What knowledge and power does a parent governor have?

[Parentgovernorsdowhat]

I have a slightly awkward question. A lady I know has become a parent governor at the school where I work one day a week. I have a slightly unusual non-teaching enrichment role. She objected to me having this role a few years ago when things where starting up/getting established and I do worry that she might try to use her influence as a governor to clip my wings (which would defeat the object of me being there as what I do depends on me turning up and getting creative and surprising both kids and teachers).

Sorry to be cagey about the exact role:it's sort of equivalent to leading 60 kids in a martial arts session at the start of the school day one day a week. It's popular and -most importantly- profoundly inclusive.

Would this lady now know what I am paid and/or get to vote on whether to keep me on each year? Or is all that "operational" stuff and therefore outside the governors remit.

More generally, if people could give me examples of what is and isn't governors' business I would be grateful.

Lastly, the governors are very slow at posting their minutes. If I mentioned that, would I be labelled a trouble maker?

Basically it's all operational stuff and outside the governors' remit. It would be valid for them to ask for evidence that your role is effective, as part of their monitoring - in the same way that governors should be looking at school improvement initiatives and asking how/if they're working. But it wouldn't be the case that there would be a vote as to whether to keep you on each year - that's part of the operational management of the school that the Governing Body have delegated to the Headteacher.

Re whether she'd know how much you are paid - possibly. It should be anonymised, but it's often easy enough to work out what relates to whom, especially if you're looking at costings for a specific initiative rather than say the overall staff budget (where it's all lumped together).

I really wouldn't worry - governors who clearly have specific agendas or axes to grind are easily spotted, and are usually given short-shrift.

I would say that's to do with the day to day management of tge school, and not a governor's role.

It does depend on the committee structure etc, as certain governors will have more influence re: financial matters. I think our finance committee will see details of lettings and clubs, but we do keep parent governors away from staff salaries etc.

Also, I do tend to learn things about the school, because I'm involved, but I am very discrete. I guess it depends on the governor's relationship with the head.

As for minutes, it can take ages to get them published, because they have to be approved.

If you are concerned, can you speak with the Head?

No idea about the minutes things but am a Parent Governor and will try and fill you in on bits about the rest.

To be honest you have very little individual power. And very little operational input - that tends to be (rightly) for the head/HOY etc to do. At meetings etc we discuss the bigger picture and occasionally delve into one-off issues or school stats. We do look at the budget - but top level stuff - not delving into individual salaries/costs etc

Each governor should also be on at least one committee - various ones - Buildings, Curriculum, Personnel etc. On the committees you would have more of an input - but it would depend what committees this governor was on. But tbh if the head/pastoral care/Senco (whoever instigated your role) was "pro" the governor would probably be dumb to try and bad-mouth you and not have much influence really anyway.

If you are worried I would talk to your "sponsor" as it were and just check/confirm they are happy with what you are doing - and maybe ask them to write you a...I don't know reference/recommendation - or at the very least just email them (cc then head) to say thank you for the chat, I am pleased to know you still find my sessions of such value.

I do

opps

I do not think you need to cover your back like this - but it may make you feel more comfortable.

Oh, and as PP have said - I think anyone who harped on about one subject in particular would soon be squished!

Re the minutes - they can't be posted until they've been approved, which is at the following Full Governing Body meeting. That could be a term away, depending on the terms of reference. Usually it's a half-term.

I am a foundation governor and being a church school we do have a role in who is employed/making redundancies. However, we don't know individual salaries. Also any redundancies have to be done through approval of unions etc we couldn't just decide on a whim to get rid of somebody.

If you want the minutes to know if you have been discussed, then certainly if we have named people for any reason the discussion is in a confidential part 2 of the meeting and the minutes are not made public.

The minutes should be written in such a way that individual comments by governors are not specifically reported.

The governing body must decide each year whether the meetings are either 'open' to all comers to observe but not participate in, or 'closed' ie held in private. In either case the minutes should be available on request.

Sorry yes there may be confidential 'Part 2' minutes.

