What do parents and teachers really think of school governors?

[DiggerMum]

I am a primary school governor and have a strong background in education and children's services. I feel I have some relevant support and experience to offer my school and put in a lot of hours and effort, as do lots of the other governors I know. I sometimes feel a sense of ambivalence/ defensiveness from some (not all!) teachers and similarly with some parents (again certainly not all!) - some parents for example seem to talk to me thinking I can sort an issue with the school for them (not my role!) or think I do it to advance my own child. I was in a conversation with a teacher recently (not from my school) in which she said that governors were just for decoration, didn't contribute anything and really just a waste of space - according to her, all teachers think this, and most parents, but just go along with it as the government says it is what we have to do. In my opinion Governors are very useful and are currently put under increasing pressure in terms of management and leadership in schools. I suppose I am just therefore pondering what parents and teachers really think of them/ people like me and is it worth doing what I do?

Reading this thread makes me wonder why I bother

What I'm reading is that nobody has any idea what you do '- therefore schools should tell parent so their roles and responsibilities?

Oh and if you could get your finger out on the bullying issues - we would be most grateful

How nice it would be if we governors were just "decoration" - then I would not have to go an all these courses, chair committees, make crucial decisions about the school's vision and direction, be grilled by OfSted for hours, break bad news to staff about redundancies because the budget is such a farce, read every policy (reams of them!), understand pages and pages of boring data and generally do many of the things that the LA education dept used to do - and I do not get paid. The responsibilities of governors have increased beyond measure. The government has allowed Educ depts to wither away in a cost-saving exercise and the governors have had to pick up that slack

I understand how you feel. I think, sometimes, that these are things most teaching staff feel they also know a lot about. They want to contribute and would be perfectly capable. They want to be involved, but (aside from the staff governor), they have no say in these matters and are kept out of these important matters.

It's not that you are not appreciated, it's the taking away of control and giving it to volunteers who have an 'outside' view of the school.

Add to that feeling of governors being there to judge.

All of the above is based on my own experience...

Governors at my school have zero power, they apparently keep their heads down to keep the peace. The head does as she likes, about 20 staff are leaving this year, just like last year. I am extremely disappointed that the governors haven't called the head into question over this. It's devastating to the school.

About as useful as chocolate teapots. There for decoration and gossip.

Wannabes.