Governance Training

Taking on the role of chair can be a daunting, as well as an exciting, opportunity. This course aims to introduce new & aspiring chairs to the role of chair. This development opportunity will help you to become an effective leader of your board, while ensuring the role is manageable.

There will be opportunities to share good practice and to work & network with other chairs.

Please note this is a two-session course and you’ll need to attend both to complete the course.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Chasca Twyman, Governance Consultant

This session will give governors a clear understanding of the suspension and permanent exclusion process, including:

• statutory requirements
• Sheffield-specific expectations
• the governing board’s role in ensuring fair, consistent decision-making
• whether you’re new to complex meetings like this or want to build confidence in handling permanent exclusion panels, this focused session will provide practical guidance in a Sheffield LA context

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: John Bigley, Sheffield City Council

This session will provide you with an overview of school and governors’ roles around Data Protection and Freedom of Information against the background of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The session will give you an understanding of your school’s responsibilities as a data controller. It will cover best practice in drafting and updating policies and procedures, managing information risks, and in dealing with information requests and data breaches.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Andy Wynne, Certified GDPR Practitioner, Learn Sheffield Data Protection Officer and Governance Lead

This session will cover:

• understanding the information about absence and attendance
• what the law says about attendance and absence
• your school's attendance policy and procedure
• what questions you should be asking about attendance
• attendance of pupils on part time timetables or attending alternative provisio

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Helen Lane, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner

At the end of this session, you will have a better understanding of how trust funding works and how to ensure that your trust’s finances are being well spent. You will also know how to meet the expectations of the trustee financial oversight role, including meeting the compliance obligations arising under the Academy Trust Handbook, charity and company law.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: David Werry, Governance Consultant

At the end of this session, you will be more confident in ensuring that your school’s finances are being well spent and managed and that it gets value for money while making an impact.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: David Werry, Governance Consultant

This session will look at the structures, organisation and culture of multi-academy trusts (MATs) and the roles within them.

The course will cover the different types of MATs and the essential documentation that governs their work, with a focus on the importance of the local tier of governance, the value they bring, and how they sit within the trust as a whole.

Audience: Local Governing Board members, trustees, or governors of maintained schools who are exploring academy conversion

Trainer: Chasca Twyman, Governance Consultant

This session provides a refresher of the skills and knowledge school governors need. The course is designed for governors who have been in the role for a while but would like a chance to refresh their knowledge.

The course will cover:

• the types and roles of governance boards
• how to be an effective member of a governance board
• the key roles and responsibilities of governance boards in contributing to school improvement
• the different and complementary roles of the CEO, headteacher/principal and the governance board
• roles of different stakeholders and their relationship with the governance board

Audience: All governors who would like a refresher on governance

Trainer: Susanna Bradbury, Learn Sheffield Governance Manager

This session will support you as a governor in fulfilling your key role and statutory duty to hold the headteacher to account for the day-to day running of their school.

The session will outline what makes a good and effective appraisal, the structure and regulation around the process, key paperwork to ensure consistency, and setting and reviewing objectives supported by the external advisor.

The session will give you a clear understanding of the role description of the headteacher and the way that headteacher’s standards are used in setting performance objectives, how it works in practice, and the elements that contribute to the performance of a good school.

The session will also update you on recent changes to pay and conditions guidelines as they affect performance management and setting pay.

Audience: All Governors involved in HT Performance Management

Trainer: Beverly Nicholson, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner, and Susanna Bradbury, Governance Manager

By the end of the session you will have a better understanding of health and safety (H&S) in schools, including:

• your Board’s strategic role regarding H&S
• H&S regulations and guidance in schools, and who does what
• how to work with senior leaders to ensure that policy is proportionate, compliant and reflects context
• how to monitor, review and oversee H&S risks and risk assessments without straying into the operational

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Peter Sharp, Governance Consultant

This course will look at and answer key questions you might have about this governor responsibility, including:

• What should you hold leaders to account for at your school?
• What are the essential behaviours needed for you to hold your school leaders to account?
• How do you hold someone to account for things they probably know more about than you?

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Mark Coppel, Education Governance Specialist

This course will examine what is meant by Online Safety in 2026/27. It will look at the major safeguarding risks in the online space and correlate them with the concerns and experiences of children and young people in Sheffield.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Sue Finnigan, Learn Sheffield Education Consultant

This course will update governors on the changes made to the Ofsted Framework in 2026/27 and inform you how this impacts the work you do.

