Becoming a school trustee is a significant commitment - and one that requires knowledge and dedication, as well as a passion for education.

In our new monthly series, Trustee Essentials, we will equip budding trustees with the essential tools and insights needed for this important role, from understanding the responsibilities and expectations to navigating complex decision-making processes.

In part one, we look at what it means to be a trustee (and what it doesn’t), with advice from experts and an experienced chair of trustees.

The expert view:

One of the most crucial elements to get to grips with is the difference between being a trustee and a governor of a maintained school, says Leora Cruddas, founding chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST).

There can be “a muddle” for some as they approach the role for the first time, so it’s important to understand exactly what trustee governance entails.

“Probably the most important thing to say is that trustees have duties as directors under company law and as trustees under charity law, which is not true for maintained school governors,” she explains. “And the trust is its own legal entity, so understanding everything that comes with being an independent legal entity is really important.”

She gives the example of risk, which sits solely with the trust, rather than with the local authority (as in a maintained school). If there was, for example, a flood that meant the school had to close, ensuring that education could continue would fall to the trust as the body with legal responsibility.

Trustees are “directors of a charitable company, which runs like any company would”, explains Samira Sadeghi, director of trust governance at CST, which means the board has significant contractual obligations as employers, around elements such as health and safety, buildings and land maintenance. And the nature of multi-academy trusts brings particular considerations.

“When you are talking about groups of schools, it throws up so many issues,” she continues. “How do you connect all of them together? It is a completely different proposition from just governing a single school. You have to understand how organisations are structured and run, and you have to have a governance structure to make sure that all the different parts of the organisation are talking to each other.”

It can be helpful to think of the role as stewardship rather than ownership, she proposes, taking “a long view” of the organisation that has been placed into your care.

“You have to look to the past and the future, not just firefight and deal with problems right now. Being a trustee is about having a much broader view of the whole thing, being strategic and not operational.”

And then there are the personal qualities required of trustees, Cruddas continues. They are bound by the seven principles of public life as laid out in the Academy Trust Governance Code (selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership) and a new trustee falling short of these would be “a significant problem” for a board, she says.

“It’s not just different from maintained school governance, it’s also different from being the director of a company in a corporate world,” she continues.

“There can sometimes be a bit of tension when trustees join the board and they’re very experienced non-executive directors from the corporate world but perhaps lack explicit knowledge about governing a charitable entity. Governing a school trust is a unique proposition and a unique privilege.”

It is, fundamentally, a role that requires a high level of emotional awareness, Sadeghi adds.

“You really need that combination of expertise and acting ethically, but also being emotionally intelligent, really aware of everyone you’re working with and for, and that includes all the people that you serve. It’s so important to have empathy and understanding for all the different communities that are in your trust, what their barriers are, what their needs are.”

The view from the ground:

Rama Venchard, MBE, chair of London South East Academies Trust

I’ve been working in the education sector since 2005, supporting the conversion of schools to academy status, setting up multi-academy trusts and managing the pre-opening phase of several free schools.

It was through the relationships with these trusts that I was subsequently asked to join as a trustee, member or governor. I’ve been extremely fortunate to be involved with small- and medium-sized trusts and exposed to education in both the public and private sectors, with mainstream and special schools across all phases of education.

Keeping up to date with changing rules and regulations can be a challenge as a trustee, but I attempt to address this by reading the Weekly Governance Briefing newsletter from the National Governance Association, looking at The Key for Governors for best practice and getting updates and insights from CST.

Making the time to visit schools - to speak with the children and staff and to see the impact of the decisions made by the board - also takes time, but it’s the most rewarding part of being a trustee for me.

Visiting schools is also the best way for a new trustee to get to know their trust. Go into classrooms, observe lunchtimes, meet the students, meet the staff, attend some school events and meet the parents. Assess how you feel when you visit the schools and ask yourself if you would send your children to that school. If not, why not? What needs to change? Then feed that back to the executive team.

It’s also important to meet the headteachers and some members of the central team, as well as the local governors: as a trust grows, trustees will become distant from each school and will therefore need to rely on local governors for local intelligence.

It’s really important for trustees and local governors to come together to ensure the values and ethos of the trust are fully embedded, often across large geographical areas.

My advice for new trustees to be effective is to really commit to the role. Attend meetings and training sessions and actively participate, otherwise you’ll just be wasting your time and the trust or school’s time.

Take the time to read all the meeting papers and prepare questions in advance and frame your questions around seeking reassurance and clarity, as opposed to finding fault.

You shouldn’t be getting involved in operational matters, so make sure you clearly understand your role of strategic governance oversight (and the executive leadership’s accountability for operational matters).

It can be useful to use the “so that” principle when making board decisions to ensure that decisions made have as much of a direct impact on the outcomes of the children and young people within the trust as possible. This means you should be using no more than two “so that’s” before a decision has a direct impact on the students.