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.