Course Content

There are 13 modules in the Modern Governor programme containing 37 topics. This comprehensive programme equates to a total of 10 hours of learning, broken down into bite sized chunks.

My role as a governor

This course gives an overview of what it means to be a school governor and your responsibilities. It is designed to complement or act as an introduction to a governor induction course run by your local council coordinator of governing services. The course covers 3 topics: My role and responsibilities as a Governor, Governor meetings and governors with specific responsibilities and Working with key partners

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Community Cohesion

Discover the benefits of a cohesive community and the school’s central role in ensuring it exists. Find out what the Community Cohesion standards are and your role in putting them into action. The course covers 2 topics: Community Cohesion and Your school and Community Cohesion in action.

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Preparing for OFSTED

Find out about best practice before an inspection and discover what to expect during an inspection, and then learn what happens after an inspection. Find out more about what happens to schools causing concern. Learn about how the government reports on a school and discover how to interpret the headlines by using the detail in RAISEOnline. Then find out how to use the data to improve performance.

The course covers 3 topics: OFSTED and the School Inspection Process, What happens before, during and after an inspection and Understanding and using Performance data.

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Health and Safety

This course gives an update on Health and Safety in school, including external trips. It looks at raising awareness of issues in schools which receive support from external agencies. The course covers 3 topics: Pupil health and safety, and Educational Visits and Slips and Trips.

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Understanding school finance

An overview of school funding and expenditure. The course covers 2 topics: Overview of School budgets and grants and Fundraising and Expenditure.

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School recruitment and practices

This course gives a review of the principles of performance management and an introduction to the recruitment and retention of staff. It covers 3 topics: Staffing powers and recruitment law, Staff recruitment, retention and performance and The governor’s role in Succession planning and Headship recruitment.

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Safeguarding and Promoting Child Welfare

This course gives a review on the difference between safeguarding and child protection, it covers the policies your school must have in place, how your school can ensure a safe recruitment process, what you should do in a case of suspected abuse or neglect, how to report on or respond to an allegation of abuse and the basic signs of neglect or abuse.

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Admissions and pupil discipline

Learn about strategies and procedures that will help you appreciate both the legal and practical issues involved in pupil discipline. The course covers 2 topics: Admissions procedure and policy and Discipline and Exclusion procedure.

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Becoming a School Governor

In this course you will learn about who can be a school governor and what experience is required. The course also covers how much time you will need to dedicate to being a governor and what qualifications you will need.

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Some Governors’ Questions answered

This course gives some answers to frequently asked questions about the duration of service and using your experience as a governor. You will also learn about the best approach to making governor school visits and how to deal with concerns within the school. The role of both the staff governor and parent governor is also covered.

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Writing for the Web

This course covers the background on the internet, explains how to write effective web content and guides on using the tools of Web 2.0. Five topics are covered in the course: How the internet was invented, Writing for the Internet, Design guidelines for web pages, Achieving your writing objectives and Using Web2.0 to talk and listen.

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Chairing Governing Body Meetings

This course examines the key skills involved in chairing meetings effectively, including pre-meeting preparation, how to ensure that everyone is heard and ensuring that the meeting’s objectives are achieved. This course will tell you how to handle those who hog the limelight and those who speak amongst themselves.

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Equality and Diversity

As well as outlining the benefits that fully embracing equality and diversity can bring, as well as the consequences of not doing so, this course defines what equality is and what diversity is. It also outlines legislation relevant to both areas.

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