Do school governors have perks?

[itsraining2024]

Parent governor at my child’s school gets to pick her kids up 5 mins earlier than everyone else and from a different side entrance. I’m not sure if this is normal. We all have other children to pick up and get late. I’d understand if she was a school teacher.

No. Absolutely not. There are no perks. There must be a reason for this that is related to the child, and nothing to do with the parent also being a governor.

of course school governors don’t have any perks! As the previous poster has said, there must be a completely unrelated reason for the parent collecting her children earlier and from a different entrance. I’ve worked closely with governors for the last 25 years and this just wouldn’t happen in any school.

The only perks I ever got as a school governor was sitting in the front row at the school play and meeting the speaker at the sports award night.

No, no perks

It may be that something has been agreed entirely separately for that parent, as it could have been for any parent, but their being a Governor must not have been a factor in any decision

(Governor for about 6 years until a couple of years ago)

No. There must be a reason-a complicated pick up for a SEN child at another school? A tight deadline for getting to work? A train to catch? ( those are all reasons I have actually known for something like this happening)

Free tea and coffee at meeting and if you’re lucky maybe a biscuit.

Picking up kids early and from a side enterance is a reasonable adjustment for some SEN.

No, special adjustments are based on need, not favours. If her child is being picked up early from a different entrance there’s a good reason for it - SEN, domestic abuse (e.g. to remove child and be away before other parent shows up, etc.). It won’t be as a favour or ‘perk’.

You've got to be kidding. No perks for school governors. Not even a tea and biscuit at meetings. You do it for love if the school and the desire to help an organisation who gave helped your children. If anything it costs you money and time and annual leave from work 😂

I don’t get any special treatment but I do have all the teachers emails if I need to speak to them. And I know what’s happening behind the scenes. The PTA get front row seats to the Xmas concert though.
Maybe there’s another reason they use that entrance that you are not privy to.

No perks, and no tea or coffee now either, water for two hour meeting starting at 6, so straight from work. I do get a front row seat at school productions ( senior school ) but I don’t think that makes up for the daytime meetings, student focus panels, disciplinary meetings, exclusion panels, HT performance meeting, exam analysis meeting, dreaded Ofsted and mountain of online training and reading of papers - you get the picture, governor for 15 years, you do if for the love of education, it’s students ,mine long gone now and the community.

Some of our meetings are on Teams so you have to provide your own tea and coffee, so don’t even get that perk!

Or avoiding a strange parent who thinks that being a governor involves perks.

My board of governors are an unruly lot and there’s down right insurrection if there are no biscuits at meetings. 🤣 No other perks whatsoever. Governor for ten years.

No perks here, we get a reserved front row seat at productions and occasional priority booking at parents evening but only if it clashes with a governors meeting.

No. It was the single most thankless role
I have ever undertaken. It also made it very difficult to properly advocate for my own child. No front row seats at performances, no tea or coffee, no early pick ups.

Just high expectations, often a sense of resentment from staff, and sometimes very upsetting and challenging work with no support or adequate training.

I think they’re important and undervalued roles (if done properly). But would never ever step up to do it again.

Another Governor saying no perks.

My child did "get to" go in via the SENCOs office every morning due to such severe anxiety she would vomit on the school field every morning without it.

If there were some perks more people would get involved. The pick up arrangements will be for a good reason

I was a welfare/first officer in a large primary school once.

Break times and lunchtimes there would always be a queue of children with small injuries/feeling ill/trying it on to get send home at my door.

I was told by SLT who the children of the governors were and to pick them out of the line and prioritise them.

I refused. Why should I have a child sit and wait to have a cut cleaned and looked after, or a child in pain form a fall and needs to be assessed to seee if they have broken anything wait so a governors child who says they are feeling funny can be seen first?

I was also told that the governors should be called immediately to say their child had been in Welfare for the tiniest thing.

I was called into a meeting and given a warning for refusing to prioritise their children.

Absolutely no perks, hours of unpaid training, paperwork to read and unpaid attendance of meetings. Plus there is no way you can ever take your child out of school for a day here or there to save on holiday costs. Plus nowadays an increasing number of parent complaints and politics which you have to avoid if you have parent friends at the same school.

I struggle to believe this.

It will be to do with the needs of her child (maybe SEN) or family circumstances rather than being a governor.
However due to fear over OFSTED some HT do ask staff to be extra careful around governor children. It doesn’t happen everywhere but I was told to be ‘mindful’ that a certain child was a governor’s daughter.

Well, it happened. And it was shit and one of the reasons I only lasted one year before I left.

No, it will be for a different reason like SEN or disability. Some children can't cope during transitions.

However, they might be avoiding a parent because of a decision relating to being a governor. (Ours decide on how long violent/sweary parents are banned for) However that would defeat the purpose if the parents could still see them so I'm guessing it's SEN.

Just realised some parents might think this of me. I’m not a governor but I’m head of the PTA (again no perks). I drop off my child five or so min late twice a week, it because he has medical care twice a week before school. It’s all arranged and he isn’t marked as late for these.

No perks, apart from the occasional biscuit.