Previous Conferences

October saw the LASGB 30th year Celebratory Conference which was held at Farington Lodge in Leyland with nearly 100 delegates and a series of entertaining and thought-provoking speakers.

There were 10 Special Recognition Awards for deserving governors nominated by their respective schools and a special award to William (Bill) Hodgson, our retiring President who has been our figurehead for 28 years himself and is known to a great many schools for his long service as governor also.

We also launched our newly revised constitution which was presented and endorsed at the AGM that followed the conference. It will mean a change to our name – from Lancashire Association or School Governing Bodies (LASGB) to Lancashire Governance Association (LGA) to reflect our role as the largest local association of the National Governance Association (NGA) but also our close working with LCC. You can access our revised constitution here –

Constitution – LASGB

The conference was opened by John Davey, our Chair of the Executive Committee, who introduced LCC Councillor Cabinet Member for Education and Skills Jayne Rear to give an opening overview.

Janet Myers, NGA Consultant and Regional Governance Development Lead, spoke of the workload pressures faced by school governors currently, and focussed especially on governor recruitment issues and the time taken for additional meetings to review exclusions and complaints. Amongst other documentation she referred to are these which can be accessed by all governors, not just those with an NGA membership.

PDF of Janet’s presentation is available here.

What governing boards and school leaders should expect from each other | National Governance Association

Taking stock of governance workload | National Governance Association

Elaine Cluet, LCC Secondary Lead Education Improvement of Head of LCC Governor Services, looked at those challenges at a Lancashire level and outlined the most recently collated data on the issues that particularly face Lancashire schools. With the recent introduction of GovernorHub, the data is now more readily available and up to date. Elaine outlined some of the areas LCC is currently working on and also asked for volunteers for a recruitment working party. Alongside this, she referenced a recent NGA webinar and resources on the subject which can be found here:

Recruitment and retention: Getting volunteers on board | National Governance Association

PDF of Elaine’s presentation is available here.

Before brunch, we heard from our external speaker, Fiona Millar, journalist and campaigner on Education and Parenting. Her realism, alongside a healthy dose of humour left the delegates engaged. She raised many current topics and contentious issues for all to consider. The following references give all of us some additional reading on her specialisms.

Fiona Millar began in journalism as a trainee and later she worked as a news reporter and lobby correspondent. She was a freelance journalist between 1988 and 1995. In 1993, she co-authored ‘By Faith and Daring, Interviews with Remarkable Women.’ Fiona has worked closely within political and journalistic spheres but often concerning her passion for education and families. Fiona received the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers in 2009 for her campaigning for good-quality local comprehensive schools and that same year published, ‘The Secret World of the Working Mother’, about finding a balance between working and being a mother. In 2010, Millar helped form the Local Schools Network, a pro-state schools pressure group. In 2018, she published ‘The Best for My Child: Did the schools market deliver?’ to mark the 30th anniversary of the Education Reform Act.

After brunch, we heard from Paul Turner, LCC Director of Education and Skills. As a relative newcomer to LCC, although his previous post was in our neighbouring Blackpool, we learned about his vision for the current issues faced by LCC and his vision on how to move forward with them. With many untested areas of the new national government’s policy and recent research around SEND funding in particular, Paul outlined the current Lancashire plans and timescales. All those in attendance felt they knew more about Paul, his background, his priorities and his future development wishes. His intention is to continue with this close collaboration with governors in future.

The conference was closed with presentations from our Chair to governors and to our retiring President. Feedback from delegates was extremely positive as always but if you have ideas you would like to be explored, either at next year’s conference or at one of our evening workshops, please contact us at any time via the website

Diana Osagie – an inspirational speaker who is nationally renowned for her promotion of courageous leadership in education. Diana has been a successful school leader, trainer, OFSTED Inspector and best-selling author. This opportunity to meet her and hear her speak is not to be missed!

Dave McPartlin – Headteacher of Flakefleet Primary School, Fleetwood. Colleagues will know him from his appearances with his pupils on ITVs Britain’s Got Talent! Dave is regularly a guest speaker at conferences where he expounds his philosophy and discusses how schools can nurture the highest aspirations for all pupils and staff.

Aby Hardy – Lancashire’s Head of Education Improvement – Aby will discuss Lancashire 2050 and share plans that are being formed for the future of our authority. As key leaders in the education of Lancashire’s children you as governors will, we are sure, be keen to learn about these proposals. Aby’s power-point presentation is available as a pdf to download here.

We firmly believe that delegates left enthused, informed and motivated!