School Council – Training and Good Governance

Building school council capacity

The School council self-assessment tool (DOCX) can be used to assess and identify a school council’s strengths, areas for development and training needs. The self-assessment will identify skills, expertise or experience the school council may be lacking.

It is strongly recommended that school councils then determine what is needed to correct this. Such action could include:

• offering training to school council members, either collectively or individually
• learning as you go: for example, having less experienced school council members shadow those with more experience
• using sub-committees and working groups to support priorities and activities
• co-opting skilled individuals as community members of school council (where vacancies exist). The school council self-assessment tool includes advice on how to prepare for and approach potential community members
• inviting particular individuals/professionals to school council meetings to provide advice
• re-structuring the existing school council to enable members to better use their skills (for example, appoint a member with financial background as treasurer, or establish a working group to source quotes for a particular project)
• collaborating with other schools and school councils to share information and skills
• running workshops with school council members and others in the school community to focus on issues, and considering using professional associations to facilitate these
• upgrading or adopting technology to improve the school council’s effectiveness.