To ask for tips on being a successful Parent Governor?

[buffersandbumpers]

Oldest DC started school in Sep. I have been elected as a Parent Governor (from a cast of one) and just wanted to see if there are any top tips on how to be remotely good from fellow Mumsnetters. I have no experience of schools/education other than my own (20years ago so things have changed!). This is probably in the wrong place on here but couldn't find anywhere else... Thank you in advance :)

I've been a parent governor for almost 3 years now and have just been elected onto the Select Committee for Children and Young People, and I'm also a LA Governor for another school.

Top tips:

-Ask the Clerk for a list of Acronyms.
-Question, question, question. If you don't feel confident to ask a question in a meeting, identify a friendly soul and ask them for an explanation afterwards.
-There is no such thing as a stupid question.
-Your role is strategic not operational. That means that you wouldn't be expected, say, to interfere with how the Head Teacher manages a D&V epidemic, but you would be interested in whether the policies surrounding communicable diseases are robust and whether they are fit for purpose.
-Get all the training you can.
-Remember to keep everything confidential. It's so easy to get drawn into a conversation and end up backed into a corner.
-If someone has a complaint they need to exhaust the complaints process before complaining to the Governors, and then they need to do so properly in accordance with policy.
-Your role is to be a representative of the parents, not a parent representative. In other words, you aren't a reporter, raising issues for parents. You have an overall view of the parents and you can use that to help shape policy/procedure.

Read the Ofsted reports on schools going into special measures.

Note the parts about "governors who accepted the head's explanation uncritically" and "governors whose assessment of the school was not robust and in large part was over-optimistic".

Don't be those governors.

A local secondary school has a governing body which was at least 50% parents. Most were enthusiastic cheerleaders for the school and, by extension, the head.

The school has dropped into special measures (from "Good" less than twelve months ago), the head and most of the SMT have been removed and the entire governing body has been dissolved.

Don't be that governor.

Thanks all - really useful stuff. I will make sure I read the stuff and go on training (I hadn't realised the importance of that) and I get the confidentiality bit as deal with that in day job.
Luckily it's a good school with a good head so far as I can gather and appears well run and popular. It's only a small village school with less than 80 pupils which could be a blessing (or not!).

DH is a parent governor and loves it.

We have a really strong governing body and they all have a really good relationship with teachers, parents and the head.

Nothing like the experiences above.

He's had the occasional parent in the playground who have approached him with complaints or whatever, but he's had to be really clear that they need to follow the school procedures.

And be careful what you say and never be tempted to gossip, even a simple "sorry, I can't talk about it" has been twisted by a few of the more determined gossips

I started as a parent governor last Jan and am loving it. You get to see another side of the school's life and the full range of challenges they can face.
Your role is to challenge - 'why did that child get excluded?'; 'why did our performance dip in the last SATS?', etc.
It's really helpful to spend time in the school - our school likes Governors to spend one day a term in the classes, asking what's going on, why, looking at books, talking about pupil progress, asking questions. I think to fully understand a bit more than one day a term is necessary, then your challenges at the Governing body meeting are well-informed.

Thanks Effjay, I like the idea of spending a day in school finding out more. Especially as my experience is so limited. I've gone into this quite naively I think so really appreciate the feedback.