How do we ensure students’ views are heard by the Governing Body?

There are four methods I would suggest to get this relationship going:

1. A 'minutes exchange'

Make sure all minutes from school council meetings are sent to the governing body. Ask the chair of governors to make 'school council minutes' a standing item on the governing body's agenda. At this time they should raise any questions arising from the school council minutes, to be passed to the school council.
Make sure the governing body's minutes are a standing item on the school council's agenda. The school office should be able to provide the school council with the public part ('Part 1') of the minutes. The school council should go over these and raise any questions with the chair of governors – it would probably be simplest to do this by letter or email.

2. Inviting governors to school council meetings

Ask them to present or discuss on a specific issue, rather than just sit in the corner. Then see if they'll invite members of the school council to talk to the governing body in return.

3. Asking governors to be school council mentors

Governors may well have skills they can volunteer (e.g. in chairing meetings, taking minutes, dealing with finances, PR, design, project management). Most are very keen to have a closer relationship with the students so may be very happy to help.

4. Have students as associate governors

It's possible for students to be non-voting members of the governing body (associate governors). This can be great for governing bodies because it demonstrates very clearly a way in which they are listening to students. We've also come across governing bodies that say it has really improved their meetings as thinking about how they make them not drag for young people has actually dealt with the issues that they weren't accessible and engaging for many of the older governors too!
It's possible for anyone to sit in on the first part of any governors' meeting, so students could show their interest (or find out if they'd be interested) by attending a meeting or two before suggesting that they'd like to be associates..