School Governor

[thursdaygrumbles]

DH has an opportunity to be a governor at our DT’s primary school.

No prior experience.

Should I tell him to go for it or run for the hills? I like that he’d be giving something back to the school but I’m also nervous that it could potentially alienate us from some other parents.

I am definitely a worrier though 🤪

any experiences welcome, good or bad?

I was one at a school though did not have children there at the time (was a community governor). Very interesting experience, would recommend to anyone, especially if you have some professional expertise that is useful.

We had a governor who was an accountant and so could scrutinise finances, something many people steer clear of. Another was a surveyor, so could check any building work was not overpriced or over specified.

Standalone Primary or part of an Academy Chain? The role can differ.

I would recommend it.

Why would it alienate you? It can be quite a bit of work. Probably 6 x long meetings a year at least, and visits etc. It's interesting though.

Part of an academy

DH is a product owner for a global IT Company.

I don’t know really, I’m probably over thinking it. The first thing i think of is that he may be part of a team that decides whether a pupil will be excluded.

I found it interesting but a central long standing group were involved in everything and the rest were peripheral… takes a while to make it to the core from what I saw

It can be time consuming but I found it very rewarding.

Is it a parent school governor? I wasn't planning to be one but after being asked a few times and wanting to support the school I said yes but on the understanding I already have a full plate but will do my best! It has been great to be able to support the wonderful school my DC is at and have a closer relationship with the wonderful head, yes some meetings and on line training, I try to arrange work to be able to attend but not always possible. This is a small primary school, may be different elsewhere and there needs to be commitment as much as possible. Xx

I did it a few years ago. It's interesting, and good to feel you are helping.

As he's a parent, it's highly unlikely he'll be part of any Governors' Review Panel, as it can be deemed as a conflict of interest - because he'll know the parents/the child could be in a class with your DC, which makes it almost inevitable that the decision would be revoked if the parent were to go further to Independent Review if he were on it.

In any case, the Governors don't make the decision to suspend or exclude, that is solely the decision of the Head - the panel can uphold or instruct the Head to rescind the suspension in accordance with the Law and the Behaviour Policy. But the odds are he won't be on any Exclusion Panel until your DC have left.

I'm a governor and love it, would highly recommend.

We have an agreement with a nearby school that if either of us ever had an exclusion then we would form a panel for the other, to avoid a conflict of interest.

Don't forget as well as the meetings to factor in time to visit your school.

I was one decades ago.
I would recommend it.
But that was then and this is now.

As it is part of an Academy you may be asked to be part of a panel but for another school so you would not have any connection to the pupil. As part of a panel you are checking that the school has followed the correct procedure if suspending/excluding pupil. Panel meetings are confidential

It's very rewarding.
I was a parent governor then a local authority governor. Never had any issues.

Thank you that’s really reassured me that it would be a great thing for him to do

Dh has been a governor both at my dc's primary and now at their secondary. So around 15 years in total now.
First of all I'll assure you that it doesn't mean that your child will automatically get the best part, nor will the teachers be prevented on moving away mid year (someone on here assured me that my ds having had 8 teachers over his first 3 years at school wouldn't have happened if there had been a governor's child in his class. There were two actually (and he was the chair too), and I'm not sure how they thought it would be prevented as all of them unexpectedly moved on for good reason).
Dh will tell you the only benefit is that he is usually offered front row seats at any school production. He's not sure that always that is a benefit though especially if recorders and 6yos are involved.

He has sat on exclusion panels, and on appeals. He doesn't particularly enjoy that aspect, although they've occasionally had one that they've made a decision that has made a huge (good) difference to the pupil and he's been delighted when they get a report back saying how well the pupil has responded and it's been a turning point in their life.
He's also done a few interviews, especially for heads.

He did a lot of training at first, which he didn't really enjoy, mostly because we live at one edge of the county and all the training was the opposite edge. He's not tremendously keen on 8am meetings which is when the governors seem to meet too.

He's enjoyed doing most of it. There have been occasional interesting moments, like the person who threatened to take legal action because someone had let fireworks off from the school ground (solicitor's letters and all) and difficult moments when things weren't quite so easy.

But he does feel that he has been able to make a difference in a good way.