Publications
Please note that SGOSS is merely aware of these publications and does not endorse them. SGOSS also does NOT make any money from any of the purchases made.
SGOSS Brochure
School Governors' One-Stop Shop publishes a comprehensive brochure about its services. This is available here.
BITC/SGOSS 'How to' Guide
In 2007 Business in the Community and SGOSS worked together to create a guide for employers about to create a School Governor Programme in their workplace. This is available here.
Specialist Schools & Academies Trust
The SSAT provides information and resources for governors. Click here to view the dedicated part of their website.
Volunteering England Resources
Umbrella organisation Volunteering England has published several summary reports on the nature and future of volunteering. They are available to read here.
Research has shown that a motivating factor for governors is their own development. It has also shown that experience gained in governorship impacts positively on career success. Jane Phillips, a long-serving governor and former Chair of the National Association of School Governors has written three books which might help governors in their careers, their schools and their leisure time.
Stand out, Fit in, Have fun - Career progress for people who enjoy life
This book shows that likeable people have more fun and - here’s the surprising bit - that they are more successful at work. Drawing on the author’s sound knowledge of business psychology, it has some serious messages but, like the author, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Price: £7.99 from www.eyesore.ltd.uk
And even governors need to relax. Why not try jam making? 'Jam in the cupboard' is a dual language recipe book written in collaboration with a French chef.
More details at www.jaminthecupboard.com
National Governors Association (NGA)
The National Governors Association is a representative body for governors in England.
The NGA offers many helpful resources. To view them click here.
The School Governors' Handbook 2009 edited by Stephen Adamson
This annual guide for school governors in England and Wales contains succinct but lucid articles that quickly tell governors exactly what they need to know to work effectively throughout the school year. Each one states the facts about its subject, the opportunities it presents, the operational issues and the problems posed. It also provides a planning framework for the year’s work, directories of where to go for further information, lists of terms and abbreviations, a staffing guide, details of the SEF, and a whole host of further useful reference material.
Price: £9.00. To order click here.
Being Strategic by David Marriot
This book helps governing bodies come to grips with their most important role: shaping the direction of the school. Giving this direction has never been more important than it is in this time of rapid change.
Ofsted has found that not being sufficiently strategic is the most common failing of governing bodies. This publication looks at the different reasons why they have problems in this area and proposes realistic and viable solutions. With reference to documents from the DCSF and Ofsted, it both explores the theory of strategic governance and shows, with real-life examples, how it translates into practice in the actual business of governing a school. Particular reference is given to the many new challenges facing schools and how schools can respond creatively to them and yet maintain a clear sense of where they are going. In showing how governors can become fully active in planning for the future of their school, it thus enables governing bodies to be truly effective.
Price: £6.75. To order click here.
Montioring and Evaluation by David Marriot
Monitoring and evaluation are central to governing body activity, but many governors are unsure how to do them. What are they supposed to monitor, what to evaluate? When should they do it? How should they do it? This book answers those questions with well reasoned and practical advice.
Price: £6.25. To order click here.
Accountability by Stephen Adamson
All the governing body's work is underpinned by the fact that it is held accountable. This book explains the principles and mechanism of accountability in school governance, and gives governors practical guidance in the various parts of their work where they are required to give or receive account of the school.
Price: £7.95. To order click here.
Parent Governors: your own guide by Joan Sallis
- What special responsibilities do I have as a parent governor?
- How am I expected to handle a complaint raised by a parent?
- How far am I meant to ascertain and represent parents' views?
The members of a governing body will have many similar aims, ideas and backgrounds. But there are also important differences between the various categories of governor, according to the stakeholder group they represent. This guide explores the parent governor's role, the difficulties and challenges that individuals face, and the particular problems or concerns that often go with the role. It also emphasises what is common to all governors.
Written by the TES "agony aunt" for governors and author of several books on how to govern schools, this guide is ideal both for new parent governors wondering just what their role is, and for experienced governors looking for clarification as they refine their grip on the job.
Price: £4.25. To order click here.
Staff Governors: your own guide by Joan Sallis
- What special responsibilities do I have as a staff governor?
- Might my role bring me into conflict with the headteacher?
- How far am I meant to ascertain and represent the views of teachers and the support staff?
