Clerk to the Governors

[Education94]

I’m considering a position as Clerk to the Governors in a secondary school.

Is there anyone here who is willing to offer any insight to the role?

I have been told to expect approx 1 evening meeting per months plus associated admin. Does this sound about right, or is it a busier role?

How well does the role fit in with a full time (school based) job?

Would you recommend the role? Or is it more hassle than it is worth?

All opinions / advice welcome.

Not me but a friend of mine does it and gets paid a fortune. Something like £200 per meeting.
She really enjoys it snd it fits round her kids.

Former Clerk to the Board and now Chair of Trustees here - It’s a great job IF it’s taken seriously by your board and the school leadership.

Sadly many treat the role as a purely admin/secretarial role whereas the a big part of the role should be focused on providing procedural advice. Check out the model job descriptions on the NGA website for further info.

As a rule of thumb I wouldn’t consider accepting less than £15 p/h absolute minimum. When I was clerk I was paid 12hrs minimum for each meeting I attended, with overtime paid for anything extra. Work for each meeting included working with the Chair and CEO to decide the agenda, attending the meeting (2hrs max) and writing and circulating the minutes, plus keeping myself up to date with legislation and best practices/reading around. I would sometimes also be called upon to clerk special meetings such as panels etc. This may be a problem if you have a different role in the same school as you could find yourself being asked to minute a colleague’s disciplinary meeting.

A good school or trust will pay for your study time to complete the (DfE funded) courses to help you achieve nationally-recognised qualifications.

I absolutely loved the role and felt valued. It is also excellent training in general and opened lots of doors to me in terms of career development.

Secondary academy trustee - our clerk is also the Examinations officer within the school so has effectively a full time role.

A good clerk will know the regulations and guidance around school governance. There is a course but it's quite a big time commitment which schools are reluctant to pay for. If you don't have this knowledge then you will end up picking it up in bits which will add to your time.

Clerk to governors implies a local authority school? I would say this would be an easier start than a clerk to a multi academy Trust.

I've done it. My school was in special measures so there was a lot of work. I later used the role to get into council committee work. One thing I would say is that I initially had to log hours worked and was paid massively in arrears which was annoying. I think this is fairly common, the same happened to a friend. I persuaded them to pay for a certain number of hours and then I just had to claim for extra. I was occasionally asked to clerk daytime meetings (staff disciplinaries). My chair of governors tried to dictate what I wrote at governing body meetings to make himself look good so watch that. Some of the governing body weren't terribly respectful.

School governor here (and one time clerk).

I think you need to be prepared for the fact that it is not just writing minutes and organising agendas. You are the person who has to have a grip on procedures and advise governors on these. This involves training. And do not forget that clerking might be needed also at committee meetings and not just the full governor meetings.

It is a highly responsible job and very time-consuming. Google "responsibilities of governors clerks" - lots of info online.

Agree with the above - it's somewhat more than 1 meeting + admin! It's a very responsible role done properly, with proper training, and the expectation you can advise the Governors on points of process. Our clerk attends all full and sub-committee meetings so probably 5 a term, plus minutes, agendas, ad-hoc meetings etc.

I'm Clerk/Governance Professional for 5 schools, I've also been a governor at various schools for 25 years. Like all jobs - there are pros and cons. In no particular order:

It very much depends on the school and people you're working with. I've been treated like royalty and given applause, chocolate and wine regularly, have also been treated like something on the bottom of your shoe and had orders regularly barked at me in front of other people. It is a female-dominated role so sexism plays a part; ironically, the worst treatment I've had has been from female heads and bursars.

If you get a good GB and head, who are well-organised and you are paid properly, it's a very rewarding and fascinating role. I honestly love it, most of the time.

It fits very well around other roles. If you already work in a school you have a head start especially with jargon. If your school job and clerk job are in the same school, you have to be very careful not to blur boundaries or allow others to do this. This is especially the case with panels (e.g. parent complaint, staff grievance) when senior staff might apply pressure - it is really crucial to maintain impartiality even though the head is your boss.

The role is generally under-recognised and underpaid considering you're meant to be a legal adviser. There is a campaign going on by the NGA to change this but it's very slow progress. They recommend at least £13ph I think. In my area, the local authority refuses to take any notice of this and the pay is around £12, and also the allocation of hours is absurdly low. So you end up working for nothing.

There is a huge shortage of clerks and turnover is high - partly because of the nature of the role (part time, very few hours) but also because it is underpaid and in at the deep end. In my area new clerks get 3 hours training. However, this does mean that clerks can be choosy about who they work with. I'm indundated with offers of work, to some extent I can name my price and it can be pretty lucrative.

Local authority support can be very patchy. Departments are often staffed with people including managers who have never done the job. There are a lot of grey areas in governance where you need advice from someone who's been there and can give pragmatic suggestions.

External support organisations like The Key and the NGA are generally amazing but access to them depends whether your school has subscribed. Depending on whether your school is maintained or an academy, you need to be very familiar with the regulations (maintained) or the Articles of Association (academies) and other academy legal docs.

If you can spare the time, being a governor at another school as well is fabulous CPD but this is unpaid.

Let us know what you decide!

I was Clerk to the Governors at a large secondary school and really enjoyed it, but the “associated admin” was considerable. My pay was based on x-hours a week, rather than per meeting, but the hours I put in far exceeded those I was paid for. I viewed it as a semi-voluntary role! A good Chairman who knows his stuff makes all the difference too.

Thanks all. I’ll apply and keep my fingers crossed.

Did you take this OP? I’m considering too and been offered but not sure

If it’s a Local Authority school, the pay will be atrocious to the point of being an offensive joke, and the time commitment is considerably greater than they advertise for the role. No point doing it unless you find it genuinely interesting (which it is). Discretion essential if you work in the school as an employee in another role, as you may well become involved in sensitive issues (eg governing body discussion over the need for redundancies, complaints panels, exclusion panels, dismissal appeal panels etc).