Primary School Governance - anyone in the know?

[PrimarySchoolMoan]

Had to name change for this as I don't want it linked to my usual username.

It is a time of great discontent at DC's primary school, too long winded to give the full story but it was raised that it isn't believed that the board of governors is structured correctly.

The current board lists:
2 parent governors - 1 is the chair
1 staff governor
Headteacher
1 co-opted governor (head of another local primary school)
1 clerk

The issue is that one of the parent governors (not the Chair) actually works as a member of staff at the school (this isn't disclosed in the interests)

The parents believe that this isn't right under the DfE's statutory guidance for governing bodies, point B.1 which states:
The governing body must not be smaller than 7 members (currently 5 & clerk) and must include 2 parent governors and one, and only one staff governor.

We have been told that maintained school governance is different to that of an academy trust (which the school is part of) but nobody can find any guidance online to know if this is correct.

Does anyone know where I would be able to find the requirements.

Our small school has 10 governors plus clerk.
3 of those are staff.
Some parents, some ex-parents and the local vicar.
5 does seem small. Are you aware of them
attempting to recruit new governors? It is often very difficult to find anyone who wants to do the job.

School governor here.

Parent governor who works for the school is not classed as having an interest. That relates to people who are in a relationship.

Head is not allowed to be an elected member of the board, they camln offer opinion but cannot vote and neither is the clerk. Therfore there are only 3 members of the board,so it does seem like the board is not quorate. Which means nothing can be ratified.

That said, recruiting governors is a thankless task! And often if the county council is maintained or the academy are aware then there may be dispensation in place.

Governance is very different for maintained schools and academies. Most academy schools have a GB at a local level but I don't think they are legally obligated to. I think the Trust board holds the responsibilities that would be delegated to a maintained GB.

Sorry missed the bit abiut them being part of an academy.

In that case it's very different, the DFE guidance doesn't apply ad there will be governance fro. The trust and the board at local level is essentially just a lipservice.

You would need to research the academy policy on local governance for accurate information

Headteachers are usually governors. They are defacto governors ie they have to opt OUT rather than in. If they are a governor they have a vote just like all other governors. If they have chosen to not be a governor they would still attend governors meetings but not have a vote.
Your parent governor who works af ge school has been elected as a parent governor- they don't count as a staff governor. Staff governors are elected by the staff

The only role restricted by working at the school is the Chair of the GB

Your GB is obviously carrying some vacancies - it's tough to recruit at the moment. For the purposes of being quorate you need 50% of THE GOVERNORS IN POST (ie vacancies aren't counted)

Academies are ‘governed’ by non executive board. Any individual school ‘governing body’ will be advisory only and there is no legal requirements regarding its membership.
The trust will have a scheme of delegation in their website which will show what ‘powers’ they have delegated to the local
board but it’s usually very little with regards to decision making. And they can change it anytime they want as they have no legal standing.

Why don’t some of the parents become governors, you can be a governor and parent without being a parent governor.

The Trust’s scheme of delegation should give details of governance

Bit late and I only just stumbled across this post

A staff member can not be a parent governor if they work more than 500 hours in a consecutive year. They are included in the staff numbers regardless of their governor status

Staff must not be more than a third of the board. so you have three staff members including the HT you have a problem.