Parent governor taking children out of school in term time?

[SocialButterfly]

Would this annoy you? Our parent governor has taken his two children out of school to go to Disneyland Paris for the week. I think this is not on and he of all people should be following the rules even if he doesn't agree with them.

Wouldn't annoy me. He can do what he wants with his own children.

As parent governor, he would have had to pass the policy. If he chooses not to follow it them his position as a governor is untenable IMO.

I hope he has got an exceptional circumstance or is paying the fine like everyone else

He will be subject to the same risk of a fine as any other parent. He doesn't sign a document to adhere to school policies when he signs up as Governor.

The trouble is, you'll never know if he ends up paying a fine for it or not.

Getting people to be Governors can be very hard, it's a lot of work and responsibility for little or no reward. I do agree that one's gut feeling is that it seems like a case of 'do as I say, not as I do'.

I don't know feenie, if his wife has just come back from Afghanistan or something it could be authorised

I'm a PG, I wouldn't. I would feel it showed me up as a hypocrite and a knob. But I wouldn't anyway.

Yes, I can see that this would be annoying and in a perfect world he would not do this. However if it makes you feel any better he and his wife will each be fined for each of their children by the LA.

I agree with Feenie. His position as a Governor is compromised. If you are involved in the running of a school, you should support its rulings. The issue of taking holidays in term time is already controversial. Governors and staff need to support the party line, that they expect others to support. Otherwise it is hypocrisy. I would be interested to know how he would justify his position to other governors or staff or parents.
He is sending totally the wrong message to everyone and another Governor or the Head needs to have a quiet word to point this out to him.

How, for example, could he sit in a meeting and discuss attendance figure, attendance targets, strategies for improving attendance? Without looking like a total twat?

Presumably he could have disagreed or abstained at the time it was passed so might not have supported any policy and is not a hypocrite. It doesn't have to be unanimous.

Interestingly, we as a GB voted against this in July to have it foisted upon us in September. So this is no longer a local decision but a national one.

I don't agree with a lot the current administration is doing, so does that mean I should resign rather than vote for academisation? I think not Wombat.

He is a parent, and is in the same position as any other parent IMO.

I am a parent governor, and I wouldn't take my children out, but that is because it is my own personal choice, not because I follow a party line.

In fact, although we discuss attendance in meetings, and had to justify it to Ofsted, it is the Head's decision not the governing body to allow absences as authorised.

Maybe he feels strongly that the policy is flawed?

But he would have to discuss how to reach attendance targets in pretty much every single meeting, especially if it's a target Ofsted left them, including strategies to achieve them.

Yes HT decides absence allowable or not.
Govs not involved

Teachers may also feel strongly, but their hands are tied, in the same way as governors' are.

He may well feel the policy is flawed. It certainly doesn't suit him. Shouldn't he support the school though and lead by example regardless. Parent governors by their very nature are open to scrutiny and need to think through the general principle of if they can support school policies that don't suit them or they don't agree with BEFORE they take on the role.

That is issue, he might not agree but surely should still follow the correct guidelines. If it makes any difference we are currently in special measures so I imagine ofsted are fairly heavily involved.

Still nope

sorry

This Parent Governor gives everyone an excuse not to stick to the school policy and allows them to justify doing exactly the same as him. Holiday absence during term time is areal problem and needs to be discouraged by school leadership, not encouraged. And everyone who is involved in anyway in working at the school in any capacity can help or hinder that message by supporting it or not. Unfortunately, other parents don't need much encouragement or excuse to justify to themselves that term time holidays are okay and his actions will seriously undermine the hard work of councils and schools to discourage it. He needs to recognise this impact of his actions. Sorry if I sound dogmatic, but I feel that in this kind of situation a united front sends a clear message, but a disunited one is very damaging.

I think if a school's in Special Measures then attendance will almost certainly be an issue as there are strong correlations between attendance and attainment.

I think he's being a bit hypocritical and not showing much commitment to the school.

As a Parent Governor he may not agree with this piece of legislation. It comes from the Government, not from the school.

He may well support the school whole-heartedly in every way he possibly can, but he may feel that this piece of legislation is a ridiculous piece of Coalition nonsense.

Yes he might think it is a rubbish policy. However are you suggesting that every time a governor of any type thinks that about government policy imposed from above (which is frequent) they should blatantly disregard that policy or not allow it for their own children. This attitude could extend to governors deciding not to stick to health and safety laws they don't like, not stick to the law about handling disciplinary matters with staff, ignore rules about excluding pupils.......the list could be endless. It doesn't matter if he likes it or if the governors of the school have approved the policy.

The governors HAD NO CHOICE over this policy.

So, what should he do, resign? Then I think every school in the country would lose their entire governing body.