How to maximise the impact of governor visits

School visits are an important part of your governors' monitoring role. Get tips on how to make sure their visits are effective, and use our templates to help structure the conversations.

Last reviewed on 19 February 2025See updates
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Contents
  1. Purpose of governor visits 
  2. Visits should have a clear focus
  3. Use our visit templates
  4. Staff governor visits
  5. Share resources with your governors

Purpose of governor visits 

Your board needs to know your school well, to be able to hold you and other school leaders to account. Visits during the school day will help governors find out more about your school, including:

  • How your policies and school improvement plan (SIP) are working in practice
  • The strengths and weaknesses of the school
  • The views of pupils, staff and parents/carers

When governors visit, they should be triangulating the information they have, to make sure that the documents they see and the information they're given is also evident in the day-to-day activity in the school.

Remember that governors are not:

  • Inspectors: it's not their role to assess the quality or method of teaching
  • School managers: they shouldn't interfere with the day-to-day running of the school

After the visit, the governor will report their findings back to the full board to help it make better strategic decisions.

Visits should have a clear focus