Chair of governors

[happyoverhere]

Hi
I have been a governor for a couple of years and the chair is now about to resign and guess who is in the frame to take over.......!
Is anyone chair of governors? Am I mad to even think about doing it! I would rather go in with my eyes open rather than be dumped on so is there anything I need to know?
Cheers

I am a chair of governors.

There will be a bit of a learning curve for you to climb, but bear in mind that COG's are drawn form amongst the other Governors, except that they may NOT be an employee at the school, so they generally will not have any special expertise, as such. Thats Ok because expertise is what your Head will have.

Which borough/ LEA are you in, because they will usually have a governor support services section, which will also advise future/new chairs.

Difficult to give more than this rather general advice as it does depend on the particular situation the school is in. I have done a lot of (very interesting things) which generally a chair would not be involved in because the school I chair is currently in the process of moving to a new building on a new site, so I ended up addressing council planning committees etc. Each school is different..

Feel free to PM me.

I'm an ex chair & I was terrified of taking on the role. Two years in I was chair during Ofsted & was told I was the best chair of Govs the lead inspector had ever met! I had reorganised the whole GB & implemented total new ideas & it was an absolute honour to be both a governor & chair.

OP if you are willing to commit time to the role then go for it. I used to feel I was a terrible chair of meetings, but trust me. I learned pretty quickly how to be better. Even then I'd beat myself up if I felt I wasn't as effective as I wanted to be!

Good luck happyoverhere!

Thanks so much everyone, I was sure I would come on this evening to people telling me I was crazy to even think about it.

We are in south London, its a good school with a new head, but there is so much that needs to be done. I will give governor services a call and see what support there is, better to prepared.

Of course, there might be some ruthless business man who wants the job so I might have to fight for it, on the other hand......

Thanks again