Welcome to the Governor Support Service
The Governor Support Service is an independent service offering governor training, advice, guidance and support to all Hillingdon Schools. With over 20 years’ combined experience working within local authorities in Governor Support roles, we are able to offer local and legislative advice, support and training to school governors and clerks.
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Our services
Advice & Guidance
We provide governing bodies and schools with information, support, and advice to proactively promote and achieve outstanding governance.
Schools can access our full range of services by purchasing a service level agreement with us for 2025/2026, or schools can access the training on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. Please contact us for further information
Virtual Training Courses for Clerks
Clerks monthly briefing meetings for the Spring and Summer term 2025 can be found on our booking site. Please follow the link above to book a place.
8th January 2025
Clerks monthly briefing meeting
Copies of the March 2025 meeting PowerPoint and briefing notes are available.
Please log in to download a copy.
6th March 2025
DfE-Maintained Schools Governance Guide
Governing boards and clerks please note the guidance has been updated on 2nd October 2024
There are separate copies for maintained schools and academies.
DfE-Academy Trust Governance Guide
Governing boards and clerks please note the guidance has been updated on 2nd October 2024
There are separate copies for maintained schools and academies.
DfE Academy Trust Handbook
Academy Trust Handbook
from 1 September 2024.
DfE-Guidance for parents on school behaviour & exclusion
Parents & carers please read this & your schools concerns/complaints policy .
It is intended to support parents/careers whose children attend a maintained school, pupil referral unit, academy school or alternative provision academy and have been suspended or excluded from school in England.
It applies from 1 September 2023.
DfE- Suspension & Permanent Exclusion from school
This document provides a guide to the legislation that governs the suspension and
permanent exclusion of pupils from all maintained schools (including special schools),
pupil referral units, academy schools (including free schools, special schools,
and alternative provision academies).
It also includes the use of
behavioural strategies such as managed moves and directing pupils off-site to improve
their behaviour to help prevent a suspension or permanent exclusion.
19th August 2024
DfE-School teachers pay & conditions guidance
Governors who are involved with headteacher appraisal should read the updated guidance on Implementing your schools approach to pay.
29th July 2024
DfE-Data Protection in Schools
The responsibility and accountability for compliance sits with governors and trustees.
Governors and trustees check that the school:
monitors their data protection performance
supports the data protection officer
has good network security infrastructure to keep personal data protected
has a business continuity plan in place that includes cyber security
28th August 2024
DfE What maintained schools must publish online
Clerks to governing boards must remind their boards about the updated regulations. These include school uniform and school opening times.
Updated,7th October 2024
DfE Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE)
Revised guidance effective from 3rd September 2024
Note: changes to KCSiE from 1st September 2024
1st September 2024
Parent and staff governor elections
We have updated the documents.
Log in and go to the model documents section
28th May 2021
Being Strategic
Read the report from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) & NGA on “Being Strategic” The guide offers leaders and governing boards in schools and trusts a robust annual cycle for creating, monitoring and reviewing strategy.
Updated in April 2022.
Ofsted
This guide gives a summary of what schools and governors should expect and what they need to do as part of an Ofsted inspection.
Well worth reading.
Updated 7th October 2024
Ofsted
Please note the framework was updated 16th September 2024
Our Courses
The Governor Support Service provides a programme of training and development sessions each term that governors, headteachers, senior leadership teams, associate members and clerks can access to help them carry out their duties effectively.
We run a varied range of training courses and briefing sessions covering subjects such as Safeguarding, Exclusions, the Curriculum and HR Matters in addition to regular termly briefing sessions for clerks and chairs and an induction programme for those who are new or fairly new to school governance including all categories of governors, senior leaders, clerks and associate members.
COURSE BOOKING ARRANGEMENTS- Spring and Summer terms 2025
Details of the courses/meetings for governors and clerks can be viewed and booked by clicking here. Select which course(s) or meeting(s) you wish to attend.
- You will receive an automatic email reply to confirm each booking together with a Microsoft Teams meeting link for each course booked.
- A reminder email will be sent 1 hour before the course starts
- Make sure that you are joining the meeting signed from the account with which you received the meeting link.
All courses are free to schools that subscribe to our service level agreement (SLA). There will be a charge for non SLA schools.
If you need any support with using the new course booking service please contact us on 01895 717321 or by email us at [email protected]
Schools we work with often have vacancies for school governor volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, why not find out more?
Apply through GSS directly by completing the form below or click on the link below to volunteer through a charity we work with, Governors for Schools:
https://www.governorsforschools.org.uk/volunteers/apply/ Information about the role:
https://www.governorsforschools.org.uk/become-a-school-governor/the-role-of-a-school-governor/
Contact the Governor Support Service: