I'm a school governor at my DS' school. It's a large secondary academy in a deprived area and there are the usual expectations re: meetings, policy review etc.
This is all fine - I'm committed and signed up because I wanted to do all I can.
When I answered the advert to become a Governor there was no mention of the role only being available to people who could attend meetings during school hours - if this had have been stipulated I wouldn't have applied.
I work in another school as a Head of Department, none of the other Governors work in education themselves. Most are either retired or self employed.
Anyway, since joining I have found that committee meetings are scheduled in the middle of working days. I have explained that I am just not available to attend any kind of meeting in the middle of the day. I cannot get out of my job at a local school to go and volunteer at another school in the middle of the day.
Obviously the school staff get this but the Governors don't seem to? There have been a few comments about people 'not making the effort' to attend meetings. I attend all the full board meetings in the evening and am more than happy to do so.
But surely they could consider moving the committee meetings to the evening rather than just assuming that people can wander off out of work in the middle of the day?
It's really starting to grind my gears now because there is never an acknowledgement that some of us may have commitments that mean we can't make these daytime meetings and it's almost as if we're just not committed that we can't drop everything and attend.
Should I say something officially at this point or just keep sending apologies to meetings I will never be able to make?