Thank you all,that is reassuring. Sticking to the martial arts analogy, this lady recently emailed the teacher I report to saying "hey, let's get a Kung Foo person in!". I do the equivalent of judo but her kids do kung foo and follow her lead in believing judo is just wrong. Given that most primary schools employ neither kung foo nor judo people, I found this email annoying......the teacher clocked the connection to her own children....I guess we all have our blind spots/axes to grind but from what you all say, governors is not the place to grind them.

That lady is unfortunately exceeding her role if she is emailing individual teachers. Any such suggestions should be being channeled via the governing body and the head teacher.
Hopefully the newness of the post will rub off and she will be told what she can and cannot do and one is definitely interfering in the day to day management of the school, which is the province of the head teacher.

thank you, I appreciate your advice. To be fair, she was not a governor when she sent that email. Reading your advice, it sounds as though the move to being a governor will make it less likely, not more likely, that she might intervene and should channel her into more positive roles.

She is actually a very nice person in all other respects and we have worked on mending our friendship, but we just have this fundamental disagreement about how this martial art should be done.

Try not to worry. Im a governor and you don't get a say in things like that. To be honest even if she said something, Im guessing it would be ignored and she would make herself look a bit silly and petty! If the staff think what you are doing is working then thats all that does and should matter

I'm a PG and I couldn't tell you what individual staff earn.

In Strategic planning meetings we look at what sort of staff we will need in upcoming academic years, and % of teaching staff/non teaching/ admin staff, but we don't get involved in individual recruitment.
She is overstepping her remit if she is trying to influences extra curricular activities, that's strictly operational.
That said I do run an activity at the school where I am a PG, as a volunteer, but that is strictly separate from my PG role

One thing not mentioned in this thread is what pot your salary comes from. If it comes from the pupil premium pot, the governors have a duty to ensure that pupil premium money is spent in improving the outcomes for pupil premium children. This area has far greater scrutiny than the general budget and the school has an obligation to publish on its web site what it spends the PP money on and how effective it has been in raising outcomes. Theoretically any governor could challenge the effectiveness of money spent, but as stated before if it looks like they have an axe to grind on a personal level they should get short shrift.

The amount of involvement in staff recruitment and salaries depends on the type of school, I am a governor in a foundation school and we are responsible for recruiting staff and interview staff along with the senior leadership. We also approve annual pay increases as recommended to us by the headteacher however these recommendations are anonymized so governors do not know who the individual staff are. Governors would also be making decisions about whether the budgets allowed the school to continue employing members of staff on short term contracts, however the governors would have good reason for not retaining staff and it would be a corporate decision.

As to general role of a governor. Governors are very much concerned with high level analysis of data trends so for example;is there a general concern across the school with the way children are progressing in an area of the curriculum? the headteacher would be then assessing individual teachers to address any specific issues and then governors would be questioning the headteacher about how she was dealing with the issue and what action she was taking and she would inform them in general terms. She might tell us she has identified a training need for some staff or a need for some specific interventions for a group of children. What the head would not do is mention individual staff or children to the governors.

Thank you. My mind is now at rest about this lady (and this will help me continue to rebuild the friendship so you have done a good deed here) but it is very interesting to hear a bit more about what governors actually do - it is so mysterious!

It shouldn't be mysterious .

All governors have an equal role in the Governing Body. Another poster said that they 'try to keep parent governors away from salary information...' That shouldn't be the case for a few reasons:

-The governors are all bound by the confidentiality clauses they sign.
-No governor should have details of the pay of any one teacher - it should be anonymised data.
-The pay panel may get details of upratings suggested by the HT, but not their starting pay, plus, it's all public information as the pay scales are national.

In terms of 'control'. We couldn't get a service stopped on an operational level. If the finance committee were concerned that the school would overspend, it would have the responsibility to decide how that is rectified, which may include stopping your service.

The bottom line is that no one governor has any power - even the Chair of Governors. Decisions are made as a body and controversial decisions would be decided by a vote.