School Governors

[Strictlyison]

I am struggling to understand the role of school governing bodies, what they are supposed to be doing on a practical level (if anything) or is it only helping the school with 'strategic vision' whatever that means. I suppose I just don't get what they do and what they are there for. Do you feel that you know what they do at your school? Do they have a separate section on your school's website? Do they have forums, or discussions with the parents? Ours is practically invisible...

They are meant to monitor standards, hold the head to account, challenge & be strategic. Oversee & make decisions about finances etc. A good governing body does a lot (but quite often the parents are unaware - but they should be visible & have a section on website). They are also volunteers.

I'm a governor

We aren't involved in day-to-day running of the school (that's the head's job), the sort of things we do get involved in (as well as setting "strategic vision" ) are
ensuring that the school meets its legal responsibilities
approving the school budget
Making decisions about updating the school building
approving school policies
Appointing staff
Looking at educational standards and how well particular groups of pupils are performing and ensuring action is taken if there are any concerns
head teacher performance appraisal
admissions (if they are the admission authority)
etc

The phrase often used is we are a "critical friend" of the school.

There should be a list of the governors, their term of office, who appointed them (eg local authority, parents, staff, foundation (church) etc), and the roles they hold on the school's website (that is a legal requirement)

What do you want them to be doing that they are not ?

I am a Governor too. I think some school governors can be distant because they never meet parents or report to them now that the annual report and meeting is no longer required. A good governing body will meet parents and be seen in school on learning walks and talkto children. Some Governing bodies report termly to parents via the Headteacher's newsletter. The Government web site has a good description of what a Governor has to do and your local authority will have information for Governors so you can have a look at that as well.

A huge amount of work is scrutiny of the school's Development (or Improvement) Plan. This identifies where the school needs to improve, how it will do it and what success will look like with time scales and financial implications. Governors should monitor quality of teaching by receiving reports from the Head and external School Improvement consultants (or LA) and they will reveive a vast amount of information about how well the school is meeting its targets and the progress the children are making.

You are entitled to ask for the Governing Body minutes, the minutes of committee meetings and all supporting papers unless confidential. I have received my Headteacher's report today and it is 36 pages long. It is a supporting paper for the Governing Body meeting, and parents can ask to see it too. This will show you very clearly, what governors are monitoring.

As it's not clear what they do, and I can't get my head around what they should be doing, I somehow can't bridge the two together.

They approve a budget but they don't decide on how much money the school gets? So the local authorities says 'this is how much the school gets this year (via complex calculations i'm sure) and the HT decides where the money goes, and the governing body 'approves'? Can they contest? Vote against it? Will most of their decisions actually back up the HT's decisions? I assume it's the same with policies - the HT proposes a policy (many of which are standard policies anyway) and the governing body approves? Can they oppose? Let's say a school wants to pass new behaviour policy, can the Governing body oppose to some of the changes? And how is the performance of the policies monitored?

Our school has issues and I think parents want to blame someone for the problems - and many look at the governing body for a response. They do have a section on the website but that's it, there's few information about how exactly they hold the HT to account (for some of the issues with the school). Or should parents be pointing the finger at the HT directly?

Quick question, who writes the school development plan? Is it the HT? So the head teacher decides where the priorities are and then decides how he/she will improve in that area, and reports back to the Governing body?

Can those priorities be questioned?

Yes they can and they should question & challenge. They are not meant to be there to just endorse the head.
I am a governor too. We put something in the newsletter every month & we are planning a (not yet entirely planned) thing in September with staff, parents etc 're priorities and working together.
We try to be fairly visible. However the governing body is not the mouth piece of the parents (that would be impossible due too many conflicting views, individual issues) but should be aware of parental views (and staff & how children feel).

Ok I see. Thanks for the information, it does fill in some blanks.

Can I ask you something else (sorry!) is there a place where I can find out about mobility of teaching staff? Our school seems to loose a number of teachers ever year and I'm not sure if this is fairly normal or if our school has a particularly high staff turnover (inner London school). Thanks!

The HT will be the one physically writing the SDP, but it's done in consultation with staff, governors, school improvement partner etc and also could include any areas for improvement picked up by Ofsted/SIAMS etc or highlighted in school performance data. Our head also hosts parent focus groups to get parent's views (very poorly attended, it has to be said and he has tried a variety of times to suit working/not working etc)

The SDP will need to be approved at the FGB meeting & the HT will provide updates on progress every meeting.

For finance yes we get a predetermined pot from the LA, but we look at the overall picture of staffing levels/structures, if we need to plan for IT equipment replacement or new resources (eg we are about to spend £xxk on maths resources) and deciding priority areas for the capital we get for building maintenance. We also look at the contingency we hold as part of our risk management (eg until we replaced it last summer we had an aging boiler that was prone to breakdown - we had to allow for both contingency planning for repairs and plan for replacement (when we could afford it) in the finances)

Yes a lot of the policies are basically model policies set by the LA which we adopt (for very good reason as eg staffing policies have been done in consultation with the unions)

Yes there are sometimes opposing views at the GB meeting (a recent one for us was proposed changes to the admissions policy, which we had to vote on and go with the majority decision)

A good GB will ask lots of challenging qus of the head, a good head will be able to answer them!

I would expect the sub-committee responsible for staffing to be looking at the issue if they feel they have a problem with retaining staff - you can ask for a copy of the minutes.

betsy is that definitely a legal requirement for schools in England? My school has no info of the governors on the website

Have you seen this governors handbook ?

You can find out most of this info. Are you a secondary school? We have a high staff turnover this year and we know why each person is leaving. It is largely coincidence that they are going at the same time and nothing to do with happiness or lack of.

I used to work in a cluster of primary schools, one of which was well known to have a high staff turnover because NQTs were cheaper than more experienced staff. I have also sees high staff turnovers following an OFSTED downgrade (I would imagine some staff jumped and some were nudged) and sometimes it happens after a change of leadership (not just because the replacement is inferior, but because it often seems a natural time to move on for staff who have been there a while). But sometimes it just coincidentally happens that lots of people decide separately to move on at the same time - moving house, promotions, new careers, increase in caring responsibilities etc. etc. And it isn't always a bad thing to have fresh eyes - my children have often benefited from not being "x's brother/sister".

OP Have you considered being a governor? DH used to be one and found it very interesting.

Stevie

yes - See para 24 onwards in here

A good school should have pictures of the governors on the web site or in the school. They should have details about what areas of responsibility each governor has. Ofsted will look at this information before they arrive at the school and if it is not available, it is a bad start!

The formula for devolving money to schools is complex but largely depends on what the LA gets from the Government and how the local formula works but it is based largely on pupil numbers in the schools. Schools with high numbers of free school meals children and looked after children will get more money. Most of the income (circa 80%) is spent on wages, so making sure staffing is adequate and meets the needs of the curriculum is the job of the governors. Governors take a strategic view. Day to day decisions are the Head's.

There is some governors info displayed in the school but I don't think it's very detailed, I'll check though!

As a governor I quite like it when parents talk to me - it gives me lots of different perspectives.

I'm a governor too. I'm the chair of the finance committee, and I'm equally as involved in the budgeting decisions as the HT. We have a meeting with the two of us, the bursar and the chair of governors, and between us we decide where to allocate the money for the year. The finance committee discusses / challenges our decisions, and the rest of the governing body asks questions / approves. Then the HT, the bursar and I meet once a month to monitor our progress against budget and report back to the finance committee and the full governing body.

Similarly with policies. The governors should be as involved with drafting a new policy or making changes to an existing one as the HT (if not more so).