Alumni School Governor Volunteers

Have you considered becoming a school governor?

Are you an England or Wales resident and looking for an opportunity to volunteer in your local community? Would you like to give something back, learn new skills, apply existing experience and gain valuable training and professional development while you do this? Can you spare up to 7 hours per month and attend 6 meetings per calendar year?

Schools, academies and colleges in the region are looking for volunteers from a wide range of sectors to be part of their governing bodies.

You do not need to be a parent or have any previous experience of working in a school or the education sector to get involved.

As a graduate of the University of Wolverhampton, you are well-placed to share your knowledge and understanding with school communities.

Volunteering as a school governor gives you the chance to have a direct, positive impact on the lives and educational outcomes of children and young people in your local area.

What next?

To apply to become a school governor is easy. Complete the below expression of interest form. This form will be shared with our to Schools and Colleges Partnerships Manager who will follow up on in interest:

Following this, you will then be sent an online application link - complete the application form online highlighting your skills, your motivation and specifying what you are looking for including phase of education and the distance you want to travel from either home or work. Governors for Schools will then get in touch with you with suitable vacancies, make introductions to the school and guide you through the next steps of the process.

Being a school governor is a chance to experience leadership at board level at any point in your career. Governors balance the school's budget, hire the head teacher and make strategic decisions. The role provides individuals with the opportunity to develop and hone skills such as negotiation, influencing and teamwork.

Volunteers need to be dedicated people who care about improving education, but they do not need prior board experience. It makes the role perfect for professionals looking to improve their business and leadership skills, give back to society and enhance children's futures.

You also don’t need to be a parent or have school-based experience.

Most governor appointments are for a term of four years. Governors are usually expected to attend three full governing body and around three committee meetings per year as a minimum. The preparation, participation and travel for these meetings, and training, will comprise around 7 hours a month. Schools also like Governors to be able to visit the school at least once or twice a year so that you can meet teachers and pupils, and see the school in action.

We are committed to ensuring newly appointed governors are up to speed and effective in their roles as quickly as possible. We provide a number of services to support you from the start.

Jeff Chilton, UK Recruitment Manager, University of Wolverhampton.
Former governor at Great Wyrley High School, Staffordshire:

  • What were the benefits to you personally?
    I chose to become a school governor to develop experience that I could add to my CV. The opportunity to see the complexities of how a secondary school has to operate really helped me from my perspective of working in HE.

  • What did the school gain?
    The school gained a sense of objectivity from myself and from other governors who were there from other sectors (e.g. HR, Finance) because we could bring that experience but we also didn’t have a direct connection to the school as parents or teachers – so we were able to offer an appropriate level of challenge.

  • What did you gain by being a school governor?
    Working in the HE sector, it was valuable to see the range of challenges that schools face each day from their perspective.  Schools are complex businesses and a clear connection for me was around the development of teaching and learning.

 

Dee Stoute, Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Wolverhampton.
Chair of Governors at Alumwell Infant School, Walsall 

  • What were the benefits to you personally (of becoming a school governor)?
    Being able to be involved in how my daughter was being educated as she had moved from a private school to a state school.

  • What did the school gain?
    I was named as a 'valuable asset' of the school governing body in helping the school go from 'needs improvement' to 'good' by the Ofsted inspectors. Having a parent on the governing body enabled the school to hear first-hand any issues that the parents had but did not want to speak to the school directly. A parents perspective on how the school was developing and supporting attainment.

  • What did you gain?
    A wealth of knowledge on the school system, curriculum, finance, H&S, all the relevant training was provided i.e Prevent, FGM, Safeguarding, First Aid training etc, etc. I was also able to do my placement at the school for my degree (working alongside the family support worker to deliver parenting classes i.e budgeting, managing children's behaviours).

Data Protection Disclosure

Alumni data will be stored on a database in accordance with the General Data Protection Act and used to administer participation in the project. For research purposes only, data provided may also be shared with the Office for Students (OfS), Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) or the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) to help evaluate the effectiveness of this activity as part of the government policy to increase social mobility and to support the development of future policy. We will not disclose any data to anyone who is unauthorised to receive it.

Under GDPR you have the right to a copy of the data we hold. If you have any concerns about the use of this data for these purposes or would like a copy of the data you have supplied directly to us, requests should be made by email to alumni@wlv.ac.uk.