School Governor Conference

This year the University held its annual School Governor Conference as a two-day online event in lieu of the usual one day at a local venue.

The two days explored different themes of equal complexity and importance in today’s society. On Monday 26 April speakers focussed on sustainability in school and ways to tackle the climate crisis in terms of changes to the curriculum and school policies and vision. Thanks go to Richard Smith, the University’s new Head of Environmental Sustainability and to Dr Andy Howes from the University’s School of Environment, Education and Development for their contributions and also to Dr Christine Mclean from the Alliance Manchester Business School for chairing the event.

On Wednesday 28 April, the speakers explored wellbeing and mental health in schools. Professor Neil Humphries from the Institute of Education spoke about the impact of the pandemic on children’s wellbeing and mental health and Hannah Stolton from Governors for Schools focussed her talk on the wellbeing of school staff. The event concluded with a mindfulness session for governors demonstrating how it can be used as tool to ease stress in the modern world.

We welcomed so many governors to the event, both Univeristy staff governors and governors from our alumni community too. This was our 9th annual conference in a year where we are marking 10 years of the University of Manchester School Governor Initiative.

We have over 1,000 governors in our network and we continue to recruit both staff and alumni into schools through our partnership with Governors for Schools. This year we are examining the impact of our initiative on schools and governing boards across the country and are excited to see many more University’s rolling out similar schemes as a result of the successes we have demonstrated in this area of volunteering and social responsibility.

For more information please contact Alison Gregory.

School Governor Conference

The School Governor Initiative, one of the University’s Key Signature Programmes, held the 5th Annual School Governor Conference at Chancellors Conference Centre on Thursday 27 April 2017.

The conference was attended by 75 delegates and we welcomed governors from within our staff network, invited Chairs and Vice-Chairs and guests from Manchester City Council and Inspiring Governance. We had a range of excellent speakers and workshop leaders both from within The University of Manchester and from local schools and external organisations. The conference was formally opened by Dr Tim Westlake, Director for the Student Experience at The University of Manchester.

The day was an excellent opportunity for all those who attended to gain new knowledge and perspectives on the changing landscape of education and we hope it helped our school governors to focus on some of the key issues and challenges facing schools and leaders in education. The University now has a staff network of almost 200 school and college governors and over 350 school governors amongst our Alumni.

If you would like any information about the School Governor Initiative and the support offered by The University of Manchester, please contact Alison Gregory.