to be a bit peeved re: School Governors

[scotchcorner]

I applied to be a school governor. I wrote a personal statement setting out my stall nicely. There are 4 of us going for 3 places and it looks to me like I will be the 1 that doesn't get in because the other 3 are better statements with 2 being very professsional. However, another parent emailed me last night and said that she reckoned that 2 of them were heavily plagiarised. Well, I have just had a very quick Google and in 5 minutes found that of the 2 professional looking ones, the first is about 20% lifted word for word from the internet and the other one in about 50% lifted directly from the internet - and in both cases the plagiarised bits are the best bits.

Is this just how it is? I have not seen previous Governor personal statements before. I don't mind losing but am unhappy to lose to cheats.

I would let the school know and they can decide if they are happy to let them continue.

Is the information in the statement true? If they have just copied a good format that puts forward their reasons for wanting to be a governor then I don't have an issue with that - but if thay have lied and made false statements that should be exposed.

It's parents who will be voting, not everyone will be impressed by the professional sounding statements.

I'd agree with what Cwtches says. When I applied to be a governor, lots of them detailed how important they were, all the professional roles they had and how experienced they were in this, this and this.

I just said "Hi, I'm musicposy. My girls are in Year 3 and Year R and when I'm not running myself ragged after them I teach piano. I'd like to be a governor because I'm keen and enthusiastic" or something of that nature.

I got voted in and the professional statement people didn't. Parents generally want someone like them because they think they will represent them better. But do alert the school if you think proper cheating is going on.

If the information contained in their statements is truthful then they are not cheating by presenting it in a professional format. That's not plagiarism, it's research. If, on the other hand, what they've written is a tissue of lies then that's worse than plagiarism.

You might well find that they are looking for someone whose qualities go beyond the ability to write a statement however. Or at least they should be!

Our LA provides templates for people applying to be Governors.

As long as they haven't told any actual lies, their statements will be fine.

Then it's up to the parents to vote.

The information about themselves is presumably true, if a little inflated. The plagiarised parts are in their preamble, the list of their soft-skills, aims for the school and their conclusion. They haven't even changed the words from the original source, just entirely lifted them. It is just a shame that they didn't lift from the same source becuase that would have been amusing.

Parent Governors need to be approachable - quite often parents will approach you in the playground because you're less scary than the HT!

A lot of parents will feel put off by parent governors who just look like more of the establishment and would prefer the less 'professional' look of yours.

Anyway, as long as they turn out to be good governors with a bit of time on their hands and a dedication to the school, it's all good.

You might be surprised though, if your statement has a 'personal touch', that might make other parents more likely to vote for you.

Good luck.

We didn't have a template, just asked to write a few lines on why we'd like to be considered. I thik there is a difference between research and plagiarism. If the exact paragraph has been used by someone else before it's plagiarism to copy and paste it but it would be reseach if the was used to inspire a new paragraph written by the candidate.

My problem was underestimating the opposition!!

I think it would be churlish to try to get them disqualified on a technicality. Would you consider snitching if you thought your statement was better anyway?

See how the vote goes, you might be surprised.

Generally people vote for the person they know. If they know all the candidates, they will then vote for the person they like the most.

I read the statements because I sometimes find it interesting what people do in their life away from the school gates. But they don't affect my vote.

To be fair the other candidate who has not plagiarised gave a really good impression of herself without being stuffy. She gets my vote :)

It's just self promotion, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, so to speak. Many people will have a slight idea of the actual person anyway and don't need the spiel to make their minds up for them.

Why are there so many vacancies at the same time?

3 sounds like an awful lot?

It is most definitely plagiarism.

But I'm not sure that it is worth making a fuss over. In practice it is hard to penalise people for plagiarism unless (for example with academic work) you have specifically told them not to do this.

And IME governor voting usually corresponds pretty closely to how many people recognise your name and know who you are. I've seen many excellent candidates with great statements lose because they work full time and people don't know who they (or their partner) are.
It is a shit system IMO.

If you are applying to be a parent governor, are there any other vacancies on the governing body? If so you could approach the chair of governors or clerk if you don't get elected and ask if you can apply for that category instead. Do they have the full complement of Local Authority governors? They could nominate you for appointment in that case also.