Price: £4.25. To order click here.
Local Authority Governors: your own guide by Joan Sallis
- What special responsibilities do I have as a local authority governor?
- What do I do if I disagree with an aspect of the council's policy as it relates to my school?
- How far am I meant to ascertain and represent the views of the local council?
Price: £4.25. To order click here.
Community Governors: your own guide by Joan Sallis
- What special responsibilities do I have as a community governor?
- Have I just been chosen for the skills I have developed at work?
- Am I at a disadvantage because I was co-opted rather than elected?
Price: £4.25. To order click here.
Foundation Governors: your own guide by Joan Sallis
Price: £4.25. To order click here.
Joined-up Governance: your own guide by Joan Sallis
This book helps school governors become more effective by actually cutting down on what they do. More than ever governors need to be certain about their role if they are not going to be overwhelmed, and this new edition of this popular guide provides vital clarification. It establishes the underlying principles behind governors’ work, links these principles to their responsibilities, and reveals a pattern that helps them focus on their essential tasks, thereby enabling them to perform them better.
Price: £11.00. To order click here.
Policies: A guide for school governance by Michele Robbins and Martin Baxter
The latest edition of this popular guide to drawing up school policies. Good policies are essential to the effective management of a school, but producing them is one of the greatest headaches for governors and headteachers. This book provides all the guidance that governors and heads need in order to draw up policies that will do exactly this job.
Price: £16.95. To order click here.
Performance Management Revisited by Michele Robbins
Provides all the tools needed by those involved in performance management in schools - whether as the reviewer or the person reviewed, or as the SIP - so as to enable them to carry out the process fairly, efficiently and to the benefit of all.
Price: £12.00. To order click here.
Headteachers and Governing Bodies by Martin Pounce
A good working relationship between the headteacher and the rest of the governing body is essential to the successful leadership of a school. This guide shows how both parties can develop that partnership so as to get the best for the school, avoid distractions and duplication of effort, and make working on or with a governing body more enjoyable and fulfilling.
Price: £7.50. To order click here.
Managing the Work of the Governing Body
This toolkit has been designed to help governing bodies and their clerks organise their work efficiently and effectively. It gives them practical help with planning, from considering the strategic issues through to deciding who does what. At each stage implementing the work is made clear and easy by a collection of decision-making and recording tools and guidance documents on specific issues.
The toolkit consists of a simple booklet and a CD-ROM organised around the six steps.
Price: £46.00. To order click here.
The Toolkit for Effective Governance
In the quest to improve standards governing body effectiveness is essential. In an easy-to-access CD-ROM, the Toolkit contains 186 guidance documents to be consulted or filled in: explanations, flow charts, checklists, pro formas, schedules, calendars, ticklists, regulations and analyses. Taken from examples of best practice around the country, these provide all the tools needed to perform the various jobs of governance to the highest standards.
On its first publication in hard copy form the Toolkit quickly became an indispensable source for thousands of governing bodies. Now in pdf files on a single CD-ROM it is not only easier to use but has been fully updated, both to follow current regulations and guidance and to cover recent developments such as extended schools, forming companies, PFI and workforce reform.
Price: £34.44. To order click here.
Start Here by Stephen Adamson
Start Here is a guide for new governors and would-be governors as to what the role entails. It provides the basics so that you can walk into your first governing body meeting with a good understanding of what it is all about and your part in it.
Price: £2.50. To order click here.
The Green School by Stan Terry
“The government wants all schools to become sustainable schools by 2020 … However, most of the schools visited had limited knowledge of sustainability and work in this area tended to be uncoordinated” Ofsted report, May 2008
This passionate yet highly practical book is designed to inspire all those involved in running our schools – headteachers, governors, senior managers, teachers, SIPs, Children’s Services departments – with information about how “green” principles can be applied to their buildings, use and curriculum.
Price: £9.95. To order click here.
"What governing bodies should expect from schools leaders and what school leaders should expect from governing bodies."
Click here to read the the article entitled above, created by the National Governors Association.
For more information from the NGA website, click here.
THE NGA GUIDE
This NGA Guide is currently the most popular induction resource for governors in England; in 2008/2009 more than 50 local authorities used it as a resource for new governors. For more information click here.
Check the Vacancies Map below for information about your area
