School Governor

I did it for 6yrs across two primary schools. I found it quite frustrating, everything moved along at a snails pace and the full governing board meetings were a mixture of very dominant governors and those who remained completely silent. The sub committee meetings were the ones I found more interesting but often felt Inwas nodding along and agreeing with the very effective experienced SBM rather than actively critiquing

It is an interesting job but do not underestimate the amount of training and bureaucracy involved.

I was a Governor for 4 years, and it was interesting, but very challenging.
All the meetings were in the evening, so think about how that would work for you.
As a non-parent, I felt I was truly impartial, but there were some parent Governors who basically just wanted to influence things to benefit their own kids.
The employment law side is fascinating, but the financials are tricky.
Also beware of a Head and teachers who want to make things political, and don't seem to belong in the real world!

your governing body didn’t have enough input into the school. We have four sub committees for finance, curriculum, staffing and buildings. Staffing committee is involved with all appointments. In addition each governor was linked to a subject area and met with the lead teacher for that area.

I've been a governor for nearly 10 years, now chair. If you're keen to put some time into making sure children are getting the best education possible, I'd absolutely recommend it. I agree with a PP who said the time commitment was very manageable until they became chair! I enjoy feeling I'm making a contribution, and I find educational and schools endlessly fascinating.

I do think it's maybe easier to be a governor of a different school to the one your children go to though. I'm a governor of a different local school, and I think the role of parent governor can be quite tricky for all the reasons others have mentioned.

Schools are always looking for keen and committed governors, and you will have a great skillset to offer.

My dh is a Deputy chair of governors and has been a governor for about 6 years. He finds it interesting and there are courses that you can go on. Dh was on a recent one involving an ex teacher who left and was suing the school, so he had to do a course.
He does to a meeting once every half term, sometimes they get cancelled. They’re usually in the evenings.

The big issue in a lot of schools now (in my rural area) is that governments won’t give schools enough to pay for schools to have a teacher in each class so TAs, who are the most used and abused and minimally paid get to pick up the slack. Whilst people high in the trust are being paid high salaries to go and recommend school improvements. Whilst ignoring the obvious solution that might affect their cushy jobs! So be a Governor all you want but don’t expect any power to influence or make change! You can sit for two hours and invigilate a sats exam though 🫠

It is a good one for career development: I have a strong understanding of budgets through governance, I’ve done evaluation of ££ tenders for contracts, led disciplinary and grievance procedures. I enjoy being strategic in a sector that is very different from my own. It does take a good year to get up to speed with all the education jargon - they flipping love an acronym.

The amount of work varies. I run a sub committee, and I try to say yes to as much other stuff as I can, because there are times I really can’t help out. I fit bits in around my fairly flexible job, and take about 2 days off work (paid) to do school visits/bigger projects.

I was a governor for 5 years and really enjoyed it. The workload wasn't too high and if found it a brilliant way to get to know the school, particularly as a working parent who wasn't around much for pick up and drop off.

I've given it up now as it clashed a lot with another volunteering role I took on but I would definitely recommend it.

Co-opted means the Governors/MAT have chosen you, rather than you being voted as a Parent Governor, Staff Governor or by virtue of an ex officio appointment due to being the Head Teacher. Each board has an agreed number of 'slots' for the different categories - that PP has been occupying a Parent Governor slot, but when her term ends and/or she's ineligible to be elected again due to not having a child at the school, the BOG/LGB have decided that she will fill the Co-opted slot instead, freeing up a space for a new Parent Governor.

It's perfectly reasonable to look at potential advantages to your career - the skills you learn are absolutely valuable, particularly if you aren't already working at C-Suite level.

You should be given access to training, whether via the Local Authority, the National Governance Association (I detest their learning resources/tech system, though) or through other organisations. You'll start off with a general induction training to include safeguarding, then as your interests or the needs of the school determine, more specialised units.

Get to know the Clerk if you can. Some schools still have a useful clerk who knows the school and is able to provide help and advice on many situations, but some are very much kept at arms' length and despite (or because of) their specialist knowledge, can be seen as a threat to a determined Chair or Head and some are kept more as an admin/minute taker.

Can you look at the scheme if delegation to see what is delegated to governors?

Generally you will have less things to be accountable for than the trustees and less say over finances, but education monitoring is the same.

What type of school is it?

I only ask as if the school is in an academy trust and this is a local governor type role in, what are essentially committees of the trust board, it's quite different than being in a maintained school.

I think it's a great thing to do but you do need to put effort in to get something out of it.

I’m just about to finish a 4 year term as a parent governor, I’m planning to stay on in a co-opted role. I’ve enjoyed being able to support the school in a strategic way (PTA is the stuff of nightmares!). I remember reading an article in The Guardian that being a massive time sink, completely disagree….its an evening and morning once a term to cover full governors and a committee. The odd bit of training, some of which is online and a couple of school visits per year.

Go for it and see what happens, you’ll have to apply as a parent governor and get voted in.

Thanks @OrangePineapple25, it’s a stressful situation and absolutely not what I thought I was in for.

Despite funding challenges, I think there is still a clear delineation between the responsibilities and remit of the governing body and the school leadership team (or at least they should be, if governance is good!) but a family member who has been a school governor at various school for 30+ years says that her view is that the expectations placed on governors these days is increasingly unrealistic. Make of that what you will but my experience aligns with that.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

Being a governor is what you make of it. As someone mentions above, you may get away with just turning up to the meetings (mine are half termly) but that is not effective governance. To be an effective governor it takes a lot of time and effort.

Learning about how the education system works, what you are holding the school to account for, what best looks like.

There are school visits between meetings which have to be documented, training sessions on both general governance issues and whatever is your specialist governor role is. If OFSTED arrives, the governing board are also inspected. There can be appeals panels, recruitment panels, sub committees. The governing board should have a presence at school events.

Being a governor is a legally accountable role; how well the school is governed is assessed by OFSTED. You aren’t governing well if you are only attending meetings.

I’m in my third term as a co-opted governor at my children’s school (namely I applied when the advertised a role to fill a skill set need, rather than having been elected as a parent).

I love it but it easily takes 45 plus hours an academic year.

You also have to have quite a thick skin - some parents either think it’s just like being on the PTA, others think you can fix everything!

I wouldn’t give up!

As a parent governor, specifically, I’d say a key consideration should be whether the school is a fairly steady ship. I have a few friends / family who are parent governors at their children’s schools and have found it a really valuable experience. I am a parent governor at my child’s school and have not found the same.

Can’t go into too much detail as it would be outing (and would then break confidentiality) but I joined the governing body about 18 months ago and it has been a deteriorating situation ever since. It is now at crisis point and other governors are voting with their feet. The other parent governor and I feel completely stuck as our children are at the school, so we have a personal stake that the others don’t. I’ve made positive contributions during my term so far but I wouldn’t have joined if I had known what I was stepping into.

I assume that was directed at me? I’m fairly sure that most of the things we do involve at least some degree of self-interest, so not sure why doing what is, frankly, a fairly thankless task and volunteering my free time to support my child’s school is actually a bad thing. But each to their own 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m a solicitor and chair of governors! You won’t be asked to give legal advice. However I think solicitors tend to make good governors for lots of reasons - used to following process, interpreting policies, absorbing lots of information and data quickly, asking probing questions etc.

I didn’t find it at all difficult to balance being a normal governor with full time work. And overall it’s rewarding and you get a much greater insight into the running of the school than you do as a parent. Being chair has been significantly more challenging, as I’m called upon for a lot more things. So I say go for it but don’t get sucked into becoming chair at some stage!