Jonathan Ellam

As 2023 gets underway the fumes of the pandemic’s legacy continue to hamper school’s ability to get back to business as usual. However, those impacted pupils of all ages deserve the chance to breath the clean air of normality and stability to enable them to receive the best education and reach their potential.

There is no doubt that being effective as both a governor and a board takes hard work and dedication at the best of times. I think it’s no exaggeration to say that our job has got a whole lot harder of late with boards facing a perfect storm of challenges that require resilience, character and even more commitment to training and self-improvement to overcome.  

Jonathan Ellam details how all the small acts of governance needs to be planned and thought out and how a vision without a carefully planned mission will almost certainly fail.

It’s a well-worn adage that not all superheroes wear capes but as we come to the end of another unrelenting year for school governors it’s clear you are the unsung heroes who work voluntarily and tirelessly for your schools and are as stretched as any other profession as you grapple with all the challenges schools are faced with.

Whatever your take on the government's Education White Paper there is plenty for governing boards to be thinking about and, looking forward, plenty of strategic thinking to be done.

Before Covid we all knew safeguarding was critically important, ‘post’ Covid it needs to be an unrelenting focus for governors, trustees and boards more than ever before.