School governors help please - being put in special measures, what happens next?

[Clumsymum]

I'm on a board of governors, and after an appalling Ofsted inspection (during which the whole school changed character/mood and ACTIVITIES for 2 days !!) we are to be put in special measures.

We (the board) fully accept the findings, some judge it as a good thing given how things are, but I don't know what happens next. How does this affect our job as governors? We have realised that we should have been much more rigourous in challenging the school/head, and want to hold a meeting very soon to discuss what WE can do to move things forwards.

So advice please, what happens next?

You will be told by your LEA what happens next.

Your chair of Governors should ask for an urgent meeting with the LEA to be attended by all governors except teacher governors and the head, so that discussion can be frank, and ask them what they are going to do.

Its very much up to the LEA.

Bluntly, you will have only a degree of input, and that whatever the LEA decides it wants to have.

Having said that, you will all have the same object in mind, and I am sure they will value your willingness to be constructive, and on balance prefer to keep you "on side" if they can.

The down side is that if the LA think that the GB is to blame for this situation then they will sack you and put in an IEB (interim executive board).
If you feel that other parties are to blame mainly for this situation (and you must accept some of the blame) then I agree with nlondondad get an urgent meeting with the appropriate principal manager - use your sip to organise and get the boot in first! I know that sounds awful but the head will know their head is on the chopping block and will be looking for an alternate scapegoat and you as the Gb are it.
Does the report actually say governance is inadequate would be my first question and if it does in the current climate you might well find that you are the scape-goat. If not then real action now may be the best thing for the school and that is actually accepting that a change fo SLT is necessary.

The school I teach at is in special measures (hopefully not for much longer...) Our GB was dissolved, and we now have an IEB.

I agree with admission, it depends on what the report said about the Governance.

You may find it useful to check with the LA what level of support/concern (?light? or ?medium or ?lots?) they had put the school on. After their school was placed in Special Measures, a certain GB found out that their LA had identified some problems with the school and had raised the level of support/concern but hadn?t told the GB (well that?s what the GB argued!).

If you want some independent advice or just want a chat about various options I've found the ?Governor Help line? 0800 0722 181 very helpful.

Have you posted this question on any of the governor websites (eg governornet.co.uk)? You'd probably get some very knowledgeable replies.