School governors: How do you get to know the teachers?

[morningpaper]

How do you get to know the teachers?

I don't want to help out in any situation where a small child might be travel sick in my lap.

I also wonder whether teachers think that governors are a bit annoying and wish they would bugger off and leave them alone?

Any tips for getting to know teachers without being (a) annoying or (b) standing with a mop at the KS1 disco?

[RTKangaMummy]

DH has been a governor for many years but he doesn't do the stuff you are talking about

He is in charge of the SCIENCE and ICT and FOUNDATION STAGE and is on the APPEALS COMMITTEE

I don't know what you mean re: vomit?

[blametheparents]

Who do you want to get to know, and why?

There are generally teachers' representatives at FGB meetings and at committee meetings. You can then speak to them regarding relevant matters.

At our school each Governor has a subject that they monitor, for me it is Maths. I therefore speak to the Maths co-ordinator and arrange any visits to school that I need to make regarding Maths with her.

Other than that i am not sure I need to get to know the teachers as such. Though during visits etc I guess I generally end up meeting most teachers in the end.

[fishie]

i was banned from school trips due to travel sickness.

don't think you need to get to know teachers mp, is more overview than hands on i imagine (my mum was a governor about 20y ago)

[DontHauntMeBaby]

I have been a governor for one full school year, plus this term, so still early days really. We have four full governing body meetings a year, and for half an hour beforehand we're invited to have tea with the staff in the staff room (we're not allowed in the staff room without being invited, a bit like vampires). Actually this didn't happen at yesterday's meeting for some reason, hope the rot isn't setting in ... but anyway at the first one of the year we all introduce ourselves, and thereafter we're just kind of there. The teachers therefore know our faces, and we know theirs. We've also got the subject coordinators and corresponding governors, although that's a bit in remission at the moment, needs reinvigorating.

There's also a staff and governors social at the end of each school year (a barbecue) so we all get a reminder of each others' faces before disappearing off for six weeks.

[RustyBear]

I work at a junior school & we have periodic 'Governors' Focus Days' when the governors come in & observe lessons, looking at a particular aspect, such as boys' literacy.

All the governors have an area the curriculum as their special interest & have varying degrees of contact with the coordinator for that subject (we have one who bombards the coordinator for their subject with emails about every detail of the scheme of work and visits frequently, and one governor who does not appear to have set foot in the school since their appointment) Members of the Finance & Staffing committee are involved in interviewing, some governors come in and help in class, hear readers etc, one governor has been in every day this week coordinating a charity project filling bags with presents for children at a Kenyan school - she is flying out with them herself on Friday.

ime teachers think some governors are annoying and others are helpful, but I think that depends more on the personality of the governor than anythong.

[RustyBear]

anything - it does not depend on their underwear....

[LongDeadMotherofHorrors]

MorningPaper. I'm a governor. The set up should support governor visits/observation sessions. If you want a more hands on approach there are ways of geting to know staff by supporting them in other ways e.g. volunteering to run an after school club, offering to do some very mundane repetitive task that no one else wants to do.

Our school is tiny so the governors end up helping out with masses of extra stuf e.g. running the cycling proficiency, changing library books, doing all school PR. But beware 1) the ordinary workload of governors has increased enormously 2) we are supposed to have a strategic role and this can be compromised if we are in school at grass roots too much

[morningpaper]

Thanks for answers

The new Ofstead evaulation requires that (for a good evaluation) Governors need to have "constructive relationships with staff" which seems to imply that one-to-one contact is necessary? So there has been some discussion about how this can be achieved (which included helping out on school trips )

There are some good ideas on this thread

I like the idea of being invited into the staffroom before governors' meetings but what time are your Governor's meetings? The school is empty by 4.30!

[DanDruff]

you know them surely as your kids arethere - what level of knowing arewe talking about

we haeva link visit thing i can tell you about

[DanDruff]

do the curriculum area people not have to give a report to the teachign and learning committee?

do you not have an alliance with a certain class or area?

[morningpaper]

No there is no alliance with class/area although they keep promising to set this up. They aren't doing subjects so don't have link Govs for that - because they are changing the structure to reflect the rose report recommendations for concentrating on broader areas rather than subjects. So it's sort of changing to committees of teachers and at the mo, the govs aren't involved.

Also no class visits yet.

Think I need to pester the HT more to sort all these things out

[Hassled]

At our school each Class has a Link Governor - and then you follow that class up through the school, so you change teachers as the children do. It can't be a class where you're a parent. The ideal is that you visit your class each half term - obviously harder for FT working Govs. Then I do Inclusion, so meet with the SENCo twice a term, Staff and Govs get pissed at the pub each Christmas etc.

