School Governor

[OrangePineapple25]

Worth it or a headache?

Next year my youngest starts school this year and I’ll have an extra day free (sort of - I’ll likely pick up more work) but still will be slightly less pressured.

School are advertising for a new Governor. I’m a solicitor so probably have some skills (not necessarily legal but generally) that might benefit the post?

Also thinking whilst I’m PT it might be experience that boosts my CV?

Any experience?

Thanks @OrangePineapple25, it’s a stressful situation and absolutely not what I thought I was in for.

Despite funding challenges, I think there is still a clear delineation between the responsibilities and remit of the governing body and the school leadership team (or at least they should be, if governance is good!) but a family member who has been a school governor at various school for 30+ years says that her view is that the expectations placed on governors these days is increasingly unrealistic. Make of that what you will but my experience aligns with that.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

I’m just about to finish a 4 year term as a parent governor, I’m planning to stay on in a co-opted role. I’ve enjoyed being able to support the school in a strategic way (PTA is the stuff of nightmares!). I remember reading an article in The Guardian that being a massive time sink, completely disagree….its an evening and morning once a term to cover full governors and a committee. The odd bit of training, some of which is online and a couple of school visits per year.

Go for it and see what happens, you’ll have to apply as a parent governor and get voted in.

What type of school is it?

I only ask as if the school is in an academy trust and this is a local governor type role in, what are essentially committees of the trust board, it's quite different than being in a maintained school.

I think it's a great thing to do but you do need to put effort in to get something out of it.

@Fearfulsaints its part of an academy trust.

Thank you - cannot think of anything worse than competing for the role 🤣🫢

Also what does co-opted mean?

Can you look at the scheme if delegation to see what is delegated to governors?

Generally you will have less things to be accountable for than the trustees and less say over finances, but education monitoring is the same.

Co-opted means the Governors/MAT have chosen you, rather than you being voted as a Parent Governor, Staff Governor or by virtue of an ex officio appointment due to being the Head Teacher. Each board has an agreed number of 'slots' for the different categories - that PP has been occupying a Parent Governor slot, but when her term ends and/or she's ineligible to be elected again due to not having a child at the school, the BOG/LGB have decided that she will fill the Co-opted slot instead, freeing up a space for a new Parent Governor.

It's perfectly reasonable to look at potential advantages to your career - the skills you learn are absolutely valuable, particularly if you aren't already working at C-Suite level.

You should be given access to training, whether via the Local Authority, the National Governance Association (I detest their learning resources/tech system, though) or through other organisations. You'll start off with a general induction training to include safeguarding, then as your interests or the needs of the school determine, more specialised units.

Get to know the Clerk if you can. Some schools still have a useful clerk who knows the school and is able to provide help and advice on many situations, but some are very much kept at arms' length and despite (or because of) their specialist knowledge, can be seen as a threat to a determined Chair or Head and some are kept more as an admin/minute taker.

I was a governor for 5 years and really enjoyed it. The workload wasn't too high and if found it a brilliant way to get to know the school, particularly as a working parent who wasn't around much for pick up and drop off.

I've given it up now as it clashed a lot with another volunteering role I took on but I would definitely recommend it.

It is a good one for career development: I have a strong understanding of budgets through governance, I’ve done evaluation of ££ tenders for contracts, led disciplinary and grievance procedures. I enjoy being strategic in a sector that is very different from my own. It does take a good year to get up to speed with all the education jargon - they flipping love an acronym.

The amount of work varies. I run a sub committee, and I try to say yes to as much other stuff as I can, because there are times I really can’t help out. I fit bits in around my fairly flexible job, and take about 2 days off work (paid) to do school visits/bigger projects.

The big issue in a lot of schools now (in my rural area) is that governments won’t give schools enough to pay for schools to have a teacher in each class so TAs, who are the most used and abused and minimally paid get to pick up the slack. Whilst people high in the trust are being paid high salaries to go and recommend school improvements. Whilst ignoring the obvious solution that might affect their cushy jobs! So be a Governor all you want but don’t expect any power to influence or make change! You can sit for two hours and invigilate a sats exam though 🫠

My dh is a Deputy chair of governors and has been a governor for about 6 years. He finds it interesting and there are courses that you can go on. Dh was on a recent one involving an ex teacher who left and was suing the school, so he had to do a course.
He does to a meeting once every half term, sometimes they get cancelled. They’re usually in the evenings.