The session will outline:

• what inspectors are looking for and how they form their judgments
• governors' responsibilities, the evidence they should be able to demonstrate during inspections, and the key questions they should be asking

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Diane Stokes, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner

This session will help you to understand:

• the main principles of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
• what you need to do to ensure you’re compliant with the duty
• how equality considerations should be reflected in policies, decision making and strategic oversight
• ow the duty fits into the inspection framework

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner

It is a statutory responsibility for governing boards to adopt and publish their policy and procedures for managing complaints. Dealing with complaints can be a daunting prospect for governors and this course aims to provide you with the skills to undertake this process confidently.

During the course we will cover:

• the complaints policy - regulations and best practice
• how to manage the stages within the policy
• good practice when investigating a complaint
• the role of the complaints panel

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Chasca Twyman, Governance Consultant

Regular evaluation supports boards to monitor and improve the quality and impact of governance, and ultimately the outcomes for the pupils in their setting.

This session examines what effective governance looks like and how this can be developed through regular skills audits and by reviewing the structures in place. It will look at how well governors work together, participate in discussions, and demonstrate effective challenge.

The session will cover the tools and methods for self-evaluation and independent assessments of effectiveness through external reviews, and how the board can use these to develop their practices and identify areas for further training.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Chasca Twyman, Governance Consultant

This course is designed for all staff and governors involved in school recruitment. The course will look at the ways we can identify and deter unsuitable candidates, while embedding a strong safeguarding ethos into the culture of your school.

KCSIE 2025 states that ‘It is vital that as part of their whole school or college approach to safeguarding governing bodies and proprietors create a culture that safeguards and promotes the welfare of children in their school or college. As part of this culture, it is important that they adopt robust recruitment procedures that deter and prevent people who are unsuitable to work with children from applying for or securing employment, or volunteering opportunities in schools and colleges.’ ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that those involved with the recruitment and employment of staff to work with children have received appropriate safer recruitment training.’

This course is accredited by the Safer Recruitment Consortium and is updated annually to take account of recent legislative changes.

Please note, this course is charged at £195 for non-subscribers.

Audience: Senior Leaders, Governors, School Business Managers and staff involved in HR and recruitment

Trainer: Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner, and Susanna Bradbury, Governance Manager

This refresher course is designed for all staff and governors involved in school recruitment. The course will look at the ways we can identify and deter unsuitable candidates, while embedding a strong safeguarding ethos into the culture of your school.

KCSIE 2025 states that ‘It is vital that as part of their whole school or college approach to safeguarding governing bodies and proprietors create a culture that safeguards and promotes the welfare of children in their school or college. As part of this culture, it is important that they adopt robust recruitment procedures that deter and prevent people who are unsuitable to work with children from applying for or securing employment, or volunteering opportunities in schools and colleges.’ and ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that those involved with the recruitment and employment of staff to work with children have received appropriate safer recruitment training.’

This course is accredited by the Safer Recruitment Consortium and is updated annually to take account of recent legislative changes.

Please note, you must have completed the accredited Safer Recruitment course with the Safer Recruitment Consortium, or a similar accredited provider, within the last 4 years and be able to provide a certificate to evidence this to be eligible for this refresher course.

This course is charged at £125 for non-subscribers.

Audience: Senior Leaders, Governors, School Business Managers and staff involved in HR and recruitment, who have previously completed the full day training in Safer Recruitment.

Trainer: Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner, and Susanna Bradbury, Governance Manager

This course will cover the key processes and requirements for schools considering suspending and excluding pupils. It will draw upon national guidance and good practice in ensuring that decisions to suspend and exclude pupils are rational, proportionate and fair

The course will inform you on how to provide robust oversight and scrutiny of decisions to suspend or exclude pupils.

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Malcolm Leigh, Education Consultant

This course covers the crucial, statutory role of Safeguarding governor and will:

• advise you on how to ensure your school’s safeguarding arrangements are effective, compliant and prioritised at a strategic level
• guide you how to conduct your regular meeting with your school’s DSL
• clarify the boundaries of your role - what you should and should not do

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner

This course will cover:

• the importance of vision and setting the strategic direction in governance
• how having the right vision informs governance work (agenda setting, performance management, school/trust improvement, board self-evaluation)
• understanding the difference between a vision, a mission statement and school values
• the process of setting a vision and what makes a good vision

Audience: All Governors

Trainer: Sai Patel, Learn Sheffield Improvement Partner