New Parent Governor Questions...

[slfk3]

Hello,

I was appointed the new parent governor at my children's primary before Christmas, so far I've attended a meeting. We have since been told the school is under action by the local authority, the second time in 4 years, for poor academic progress and poor governance. I would appreciate advice from other governors on a few things:
Are foundation governors supposed to/allowed instruct the children directly?
If the same governors who were last on notice by the LA are again the only ones reviewing the response to the LA will that be frowned upon?
Are the governors supposed to support new governors, teaching them, including them so they can learn?
If there's no committee established to review the response to the LA is there a legitimate reason not to include a new governor in that review? The other parent governor asked to be allowed to attend a meeting to review the heads response and was told the time of the meeting, he can't make it so asked if I could attend and they won't reply to his email but have since sent other emails (ie, they have access and have used email since). I had though that all governors are equal on a board and have an equal responsibility to review, respond etc., but they seem to be picking and choosing who can and can't be involved.
Given the circumstances, poor results, poor governance, dreadful behavior in school, I would have thought it would be a heads together, all hands on deck lets sort this problem out but they seem to be drawing up the shutters even within the governing body.
If a governor wants to go visit a school doing well in their key subject, to observe the way their policy is applied, so not observe teaching but try and see how the policies translate into the classroom, is it up to the governing board to decide when they discuss if they can go or should they be encouraging that sort of proactive approach? If not how is a governor supposed to identify what it will look like when our school is doing things correctly?

Thank you!

Hmm, I wonder if that's why he encouraged the person who is the next chair to be the chair...it was put to me that she's really on top of things and would help him achieve what he wants to achieve sort of thing, but she's not coming across like that to me or the other parent governor who has told me he would see how they responded to his email Govs to all asking to have a NGA audit given the circumstances, apart from my email of support to the idea there's been radio silence for over a week now. He said to me he'd have to withdraw his support of the school and governors if they didn't respond favorably as he feels after 4 years doing it things aren't right. To add to the general stress, my youngest has come home today after a sore throat the last two days and has scarlet fever. Again. School full of chicken pox and clearly still scarlet fever, they wouldn't say anything re scarlet fever last time he had it in January, suppose we can just wait for a child to be hospitalized...again. Roll on September.
Thanks again.

I don’t really see the role of the chair of governors as helping the Head achieve what he wants to achieve. The governors must oversee strategic aims for the school. Once this is clear and documented, the Head should work on the SIP because the evidence is telling him what needs to be in it. The Governors should be given detailed info about the processes involved in writing the sip and ensure it’s costed. So if maths assessment shows poor progress, and Govs have received this info, the SIP would include how this is to be rectified.

As it’s operational, the Head should oversee the writing and implementation of the SIP. The chair should ensure monitoring takes place and that evidence is supplied by the Head in order for all governors to know exactly what is happening regarding success or not. The chair has to have a certain amount of distance from operational matters and the Head must be up to doing this. All Governors are tasked with challenging the school and need mechanisms to do this.

I’m not sure a cosy relationship between the Head and a hand picked chair helping them achieve their aims is the best professional method of school improvement. There needs to be separation of roles. How will this chair effect performance management of the head if they are too closely associated with them? There will probably be insufficient challenge and that’s not the way forward.

I would also ask the LA to do a governance review but I think they will take it over anyway. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a parent governor. It depends on how the new interim GB is set up.

I do hope your DC is feeling better.

Have you read these 2 documents?

www.nga.org.uk/being-strategic.aspx
www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-handbook

And this one

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/831895/Schools_causing_concern.pdf

My DS is feeling fine thankfully, although my other two are now saying various bits hurt, suppose that's Friday evening with 3 in primary though!

It is clear there is no appetite for challenging or progressing from the board. The way they have ended up with the chair they have, and the board they have really, is now making it clear to me that its not about doing anything but patting each other on the back.