[morningpaper]

that's a really good idea hassled, I like that a lot

(I reckon we should have a School Governors talkboard on MN btw)

[RustyBear]

We're currently in the middle of changing to a Creative Curriculum, and the governors have been asked to express a preference to join one of the teams - Creative & Expressive, Scientific & Technological or Global Citizenship.

[Hassled]

The other thing we do which facilitates the meeting of staff etc is curriculum monitoring.

For example, there's an initiative to improve fine motor skills in Reception children - they've identified groups of kids where it looks like it may be a problem. We (Govs) have OK'd 15 hours a week of extra TA time to spend on doing small group work with these children, and monitor value-for-money etc by watching some sessions, paying attention to tracking, discussing whether more or less is needed - so we can actually see some measurable improvement.

[LongDeadMotherofHorrors]

morningpaper - I think your idea of a talkboard is great. There are so many questions and comparisons to be made that the governor net forum doesn't really fulfil.

Re: class monitoring. Shouldn't you be pestering your Chair of Governors rather than the HT?

[gramercy]

I am a governor and I think the issue you mentioned is difficult. I am the link governor for literacy, and I have found the teacher in charge quite defensive and even rude. She doesn't answer e-mails asking (most humbly!) to meet, and when I went and bearded her in her den, she was very dismissive and said she was busy.

We had a governor training session recently and the woman from Governor Services said this was a frequent problem. Often the governors are older (tick!) and more educated (ahem, tick!) than the teachers and they feel threatened.

By the way, I'm with you on helping on school trips. I only helped on one, and I was issued with sick bowl, rubber gloves, paper towels and spare clothes. "I've put you with the group containing the children prone to travel sickness" breezed the teacher. I spent an hour each way on the coach singing, telling jokes, being a mad woman - anything to take the kids' minds off being sick. Euurrrrgggghh.

[GeeWhizz]

As Hassles we have class links.

We are encouraged to come into school whenever we would like. Just letting the headteacher know beforehand.

We were all invited to school dinner a few weeks ago.

We will also have a Staff/Governor get together before Christmas.

[Feenie]

Gramercy, you are not necessarily more educated than the Literacy co-ordinator.

[trickerg]

mp - I'm very surprised that your school is clear of teachers at 4:30. I don't know anyone who gets out that early.

[gramercy]

I may not be more educated, but when she sent out a note to parents spelling "write" as "right" and "practise" as "practice" my little amount of education enabled me to spot the fact that something was amiss.

[Feenie]

Jeez - I fully retract my earlier comment.

I would be seriously worried about the state of Literacy at your school if the Lit co-ordinator is sending out letters like that.

I am a Literacy co-ordinator, and have to resort to pretending to deliver innovative ways of teaching punctuation whilst not-so-subtly educating our Head in correct apostrophe usage. His letters are a nightmare!

[Goblinchild]

I always get my visiting governor to work with my top group doing something very difficult, and my bottom group doing something difficult preferably in consecutive sessions without a break. So when they talk about areas such as differentiation they have some first-hand experience.
One still remembers the Junk Model Elephant and six demented egocentric individuals. And the sellotape. He still wakes in the night making hapless, ineffectual gestures apparently.
But gosh, we had such fun. The children all wanted the Governors' day to be a full week.

[ByTheSea]

I was a parent governor for four years and have just been appointed a community governor. I know the teachers because I have four DC who have gone through the school - my youngest in currently in year 3 and my second youngest is in year 6 and my two older ones, now in secondary school, went through the school from reception onwards. In addition to governor visits and hearing children read, I have volunteered on school trips and playground/playtime in KS1, work on PTA events and the committee, and am supportive of the school in many ways. I have attended many sporting events when my DC were on the teams. I try to be a friendly and supportive parent and governor generally, but I really thinks it's just our family's constant presence and longevity at the school which has exposed me to all the teachers.

[DontHauntMeBaby]

MP full governing body meetings (the ones with the invite into the staffroom beforehand) are at 4.30, so tea from 4.00 till 4.30, there may be a mass exodus straight afterwards for all I know ... Probably not though, we had a 'reading with your child' evening on Thursday, 7.00-8.30, head there all the time, the two Reception teachers and one of the deputy heads presenting, at least one of the Year 1 teachers and the SENCO there all the time as well. I'm not sure they have homes to go to.

(see I appreciate how hard teachers work, I don't need to do junk modelling to understand, honest )