Is anyone a parent governor?

[OhComeOnRon]

Just that really? My daughter has just started reception and have received a letter that they have vacancies for new parent governors.
Has anyone done this? What does it entail? And how much of a time commitment is it usually?
I'm new to the school thing but would love to get involved. I am going to request further info but thought some mn's might have some experience and knowledge to share

I'll be watching this thread as I've just signed up to be a governor

I’m not a parent governor, but have just been appointed as a governor for a primary school. I’ve only been to one meeting so far but am excited about getting to grips with it all!

@KatyaZamolodchikova
Have they given you much information about what it entails? Do you have a background in education at all?

There is usually a formal governing body each term. You'll probably get asked to be on a subcommittee too so potentially at least one other meeting a term. Factor in time to read papers before hand.

You are likely to be linked to a class and so invited to their special events like assemblies along with school events like nativities. You might want to do some volunteering in that class to help you get to know school life. Some of the events you'd possibly be going to anyway but you'll get good seats 😀

Worth checking out what the LEA insists on re governor training. Also when the meetings are especially if you work - some employers give time off for such activities but...

It can in some ways take up as much time as you let it.

I've loved all my governor duties and honestly feel it helped my career.

DH used to be a Governor and really enjoyed it, but unfortunately work commitments meant that he had to resign. He was also on the Finance Board which took up a lot of time.

There was quite a lot of reading and a meeting about once a month to attend. He was given governor training by the Local Authority.

He was also given time off by his employer for attending meetings, so may be worth checking to see if that's available to you.

He found it a really positive experience and was very disappointed to give it up.

I was one for eleven years.

You get training and you really need to take advantage of this as it helps immensely and gives you confidence.

You have meetings to attend, about 10 a year depending on the school.
You usually go onto a committee either Health and Safety or Finance. Sometimes you can choose. You get invited to special events eg. Christmas play, some assemblies to hand out certificates etc.

You are responsible as a team for ensuring the school is running well. You may end up sifting through applications, short listing and interviewing staff.

The one thing to make sure of is that everything said in the meetings is confidential and you must never divulge it.

I enjoyed my time as Governor but it does take some of your time. I only finished because my children had all left. If you decide it is too onerous join the PTA first and if the oppotunity arises go for it. Good luck.

@NWQM
Thanks very much for this!
It does sound very interesting. It is due to start next year when I will be on maternity leave and then going back to work following sept but only part time- so hoping I would have time to fit it in.
I'm kind of coasting in my career at the moment and would love something to give me some purpose and motivation

It's MN, of course everyone is a parent governor

I was one for several years. The time commitment wasn't too much, a couple of evening meetings per term and additional visits by arrangement if you're linked to a particular year group/other type of cohort (eg SEND)

I did find the experience a bit frustrating, as there wasn't as much scope for parent governors to be a voice for parents as I would have liked, and I certainly didn't always feel listened to as an equal by the Head and staff governors. But I imagine that depends very much on your school and its ethos.

There was a vacancy at DS’s school last year and I emailed the HT. In the end I couldn’t (or rather DP couldn’t commit) to the evening meetings as they always started at 5.30 so DP needed to be home to look after the DC while I attended. It’s all men at their school which rather depresses me.

I’m an experienced Governor and before that I put together Governor training programmes.

Being a parent Governor is a great role but it needs a certain amount of caution in that you are not a delegate answerable to other parents. You are exactly the same as other Governors and the Governing Body are there to set the ethos of the school and challenge the leadership to make it the best school it possibly can be.

Full Meetings might be termly or twice a term. You should receive a considerable amount of data from the Head which you will need to interrogate and understand. To do this effectively, and challenge the school, you will need training. Many LAs offer this at weekends and there are often flexible sessions and home learning. To be an effective Governor, training is essential. We used to offer a training day especially for parent governors. When you get further into the role, you may wish to train for performance management Governor, Finance, Literacy Governor, pupil premium Governor, Send Governor etc. Obviously not the whole lot but you can see how involved you could be.

The committees are the engine of the GB. They slog through most of the work. They then report to the full GB. You can have a look at the committees they run (the minutes are available to parents) and see where your interests lie. Usually they have finance, personnel, teaching and learning, premises and health: covered by various names! These are the main topics though.

Not all schools attach a governor to a class. The smart way of working is to attach a governor to a section of the school improvement plan and be familiar with the impact this is having. This is key for an Ofsted visit! School improvement is the main focus of every school and everything Governors do is aimed at this. Ask to see their (edited) plan and it will give you a real insight into their work. Spending time with children isn’t overly effective unless you are reviewing a policy or effectiveness of the school improvement plan. You are not another pair of hands. You are thinking about the strategic development and management of the school so don’t be another clsssroom volunteer. You should not get involved with individual children and when you see data it should be anonymous.

Hope that helps. It’s a great role. Not everyone will have an education background but you do have to catch up with education-speak! Think about what skills you have and how these might be useful to the school. Good luck and do consider it.

If a school GB is all men they should look at why this is and make changes. You can ask for child minding expenses! All these men get home by 5.30???

Greensleeves: you have unfortunately completely misunderstood your role. You are not a voice for the parents. Absolutely not. You are, though, equal to the other governors. This is why training is essential.

