To really hate being a school governor and want to step down after two years

[kevinknowsimmiserabletho]

My DC are all grown up and as I have more time on my hands these days I volunteered to be a governor at the school they attended.

I've been doing it for two years now, so I feel I've really given it a go.

But honestly, I hate it.

I don't mind attending meetings etc and giving my time it's not the hard work element as such. Just the actual make up of the board and the fact that I seem to be there to be a bum on a seat rather than because anyone is paying attention to anything I have to say.

I feel like it's a lot of responsibility but I can hardly influence anything at all and have to go along with the status quo or upset the clique of people who have been there for years.

It's a four year time but honestly I feel so miserable I just want to stand down.

WIBU just to go? If it was a job I would have resigned by now.

@kevinknowsimmiserabletho MN is not always reliable on the role of governors. I would say that collectively you have responsibilities. Power? No. The big issue is how chairs include all governors so they are valued. As I described above, it’s via committees, but it’s still a partnership that includes the head. It’s inevitable a chair will be working more closely with the head. The problem is when this info isn’t shared when it could be. How do such discussions inform the direction of the school? Ideally there’s no small cabal, but it happens. It’s control.

I work in school governance as my day job and I have also been a chair of governors in an LA school and a trustee in an academy trust. I’m really saddened (but probably, sadly, not that surprised) to hear so many stories of people feeling that being a school governor was not a valuable or appreciated role.

When you have an effective GB that supports and challenges the school leadership and works together as a properly collective body it can be really powerful. But that very much depends on the HT and school leaders being open to that support and challenge and the GB being a functional group of people who can work with each other, respecting diversity of opinion and who understand their role.

For those of you who’ve had bad experiences in governance I’m very sorry. It shouldn’t have been like that. For those just starting or currently in it, stick with it if you’ve got a good strong HT who values the external scrutiny governance brings. If you don’t have that don’t feel any shame in walking away. As others have said life is too short! But do maybe consider trying another school. All GBs are different.

re LA schools and academy schools. Academy local governors have a lot less decision making power (usually) as they’re not the legally accountable body for the school but being an academy local governor can be really rewarding as these local governing bodies usually focus on school improvement, curriculum, standards, safeguarding, staff and pupil wellbeing, relationships with stakeholders etc which are often the things that are of most interest to people who volunteer to be governors.

Thank you, I'm sure the committees would be great to be a part of but unfortunately I am not able to attend any of the committees because they run during school hours.

I'm a teacher and I cannot leave my job in one school to go and volunteer in another one. I wasn't told that this made me unsuitable to be a Governor but they will not move any of their committee meetings to after school and I have raised this with them but they say that's how it has to be.

This is one of many frustrations, I have a lot to offer but can't offer it because committees are scheduled around the long term committee, most of whom don't work, and many of whom make comments like "there is no excuse" for Governors not attending anything.

I have tried to be as anonymous as possible on this thread so haven't made this point explicit, but it's one of my many frustrations. The attitude that if I can't match the availability of the retired/part time working board members then I am clearly just not committed.

I feel they could flex a bit to include the rest of us but they won't.

Hence it's unrewarding.

That’s awful @kevinknowsimmiserabletho that they are so unhelpful and immovable about committee meeting timings. It’s deliberately excluding you and quite frankly they should be ashamed of themselves

Not quite the same but I’m the chair of the PTA in a fairly substantial secondary school. I get next to zero support from any parents, the staff bend over backwards to help. And then you read snippy comments on MN about how all PTA volunteers are myopic helicopter parents. If I step down the PTA will fold as it’s a charity and has to have the correct committee set up - I can’t even get someone to help run a bar.

That sounds really thankless and I'm really sorry and totally agree about the PTA bashing you see on here, it's really not on. Honestly think you're amazing to do all that.

Thank you. It is a feeling of being excluded - it's not that I expect everything to revolve around me, but I feel that if they want to include new Governors they could perhaps review their meeting times when new ones join and in actual fact they seem to genuinely believe that I should be able to stroll out of work for an 8.30 meeting.

It's bizarre. Like any of them would be ok with the staff at their school doing that?!

@kevinknowsimmiserabletho When I clerked Governing Bodies, over 25 years ago, (and have attended many meetings since), hardly any were during the day. Just a few dinosaur church schools. I think it’s very unusual here. You might remember I said earlier that most governors on my last GB were working in schools. Either as finance people or teachers. Even now only 2 are not connected with education and schools. They would not be available in the day.

A few years ago, governing bodies were expected to appoint suitably experienced people to the boards. So finance, HR, premises experience etc was useful. I’m actually CIPD qualified. Any GB that takes this seriously, will not meet during the day because members are working. A few firms give time off for community work but it’s not many.

I would say though, that the school should have invited you to a coffee and chat and given you the SIP, minutes etc before you started (not sure when!) Then you would have seen meeting times. I can assure you, no GB with broad representation meets during the day. If it does, it’s few working members and it’s run for the convenience of the staff at the school who don’t want to come out again in the evening or stay at school. Usually a compromise is reached because useful people are valued and many of them work.

I agree. I don’t know many GBs that meet during the day and where they do it’s because it suits all the members not just a certain clique. I feel quite cross on your behalf @kevinknowsimmiserabletho !

Thank you, this is really, really helpful context and I appreciate you going into so much detail around this.

I have raised that the lack of transparency around meeting times and the fact that I struggle to make them (which I thought would have been obvious from my application information) with the chair and the clerk.

The reply I got is that they'd strive to be more open about meeting times in future. Absolutely no inclination to change the meeting times whatsoever and it seems they'd rather put off people who full time than flex to accommodate them?

This is what I mean about the culture, and not feeling valued. I have so much to offer as a SENCO and parent of ND children but they don't seem to have any interest in making sure I can be included in a meaningful way.

