ABSTRACT
Setting out a model that directs governors towards improving school performance
Governing Bodies Are in Charge
There are 24,000 governing bodies (the total number of schools), and each one is different from all the others. But what they all have in common is being at the top of the organization. The school governing body is what Carver (1990, p. 2) calls a governing board; it is ‘as high in the structure as one can go and still be within the organizational framework. Its total authority is matched by its total accountability for all corporate activity.’ It is not an advisory board, although it is often treated as if it is. In practice, it has often been just that. The power that school governing bodies have is regarded with a high degree of ambivalence. It is almost as if the real nature of the relationship between governing body and school management should remain unstated, in case, spoken out loud, someone might be upset.
