Only 1 parent Governor - is this usual?

[ShavenConnery]

Hi all - just need a bit of guidance on what is usual.
My daughters primary school have been giving the impression that they find parents a PITA and would like to reduce their contact with them. For example, the parents forum is being replaced with a parents council, with just a couple of representatives from each class.

The latest rumour I have heard is that the governing board is going to be combined with the other school the head teacher run, and as part of this there will be only two parent representatives on the board - one for each school. That doesn't seem like much to me, and I'm concerned it's another way of getting parents out of the way. But I have no idea how big the governing board is, who the other members are, and how usual this is.

So is this usual?

Assuming this is a maintained school, look at the pdf of “The constitution of Governing Bodies for maintained schools” produced by the Dept for Education. It was updated in August 2017. I’m useless with links but google it.

For maintained schools the GB must be at least 7 members of whom 2 must be parents. If there is one GB for two schools who have federated, I still believe the two parent rule applies because there is only one GB. However schools can appoint coopted Governors and these can be former Parent Governors if they possess valuable skills. So a GB of 9 or 11 or 12 is quite normal for a larger primary school. Excessive size is not recommended.

Skills are a key issue. It’s no longer bums on seats because people fit into a category: it’s the skills they possess that really matter. Therefore a school doesn’t need to increase the number of parents if it feels it is better served coopting someone who has a specific skill they need, a HR specialist for example.

The parents operate a PTA. It’s constitution and organisation has nothing to do with the Head. It’s for the parents to organise. Head teachers sometimes consult via a parents’
forum but this doesn’t replace a PTA. Do keep the PTA going in the way the parents wish. The school cannot bully you into anything! Be firm.

All Governing Bodies of schools must put the bare details on their web sites. So James and the category they are, so Head, Teacher, staff, parent, Local Authority, Foundation, Coopted being the usual ones.

So names and the category.....

I confirm that if two schools are federated then the minimum is 2 parent governors across the 2 schools. In theory they could hold an election across both schools, leading to both PGs being from the same school but any sensible school would recognise that this is not a clever idea.

I have been the only parent governor at our primary for the past 5 years, although we are part of a MAT and the 'academy council' has absolutely no powers.

The only problem now is that DS leaves year 6 on Friday and despite having advertised all year they still haven't found another parent to take my place...

There are rules that govern finding a parent governor. They don’t have to be a parent at the school if adverts and recruitment have failed, which is a shame. A parent of a primary age child (ideally) can be coopted. Not ideal but better than No-one. Why is no parent interested? Also your term is 4 years. Well that’s the standard term. So have you just started another 4 year term? If so, you do not have to leave immediately just because your DS is.

We're part of a MAT so not a typical governing board, mainly as we have no powers to govern! All the traditional GB stuff is done by the trust, our role is just 'critical friend'. No fixed terms either.

I was the only parent to stand 5 years ago, we are in an area that is deprived and has many families moving in & out of the area. Out of the 60 children in DS year only 50% started reception there with him. There is also a significant problem with a lack of parental engagement with schools locally.

I've said I'll carry on for now, hopefully someone keen will have a reception child in September!

Thanks all. I did a bit more digging and realised the current governors and meeting minutes on the website. From reading those and what's been said here I don't think the change to a single parent governor is as bad as I feared.

The minutes don't have much detail about the proposed changes to the board, but apparently they are in consultation with the Dfe about them.

There may be co-opted governors who are also parents.

Have a look at www.gov.uk The Governance of Federations pdf. It will tell you what has to happen.

I facilitated a federation of two schools 3 years ago and the advice given by the DfE was to ensure that the skills were covered through co-option and then appoint 2 parent governors through an election for 1 vacancy for each school. Some of the co-opted governors were parents or previous parents. We had other issues to resolve because one school had an Interim Executive Board and the other had a governing body, but it all worked out fine.