It's frustrating. I did, and genuinely do, want to do something positive but I can't find a way.

Thank you, this is really helpful to know and is hardening me in my resolve to leave.

I have raised this point with them and they absolutely did not reflect on what they could do to be more inclusive.

I've also tried to arrange my link governor meetings with a staff member at 3PM who flatly refused and told me to make arrangements to see them during their PPA hour. I get that that would suit them best but it's not physically possible for me to be there.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I was a governor for about four or five years. Responsibility without the power to do anything was the hallmark of the role.

My biggest bugbear was that the accounts always showed the school running a deficit in years 2 onwards and running out of money the following year. I fell out with the head when I asked what they were doing about it. "It takes a long time to make teachers redundant". "Well looking at these accounts you'd better start the process now". Didn't go down well.

Biggest achievement was getting the school to employ a private ed psych so kids with problems were diagnosed quicker and the school could get funding to support then quicker.

I stayed on a little longer to make sure the board was full during COVID but couldn't believe the concern about teachers mental health when they were sat at home sending out a few twinkle sheets each week as a proxy for remote learning.

Being a governor did help me get a senior support job at an independent school. The governors are generally senior in their field, directors, business owners etc. My governors papers can be 100 pages long, and the governors are given the opportunity and information to make strategic decisions. I don't think a meeting goes by where the head gets everything going his own way. And that is healthy.

@kevinknowsimmiserabletho I think you have the answer. The teacher won’t see you when you are available. It’s when they are available. That’s not going to be helpful. I assume you see your SEN governor at your school at a time that suits both of you! They should have given you data about the school, minutes and supporting documents (eg sip update, heads report) so you knew about challenges, decisions, meetings and times.

I am sensing a push back from the school. . They don’t want any challenge from someone who might know something. You do need to be careful though. Your role as SEN governor is to check how well (or not) the SEN policies are working via evidence. Are SEN Dc making progress? If not, what are the barriers? How is the school including it’s SEN pupils? Is the SIP element for SEN achieving its aims? What evidence is there for this? What other evidence might be useful? Or strategies? It’s not about how the school actually teaches SEN children. That’s operational. So your experience as a mum leans towards operational. I have found that as long as the SEN governor keeps to strategy and sip evidence, it’s usually ok! I used to do pp. Luckily had a great teacher to see about it.

That's a massive win on the Ed Psych, well done. I think you definitely did your bit and I'm sorry you had an equally frustrating experience!!

Thanks for the replies to my message - I’d like to reply more fully to those who have responded, but too tired to reply tonight (been reading papers for full GB later this week!). Will try tomorrow.

Thank you! It's good to know it's worked out for you, I like the success stories!

Well quite, I can't imagine being anything other than professional and collaborative with a Governor but apparently that isn't the culture there.

I haven't read all the replies but one thing I've learned in life is that if you aren't valued and able to use your skills, then move on. Close that door and allow a better one to open that will lead to something more fulfilling.

The issue with being a governor is that using your skills directly is not necessarily what a school wants. They want strategic leadership. Getting an Ed Psych in is 100% operational. It’s the head’s decision. It’s not for an individual governor to say if this is needed or not. If SEN is being impacted by a lack of money being spent on Ed psych time, part of that scrutiny comes from the SIP and the head’s appraisal. Not a governor saying an Ed Psych should come in. Odd school that doesn’t have that anyway!

I meant to add that governors do need to be clear about the role. It’s hugely shifted from even 10 years ago and heads will be very protective about their role and their decisions. For example, governors only get involved in headship and deputy appointments. They are there to hold the school to account but not tell the head what to do regarding operational decisions. So governors need to understand the difference.

100 pages of reading for a meeting is too much if it’s a primary. Secondary? Maybe.

So what's stopping you?

The bits you enjoy shouldn't be done by a governor. As Op mentioned, it's a real no-no for governors to get involved at such an operational level. You should be making strategic monitoring visits. My advice is ditch the governor role.

Well Op, you sound as if you'd be a really good governor in a different school. Yes, dump this one. You could have a read of the public minutes from a few other local boards and see if their governance is more effective and you could expect to be able to carry out the role properly. You should be able to see on their websites if they have vacancies.

I do a little bit of clerking work, just one school, and some training and consultancy for clerks and governing boards. I'm a very experienced clerk, don't need to do it at all now, but find it quite interesting and want to carry on making some sort of contribution. Reading through this post confirms for me that MN is a really bad place to come to find out about the role of school governors. Just a few examples:

An increasing number of Clerks are self employed. Usually a financial decision.

Governors don't always work through committees. A lot of schools now operate the Circle Model of Governance, which can be really effective if the governors are committed.

Parent governors have exactly the same role on the board as any other governor. They can be on pay committees, disciplinary committees, the lot. If they are tainted by prior knowledge they would declare themselves unable to serve on a specific committee like a complaints committee, but that's the same for everyone.

Chairs of governors are 'first among equals'. Their job is to support the head, plan and approve agendas and make sure meetings run well. Unless specifically delegated, they have no authority to make decisions away from board meetings.

Governors can use their skills and knowledge to support the school in a non-strategic way, but their role should be clear. Teaching classes, advising on areas such as the curriculum - no. Very different to a governor taking an assembly on Internet safety, or bringing in their dog for children to meet.

A governing board dominated by staff, or parents, is a badly balanced board. I'm not going to quote it, but the boards have to follow regulations about their constitution, reflected in their Instrument. The numbers are there for a reason. A lot of schools make the mistake of co-opting too many staff or parents to their boards, it's lazy recruitment. They also co-opt staff just because their job requires them to attend meetings - people like finance managers and deputy heads. It's not necessary and really bad practice.

You can resign whenever you like. Just email the chair and cc the head.