To apply to be a parent governor at my child’s infant school?

[Ponderingg]

The school are advertising that there is a position available. I’m not really sure why I’m applying except I feel I might be able to provide some useful input and it would be a new experience.

I work full time in an academic job and I’m mid-career so I don’t have loads of time to give to it and can’t do a lot during the working day.

Has anyone got any experience of this? What is it like being a parent governor? As a parent or teacher, what type of person do you want to be a governor?

In our experience you need a lot of time to do a good job – which you should want/need to.

My DH was a governor with a full time job and it was not really feasible. My SIL also was while working full time and managed it for a year, but she doesn’t have children.

I'm a parent governor, where I am it's very popular, I had to write a supporting statement about what I could offer, what my priorities were, how my background made me good for the role, and then the parents all voted for their preferred candidate.
You need a bit of time during the day, for occasional school visits, when ofsted come etc, most meetings are early evening. It's important you understand the role - it's not linked to day you day running, but more strategic direction of the school, monitoring performance.
Timing is also important. My oldest is in year 3, youngest in year 1, so I have a good understanding of the school but still invested in its sucess.

You need to check how good the Clerk is. If they are properly trained and qualified the governor's life is a million times easier.
Remember that a parent governor is just a governor with a child at the school - not a parent rep.
You should check out the NGA website.
You should definitely read the last year of FGB minutes before you make a decision.
Good Governors are worth their weight in gold

Vice chair of our board here.

I work full time. Have 1 dd and until recently was a single parent.

You do need to have some flexibility to attend during the schoolnday in order to undertake monitoring but there are other ways. I often do teams meetings or email chats to gather the info I need.

The first 8-12 months is intense, there is a lot to learn. 4 years in and the way school budgets are done still baffles me if my mind isn't fully focused.

But it is hugely worthwhile.

Feel free to pm me

I'm the clerk for a governing board at a primary school, so I help to organise the agenda and paperwork/take the minutes/sort out training for governors. We have 3 formal meetings per year, approx 2 hours long, and which will involve you reading about 2 hours worth of reports etc beforehand. We also have 3 informal meetings.which you can just turn up for. Each governor is given a subject and is expected to visit the school once.per term, for an hour or so, to meet the subject lead and see the children working. So not too onerous. Also when you join you will likely have to fill in quite a few forms, and our governors take two safeguarding courses, every 2 years.
They are looking for people who are interested in how the system works and how it can be improved, supporting but also questioning the staff. You need to be willing to.contribute in the meetings, asking questions etc. We have a couple of retired governors and a couple of parents, and they seem to enjoy the chance.to find out a bit more about how the school runs. Ask to chat to the chair to give you a better idea, but I'd say go for it, we need you!

I suspect it depends a lot between schools.

I’m a parent governor of a small primary school. The board meets twice a term in the early evening, which between the meeting itself and the pre-reading of reports is probably three or four hours work each time. Most governors are on a committee - those meet in school hours and are another two to three hours a term. We are expected to visit school in school hours once a term for link monitoring of our specific area of responsibility (a subject eg maths, or some other aspect of school like health and safety), so that’s a couple of hours plus writing it up afterwards or double that if like most of us you have more than one link area. We generally do at least a couple of pieces of training per year, such as conferences, briefings or online training, but those are flexible. There is compulsory annual training in safeguarding, plus at the start of being a governor there are compulsory induction courses from the LA, training in Prevent and the like.

That’s about the minimum, but then some of us also chair the committees or the board or hold specific finance roles that involve more hours and responsibilities again. If Ofsted show up at least some governors will need to be available to talk to inspectors and if there’s problems or significant structural change there may be additional extraordinary meetings, a need to support the HT through additional meetings or planning or other time needed. Most of the school governors have jobs (we have one SAHP and one retired person), and many of those are full time - but almost everyone has a job with some degree of flexibility to do some governor work during the school day.

I’d suggest you talk to the Chair to understand how your school governance operates and also to get a feel for them - if you don’t like or get on with the Chair it’s not much fun.

I thoroughly enjoy it, but it is a significant role in terms of responsibility and time. I would go in with your eyes open.