For pupils and staff, September means new stationery, new timetables, new faces in the corridor. For governance and operations teams, it also means a fresh start. A new academic year is the point where boards and committees take stock and set the tone for everything that follows. It’s the time when clerks and governance professionals are busy getting boards and committees set up for the year ahead.
It’s tempting to treat this as paperwork to complete before the real work starts again. But how a board resets in September often shapes how well it runs for the rest of the year. Get the groundwork right now and meetings run smoothly from the start of the year.
Here’s what that reset usually involves.
Who’s on the board
Terms of office end. Governors and trustees step down, new ones are appointed and committee membership shifts. None of this is unusual, but it’s easy to lose track of exactly where things stand if the right checks aren’t in place.
Before the first meeting of the year, it’s worth going through the full committee structure and doing some quick checks – is everyone listed still in post? Has anyone’s term expired over the summer? Has the board formally reappointed or replaced them? It can feel like housekeeping but it also determines who shows up on an agenda or a set of minutes later in the year.
Whether your structures still fit
Trusts grow, schools join, and committees get reshaped to reflect that. Even where nothing formal has changed, it’s worth checking that boards and committees still match how the organisation actually operates, not how it might have been set up two or three years ago.
The year’s meeting calendar
Most boards agree their full-year schedule at, or just before, the first autumn meeting. Once that’s set, everything else follows from it. It’s the point where you can see the shape of the year ahead, and where any gaps or clashes are easiest to fix.
Picking up unfinished business
Every year ends with a few loose threads: actions not yet closed, decisions that need following up, an annual report or self-evaluation that draws on the year just gone. September is the natural point to gather these together and a good starting agenda includes outstanding actions from last time, so nothing gets forgotten.
The practical checks
If you’re recording a meeting and it’s been a few months since the last meeting, it’s worth a quick check before the first one of the new year: is the recording set-up still working, is there a microphone in the room or the right settings for an online call? Are new clerks or governors who’ll be joining meetings for the first time properly briefed?
Why this matters more than it looks
None of these steps take long individually and tackled together, early in the term, they mean the year starts on solid ground rather than firefighting from week one.
For schools and trusts already using Scriba, most of this reset happens inside the platform itself: updating boards and generating suggested agendas from last year’s meetings. But the principle holds whatever system you use. A few questions asked and worked through in September saves potential confusion and more work later in the year.
For Scriba users, here’s a quick checklist to work through alongside the steps above, so nothing gets missed before your first meeting of the year.
Back to school checklist
- Update boards and committees for any new schools or structures
- Check membership – add new starters, remove leavers
- Set permissions and brief new colleagues or governors
- Confirm the year’s meeting calendar and check it fits within meeting allowance
- Build agendas, carrying over outstanding actions
- Gather evidence from last year for reports or self-evaluation
- Test recording setup before the first meeting
- Check minutes are still structured to meet board requirements.