I've been a governor for nearly 10 years, now chair. If you're keen to put some time into making sure children are getting the best education possible, I'd absolutely recommend it. I agree with a PP who said the time commitment was very manageable until they became chair! I enjoy feeling I'm making a contribution, and I find educational and schools endlessly fascinating.

I do think it's maybe easier to be a governor of a different school to the one your children go to though. I'm a governor of a different local school, and I think the role of parent governor can be quite tricky for all the reasons others have mentioned.

Schools are always looking for keen and committed governors, and you will have a great skillset to offer.

your governing body didn’t have enough input into the school. We have four sub committees for finance, curriculum, staffing and buildings. Staffing committee is involved with all appointments. In addition each governor was linked to a subject area and met with the lead teacher for that area.

I was a Governor for 4 years, and it was interesting, but very challenging.
All the meetings were in the evening, so think about how that would work for you.
As a non-parent, I felt I was truly impartial, but there were some parent Governors who basically just wanted to influence things to benefit their own kids.
The employment law side is fascinating, but the financials are tricky.
Also beware of a Head and teachers who want to make things political, and don't seem to belong in the real world!

It is an interesting job but do not underestimate the amount of training and bureaucracy involved.

I did it for 6yrs across two primary schools. I found it quite frustrating, everything moved along at a snails pace and the full governing board meetings were a mixture of very dominant governors and those who remained completely silent. The sub committee meetings were the ones I found more interesting but often felt Inwas nodding along and agreeing with the very effective experienced SBM rather than actively critiquing

I’m a parent Governor with early years specialism. We have 6 meetings a year at 430pm for around 2 hours. We are expected to attend at least 4 of them. We have training probably around 8 times a year (some mandatory some optional) I do 2 school visits a year for a couple hours where I get a tour and ask some questions, look at attainment and write a report.

its ok , I have found our school to not be that supportive unless you are singing from their hymn sheet. So it’s sometimes difficult to challenge the school. But in a more willing school I can see it would be rewarding. I like knowing the ins and outs of the school and my son who has Sen has always had all his needs met (as he should but I don’t know if my role makes a difference)

Vice chair of governors here and being asked to stand as chair for the next academic year.

We are a locally maintained school so it is slightly different form a financial monitoring stand point but the rest of the takes are similar.

The basic premise is that you offer strategic oversight of the way the school is run. So do they actually do what their policies and procedures say they do.

Involves a lot of training in the first 12-18 months to understand the roles. Safeguarding and budgeting for a school as it does run very differently to private industry.

The rest is attending school to meet with core staff and sometimes the kids for 360 feedback, writing a report on your visit to summarise what you have seen, does it match to the policies/procedures/school development plans.

Done right it's really rewarding!

Thanks everyone - your responses have been really useful.

I think I’m going to go for it, PP mentioned re-writing the equality policy because it was wrong. That’s exactly my cup of tea 🤣

Governors shouldn't be re writing policies they should be questioning them, and possibly editing them in small ways. If the policy needs a re write that's the job of someone at the school.

It's a strategic oversight job, not a "get involved in the nitty gritty".

I love it, really interesting and so far not too time consuming. I can see how it could be more time consuming depending on the size of the school and sub committees.

I think you should go for it. It’s a rewarding position and, once you have completed the initial training, isn’t too much work at all. Arrange to speak to the chair of governors and find out more - you will get a sense of their expectations and whether they sound a stable team to be a part of.

Being a governor on the local board of a school in a MAT is a bit more straightforward than governor on a maintained school. In a MAT a lot of the responsibilities that would fall on maintained school governors are witin the remit of the MAT board. Even the contents of agendas can be set by the MAT, in other words they set the agenda. So being a governor in a MAT school can be a bit less onerous than the situation - a strategic role that's still interesting.
Technically the 'local governing board' of a school in a MAT is a committee of the MAT trust board.

Time wise it’s more than just the meetings but it depends how long it takes you to understand and grasp the papers and the training around it. I found it easily do-able alongside a FT job.
the massive time drain is all the parents coming to you in the playground asking for help/ complaints. I just used to listen for a few minutes say “oh that certainly does sound like hard work” or similar and then tell them how to properly raise their complaint - ie teacher then head then us. In writing. Inevitably they didn’t bother.