@BubblesBuddy I get what you are saying about not being just another pair of hands but I think taking opportunities to do some observe of the school in action will put the strategy discussions in context.

Governors are meant to be 'critical friends' to the school.
Governors deal with policy and strategy, not day to day stuff.

It is very different from PTA which is fundraising for extras and nice events for the children.

There are usually also separate opportunities to listen to readers, help on trips etc.

I stayed away from being a governor as I wanted to be able to be quite hands on advocating for my DC and didn't want a conflict of interest.

NWQM: I too get what you are saying but just going into school has no focus. If the Head shows you around as a new governor, that’s fine. However, after that, Governor visits should have a focus and thus visits have a purpose and you will get to know the school at the same time. As a Governor you should not just sit in a classroom helping out. You should leave regular classroom help to others. Get to know what a Governor does and hopefully your school will have good practices regarding visits. I don’t know any Governors who help out in class. None on my GB. We moved away from class attachments for GBs because they lack focus for improvement. Class attachments are never suggested in a secondary school!

So when a Governor visits, the focus is agreed between the teacher and the Governor who is monitoring the improvement plan. The Governor then informs the GB about the impact of the Improvement Plan via a written report. This enables Ofsted to see that monitoring has taken place. There is no need to factor in time for lots of informal woolly classroom visits.

The term “critical friend” is now considered past its sell by date too! You challenge and support. You hold the leadership to account. You don’t criticise and your aren’t a friend.

I did undertake rather a lot of training, as a governor in two different institutions over a period of ten years.

But you crack on, holding court and stating your own experience as universal truth

Is it Bubbles ? Thank you.
So 'challenge and support'. Sounds good to me.

I’ve found it to be a lot more work than I imagined, but really interesting too. Ours has been involved in a few controversies which have really had an impact on the school and I’ve been glad to have been involved in shaping the school ethos.

I’ve done a fair bit of training in my own time and have also sat on quite a few appointment committees. I’ve enjoyed it but my paid work is flexible so I’ve been able to fit it all in.

If I were you, I’d think about PTA before committing to being a governor, getting to know the school and getting a sense of who does what, when and to what effect.

My dh is s parent governor at dds school. I was originally going to do it, as I work in s school (private), but I do do much already, so dh said he’d do it.

He had to put a case across as to why he’d want to do it, why he’d be suitable etc. Then he went on a few courses to get him up to speed, and now he’s involved with the process of the school becoming an Academy. 🤔 I’m not sure about that myself, but hey ho!

It's a really worthwhile thing to do, but you do need to be aware in advance that you will have to manage your relationship with other parents very carefully. As Bubbles says, you are absolutely not a 'voice' for the parents, or a channel for them to raise issues - you are a governor like any other, you just happen to be elected by the parent body. However, even if you understand this, it is very possible that other parents won't - so you need to be prepared for parents trying to complain to you about stuff! And you will have to tell them that you are not the right channel for them to raise concerns.

Also, the point about confidentiality is key - as a governor, even though you're not responsible for the day to day running of the school, you're likely to get to know an awful lot of 'stuff' that other parents would really like to know (eg about staffing, future of the school, finances) - and you can't talk about it even to your really close friends. If you're fine with maintaining that boundary, then go for it. If not - beware.

I'm in the middle of going for it at my kids' school - basically I've now decided that since I'm the sort of person who'll sit and go through the policy section of the school website that everyone normally ignores and read them for my own personal information anyway... I'm probably the kind of person who's more inclined to help the school in that direction than filling tea urns at the PTA summer fayre (which I also do more than my fair share of doing to be fair).

Up against a few management types who are also interested though so not sure how it'll land if it comes down to an election among the parents since I'm very much from an education background myself. Done a good year or so of thinking around the issue and looking into it very carefully before putting myself forward though so I'm definitely not going into it blind.

We shall see what comes of it all!

ReverseTheFerret: you’ll be just the sort of person they want. Try and make sure you highlight your skills that match those needed by the school.

It’s quite a good idea (if you become a governor) to suggest that each governor takes responsibility for some policies. All ours have review dates. The school reviews the content and the governor introduces the policy and any changes at the meeting and then it’s agreed and minuted. Data and evidence regarding the effectiveness of the policy is also reviewed and minuted. Quite often policies are LA produced such as child protection, performance management and recruitment. We just adopt them. We have a list of all of our policies and the ones that must be on the web site are flagged. It’s a bit of a drag, but has to be done.

Good luck.

As others have said, there’s a common misconception that the parent governor is the voice of the parents. This is definitely not the case. You are a representative parent and not a parent rep. Your role is strategic and not operational which means you can’t get involved in the day to day running of the school. Parents often think they can ‘go to a governor’ if they don’t like something the school has said or done, and that the governor can sort it out. It doesn’t work like that as the governing body has to work as a body and can’t act individually, and it can’t get involved in Operational issues. You’ll spend a lot of time explaining that to parents who catch you in the playground to raise an issue!

Hopefully the parents won’t have complaints! They might also realise the teachers or the Head is who they should see to sort out issues that arise. Good communication and practices from the school can protect parent Governors to some extent.