To have been a little surprised to have seen...

[lovecheese]

The Chair of Governors at my DCs school with his granddaughter today,wearing the uniform of another local school? Dont know the family or their circumstances, but after his speech at school recently celebrating its good OFSTED report and how the community should be proud of what the school has achieved just found it a little TBH.

Maybe his grandaughter doesnt live in the area?

Maybe they couldn't get into his school.

His GRANdaughter?? So she could live anywhere? My Mum is a school governer. We live 250 miles away. Are you suggesting I send my kids to her school because my Mum says it's the best in her area.

If not distance, how do you know she's not statemented to another school for SN?? Or that she's a practicing Catholic and your school isn't a faith school?

But it's his granddaughter, not his own child. How many people would let grandparents dictate which school they are sent to?

maybe she isn't local or maybe she goes to a special school

Don't be .
It could be a number of things

so if your FIL was governer of another local school and really proud of it, but you very much liked a different school for your DCs - would YOU send them to your FILs school or would you go with your own parenting ideas?

Maybe if it were his daughter but it isnt.

YABU.Maybe she doesnt live in the area. Maybe her parents wanted her ot go to a dif school as it was more suited to her in some way. Maybe he has no input into where his grandaugter is schooled - why would he?

I remember very fondly the huge arguments my dad and I used to have about my DCs school before he died.
Loved my dad . never would have sent my DCs to the school he chose though...

Maybe she did not get in...

.... do you expect the Governer of your local school to pull the necessary strings to get his grandaughter into that school?

My mum was a governor at the local primary school in our village whilst my sister and I went to a private school in the next town.

So what? She was an excellent advocate and fund raiser for the school.

he doesnt get 2 make the choice 4 his GRANDdaughter its not his own daughter, so whats the big deal?

...pretty unanimous....

Also the Chair of a school's Governors needn't neccessarily be a parent him or herself, do they? Governors are made up of more than just parents - ie Local Authority governors, teachers reps, church reps (in the case of faith schools) and I assume that these governors are equally able to become Chair.

YAB a bit U
She may not be in the same school as her grandfather, as it might be a bit weird, and a difficult situation. I was a student at a school where my mother taught, and it sucked. Honestly. You can't misbehave, because you know it will get straight back to your parent/grandparent very quickly, there's accusations of favouritism and so on.

Childs uniform was of a local school. Completely see peoples point about parents choice not his, absolutely, but just wondered why would you want to be a chair of govs in a school that you dont have any links with?

Seriously, what is it at the moment with this "governor not using the school" queries? Is there something a Governor has to sign when they take up the position that says "I will use this school for all children in my family"? I thought they just had to agree to something like "I will help steer this school well"?

I'm going to slightly hi-jack the thread (sorry OP!).

A governor at my DSs primary school (with a very good record) has just pulled one of his own DD(s) to put her in the local private school. (a) because they have recently come into money and (b) because his wife thinks the daughter is 'specially gifted' (like we don't all think that about our kids!).

Should he remain a governor at our school?

Maybe it's the school he went to, or his children when they were young. Maybe it's his local school. Maybe his friends or neighbours have/had children there. Maybe he just saw they needed someone to put in a bit of effort, and felt he could do some good there. People get involved in all sorts of altruistic activities when there is no obvious connection.

Maybe he has other family links with the school (other than his granddaughter).

I have a friend who became a governor at the school her children attended. Then the family moved house, and the children moved to a different school near to their new house. The friend is still a governor at the old school. Is there anything wrong with that?

alexsdad - since he has a good track record, he presumably cares about the school and wants what's best for it. So no-one should be pushing him to step down as a governor just because he now has a child at another school. Actually I'd be more disappointed in him if he stood down from doing something useful and important just because it no longer had any "payback" for him in terms of improving the school for his own child.

I do not understand what the problem is. I know people who are governors in schools where their Dcs do not go and vice versa. Not governors are meant to be parents. In our school actually only 2 of the governors do have/had a child in the school.

Is it that you think he cannot be a good governor because he does not have children in that school or that he is in a way "betraying" the school because some of his famiky members go to a different school?