If you think you have something to offer that the governing body might lack, then you could also think about enquiring to be an associate member. You would be part of the governing body, but not have voting rights. That's often a way in.
To the person who says 3 is a lot of vacancies - it isn't if the terms of office of 3 parent governors happen to have come to an end at the same time. That is quite common. When that happens, even if the ex-governors want to continue, the parent governor election process has to take place.

Of course, I didn't think about re-elections

But I can't see any LA approving a non experienced Governor for an LA Gov position.

The associate Gov is a good idea and if the rest of the Govs agree to it, they can be given certain voting rights too anyway.

I second what schoolgovenor says: ask if you may be an Associate Governor if all the other positions are filled.

A really excellent person with some very valuable skills (financial - gov bodies always desperate for financially literate people!) put herself forward to be a governor at my school. But - as others have noted - not being a "presence" at the school gate, she twice failed to get elected. She is an active associate governor now and most valued.

I agree that the voting system is flawed (aren't they all?!) as often a tiny percentage of ballot papers are returned and the victorious parent is not the candidate most suited to the job. Such people are the first to throw in the towel, however, when faced with two hours of scrutinising RAISE-online data!

I would tell them, at the very least so that they can change any future instructions given to prospective candidates. It's not a personal statement if it's lifted from a template.

Interesting what people are saying.

I was surprised there were 3 available since they were not due to complete their terms until 2013 and 2015. I suspect that people do a year or 2, get it on their CV and resign.

I am not very well known by other parents since I work almost full-time so only see other parents at parties. I will look into the associate governor role.

Yes the voting can often be more of a popularity contest rather than a reflection of who would actually be the best candidate.

Worra, LA's appoint inexperienced school governors all the time. In my area LA governors are quite hard to find, so they aren't choosy. In any case, an inexperienced governor who has some useful qualities to offer, can commit to meetings, visits and training, is more use than some of the experienced governors I know.
I think some people might not realise that only parent governors are elected by the parent body. On most governing bodies that will be 2 or 3 members out of a total of 7 or more. Staff governors are elected by the staff (the Head is automatically a governor unless they decline). Then there will be community (or similar) governors who are elected by the governing body. Plus the associate governors. This all varies a bit with category of school, but it gives an idea. So, if you don't get elected as a parent governor, there are other openings.

Some of the best governors I've met have been parent governors, dedicated and willing to learn and with the best interests of the children at heart. Sometimes the people who look as if they will be best, the professionals, are more interested in something that looks good on their CV. They are the ones arriving late at meetings and saying they don't have time to go on training. They might even think they are so expert in their own field that they don't even need to go on governor training - completely wrong of course!

Scotchcorner, google The guide to the law for school governors and have a read. That tells you about the membership of governing bodies and is good background info for anyone who wants to be a governor.

I'm not sure you can be a "community" governor (what they call them here) if you're a parent. Certainly the one dh is on, they wouldn't take a parent as the idea is that they get different people with different slants on the school.

He'd be at actually having an election where you have to vote. that's only happened once in 7 years I think.

It's a bit like school council anyway. People vote for which parents they've seen around and get on with. I think very few people read the blurb and go by that.

Personally you sound a bit churlish. I wouldn't personally want to be elected in because I'd discounted someone else, as I'm sure it would shoot round the gossip and I think people would generally be less impressed with you getting them discounted than with them for using stuff off the internet.

There is nothing to stop a parent at a school being a community governor, and if a governing body would actively avoid appointing a parent in that capacity I think they would be quite short-sited. One of our community governors is a parent who works for a large financial organisation in London, in addition to expertise she has been able to secure all sorts of support for the school from her company.
This is what the law says:

"Community governors are appointed by the governing body to represent community interests. Community governors can be people who live or work in the community served by the school, or people who do not work or live close to the school but are committed to the good governance and success of the school.
15. In community special schools and foundation special schools, the governing body must appoint as one of the community governors a person (if any) nominated by one or more voluntary organisations designated by the LA. If the school is based in a hospital, the community governor must be nominated by one or more primary care trusts, the National Health Service (NHS) trust or NHS foundation trust.
16. A person is disqualified from appointment as a community governor if he or she is eligible to be a staff governor at the school, or is an elected member of the LA to which the school belongs."

As for not having elections, that is what happens if there are nominations from the same number of people as there are vacancies, or less. If there are more nominations than there are vacancies for parent governors, then by law the governing body must hold elections and give all parents/carers the opportunity to vote.

As I said before, The Guide to the Law is the point of reference here. You might find some of the information shared on an internet discussion group a bit misleading.