Governor removed child from school

[Schooldinners1]

AIBU for more traction. Governor at our primary stepped down and removed her daughter from reception. What would you make of this? There's been a bit of chatter.

I resigned as a governor as I didn’t feel the school was doing its best for the children. There was clear evidence of this. In the process of moving DC now. They and others were/are being failed.

Honestly, keep your beak out. Unless you personally have an issue with the school just carry on as you were.
No wonder schools struggle to get parent governors.

It’s got absolutely nothing to do with you. Keep your nose and shit out of it.

Posters are going to fall over themselves to tell you its not your business and there is something wrong with you for asking.

In reality though, of course you are going to wonder if they know something about the school that you don't. Every other poster here would too.

It's quite a long time ago now but still rankles.... I was vice chair of governors at a faith school, firstly parent governor and then asked to stand again as a faith governor. Huge mistake because my position then was in the gift of the Bish.

Anyway I ended up chair of some committees, including the renumeration which had delegated responsibility for the salaries of the SMT.

The Head was at the top of the salary scale and due to retire in a year or two, and the parish priest, who was Chair of Governors, asked my committee to approve an exceptional increase to the salary scale so that they would get an annual increment each year until retirement (on top of any general pay increase). The committee discussed it at length and decided that the Head was fairly paid considering other factors such as size and student population and that it couldn't justify authorizing such an increase. All ok we thought and duly reported up the chain.
However priest and HT had already assumed this was a done deal!

HT went off sick and PP complained about 'my' decision. It resulted in the Diocese requiring me to step down as I was bringing governors into disrepute. As the cttee then had no chair the Chair of governors was then able to approve the change and the HT coasted along another couple of years sucking up a chunk of the staffing budget which could have been better spent elsewhere.

If I had remained a parent governor they would not have been able to do this. It really shocked me and left me feeling very vulnerable. With hindsight I was outmanoeuvred because as a parent governor I had pushed through some changes regarding safeguarding and equal opportunities that the school were reluctant to take on board.

Phew! It still hurts. Congratulations if you've read to the end. 😊

Ask the Clerk for copies of the minutes since Sept.

You aren't to know. But don't gossip. She may have become a Governor thinking she could get some sort of special treatment for her child and it didn't work. Probably wasn't that but bear in mind it can be any number of reasons that this has happened.

I feel like any parent would speculate.

I doubt there's a big conspiracy going on.

It will be as simple as the child wasn't thriving at the school, or a place came up in another school that suited better. Parent governor moved their child same as any other parent could in the circumstances.

Nobody said there was any conspiracy. But you can't know why it happened, your're speculating. It could of course be due to an issue with or a failing in the school.

Well there’s obviously been a big fall out. That’s what I’d make of that.

I agree with this.

Obviously gossiping isn't going to help, or get you any actual answers that you know are true. But I think it's normal to wonder.

Personally I would be keeping my eyes and ears open.

I have very little unconditional faith in schools and teachers after our experience of reception. We swapped schools and our child is now utterly thriving.

You get a lot of grief for questioning, and you get asked things like the head tilty "is this your first child", or people look at you like you're some sort of adversarial arsehole, but some schools do have shitty cultures, ineffective leadership, make poor choices for the wellbeing of all children. That was our experience of the first school, and it wasn't just us- lots of families have since jumped ship, 10% of the year group left for other local schools on the same day a couple of weeks back.

There's also the possibility that it was just a potential culture and personality clash between family and school.

I think retaining a healthy degree of suspicion and questioning is something that every parent ought to do with the people that come into contact with their child.

I trusted blindly in reception year and swallowed my concerns much to the detriment of my own child, and I bitterly regret it.

If the parent held the position as parent governor, maybe it happened effectively in the other order - the child is moving schools (got a place at first choice perhaps?) so the parent couldn't hold the parent governor role any more?

I offered to resign when I changed my eldest to an independent school halfway through his time at primary. I still had one DC in the school so they asked me to stay. The move was not the fault of the school - they just did not have the bandwidth to give him the extension work he needed. I really valued my time as a governor - I could see the utter dedication the staff had and the challenges they face in terms of resourcing.

I feel like it's fine to want to be informed if there is anything that concerns my child. If they know something that actually would be of interest to the other parents of kids in the same year obviously you would like to find out more.

It may not even be an issue with the school but something else. Of course they can do what they want it just does raise eyebrows cause you now see them walking to the school next door in a new uniform 😄

They were both quite well-known and the daughter very friendly so I did feel it was a bit of a shame.

Nope, still none of your business even if it was related to stuff going on at the school.

It might be, depending on what it is that's going on.

The faux lack of interest is weird.

Non of your business could be a whole host of reasons that are nothing to suggest anything wring with the school

Bloody hell, so please really read a lot into what we governors do? I'm a governor at two schools, there are plenty of reasons I would move my kids that have nothing to do with the schools and many governors stand down when their children leave, terms are only 4 years.

I have I one children on one school and three at another I'm governor at, in September one will go to a different school and that decision is what's right for him and is absolutely no reflection on the other child I am governor at.

If you're really interested and you see the mum a lot, why not just ask her why she moved her child?

But they can. As explained above, parent governors can finish their term of office if their children leave the school. It's their choice.
Parent governors aren't on the board to represent the parents in that school. They are there as representative parents, which is entirely different. A lot of people don't get this... including a lot of parent governors. You know they've got it wrong when they start taking complaints from parents shared in the playground to the board meetings. 😂

Not everyone would start speculating on a public forum though.

At a school speech day when I was at school, the chair of governors addressed the parents about the need for new governors, and for some reason included a statement about how you couldn't possibly be a governor if you had a child at a different school. This amused our family, as my dad was a governor at the next school over. (He later joined the governors at our school, too.)

It could mean something ot northing. We have had absolutely vile parent govenors and wouldn't have trusted them on bit, and yep some flounced