to immediate actions being taken. The results were also used to draw up a questionnaire for quantitative research which assessed more precisely the strength of feeling on some of the issues raised.