I had read two of the three attachments, along with the new ofsted framework, and compared them to the SIP and to the feedback and marking policy we were recently asked to review. I had a long list of things I felt the feedback and marking policy was lacking, referencing where our data showed we were let down, where other schools with better results had stronger policies which indicated a need for ours to be stronger and more detailed, and that it seemed particularly important with the number of new job share classes resulting from maternity leave throughout the school. I would have thought a strong, detailed, ambitious clear feedback and marking policy would help with all the new staff, and set a stronger standard and clear message to staff, parents, students and the LA that the board was capable of the change they are demanding. The response I got from the "senior" members was that they were good points but to file them away for the future because they didn't want to overload the staff...as if being ambiguous and getting the school under the close watch of the LA again somehow made things easier for them. They approved the policy as it was and left it at that, knowing the LA are unhappy. Surely that was a huge missed opportunity to raise the bar, show they understood why they are in trouble and how to change?

I was concerned about my children's primary and became a parent governor.
I was shocked by how unprofessional the governors were. The whole thing was a stitch up. There was no critical friend action. The Cog was a lapdog for the HT. I asked to join the finance cmttee and standards cmttee. They offered me buildinga and HSE... I ended up on standards.. even the vicar noticed the %s didn't add up to 100%..
There were no subject governors so I asked to be maths.. they gave maths to someone else and gave me languages..
I organised an observation day 2 months in advance with the school, booked a day off work and the cog cancelled it the day before..
I quit soon after. Removed one child from the school and now I have removed the second one.
The GB was so weak and ineffective it's untrue. The maths link governor is now a friend of mine who's child I used to give maths tutoring too because she told me she herself was unable to help him...
Honestly you can't make it up. I'm sure in some places where you have a professional work force the GB model works but at our school it's just nonsense.

I should add the cog's spouse works at the school and the cog is now a trustee for the MAT the school joined 18 months ago. So the whole MAT is doomed...

I do wonder why some areas don’t have people who are able to do this role. It certainly seems to be the case. I do understand that some areas don’t have an abundance of professional people but experienced Govs should be willing to travel to such a school if the MAT or LA is proactive. My LA has long parachuted experienced governors into schools. However many LAs/MATs don’t seem to give governance suitable prominence - but Ofsted do.

I think the Governors do need to understand their role and act in a strategic way. I could not imagine ever saying to a Head I’ve worked with that I could write or personally critique a marking policy. However if the Governors intend to review it, then it should be in the SIP if it’s not a routine review. This is because it has training/cost implications and also requires evidence in terms of success and the GB monitoring this.

All the issues raised by the LA need to be in the SIP. The Head and Governors must prioritise and usually the Head and Chair will have detailed discussions with the LA Improvement Officer about which items should be given priority. Marking could have been one but from what you say, nearly everything needs improvement. Therefore a root and branch evaluation of the SIP to decide if it’s fit for purpose needs to happen urgently.

With policies, where I was last a governor, each governor oversaw a raft of policies. When one was due for review, we, as individuals saw the lead teacher for the policy. We talked through the evidence with regard to success or not. I would then expect SLT/lead teacher to amend a policy if necessary. All policies have review dates. I wouldn’t necessarily think I could put forward ideas for a marking policy because I’m not a teacher. It’s wholly operational. It’s the job of the SLT to write this but Governors are there to challenge “no change” and expect the evidence to support this view. If governors find the policy is failing they must ask that these shortcomings are addressed. This is the progressional response.

I think the GB are resigned to this and are wholly ineffective. How did the policy address the evidence that presumably indicated it wasn’t good enough or possibly they it wasn’t being followed by teachers?

Governors don't write policies.

They check they are compliant, the odd phrase or word may need tweaking upon questioning but you wouldn't be asked to contribute to the policies formation unless you were an expert in that area.

There are also some policies that have union agreement and are accepted across the board, along with some LA policies which cover the legal requirements.

Your job is to monitor school have and follow these polices only.

Pick one area and become an expert on that first.
Don't take too much on without training and knowing the job description
Perhaps find out what statutory policies you must have.

You aren’t a teacher, but a parent volunteer, yet you are talking about observing maths in other schools, writing marking policies etc, is this seriously how governing works?

No it doesn’t and we are trying to guide the OP. It’s easy to be upset by the apparent seriousness of the situation and truly believe that “something must be done” and very quickly. It’s a natural response but when you haven’t had training, feel isolated and are inexperienced it’s all too easy to look at what needs to done and get on with it. The best advice, as we have been giving, is to step back, learn about the role and then proceed with a strategic outlook. When a GB is pretty useless it’s very difficult and lonely. But it’s the only way.