School Governors- of value or just getting under everyone's feet?

[jennylamb1]

I've been a school governor for about 5 years. I've always enjoyed it previously because I feel as if I'm giving something back and I have had a lot of experience working in education so think that I can be useful in the role.The school also had a positive culture and the governing body were nice people.
Recently however, I have felt as if, particularly staff in the office, are unfriendly towards us, find us an encumbrance and that there is an atmosphere. Asking to borrow a stapler to prepare paperwork for a governors day seems to be really putting people out. I know that schools are under a huge amount of pressure, however we are giving our time voluntarily and looking to support the school. In speaking to teachers when preparing reports I always ask how we can help reduce workload and support wellbeing and look to follow up on their responses for instance.
Should I just give it up if not appreciated?

@Raindropskeepfallinonmyhead - well she's great in the sense that she's supporting the school, but listening to children read does not inform her role as chair. Governors have a strategic role not an operational one.

This thread actually explains really well why I won’t be seeking an extension of my four year term as a co-opted governor when it expires in the spring!

That isn't the role of a Chair.

I spent my whole career teaching, but never really understood the governors' role until I retired and became a trustee of a charity.

It's a role that's so different from anything that any of the paid staff experience. It's pretty much nothing to do with the operational side of things. It's purely governance and ensuring that the school is operating legally in its finances and policies, as well as strategic planning.

Frankly, it's incredibly dull, and I have no idea why anyone chooses to do it! I'm the only trustee on our board that is actively involved with the day to day life of the charity. It's actually being part of what it does that makes me stay in the role. But I have no idea what any of the other board members get from it. They're all very competent people with the experience in finance etc that the CEO needs (and that the head of a school needs) so them sharing that experience and being a 'critical friend' is vital. But I don't understand what they get from it.

I am a governor, 5 years in.
until you have seen what can go wrong when there is no effective governance, or no governance at all, you might not understand how vital governance is.
this applies to all organisations not just educational. Corporate organisations and all public sector organisations benefit hugely from strategic oversight
there are schools (not state) with effectively no governance at all.
my own motivation is I want the children to be safe. Personally every educational institution I attended myself had instances of child abuse or sexual abuse by staff and I never want that to be possible again. In my time even now I’ve seen a lot of situations where without effective governance, children may have been at risk and certainly their education was not as it should have been.
governance is really tough and thankless and governors give a huge amount of time. We bear significant legal responsibility as well as strategic oversight. My only gripe is that how misunderstood and undervalued it is.

That isn’t her role as Chair no. But reading with the children and being in school daily will give her so much insight into the way they work as a staff team that it will inform her strategic overview more than a governor who doesn’t know the school well.

No it won’t. It’s a nice thing to do but there’s nothing strategic about it.

How staff work as a team is entirely down to the head. It’s wholly operational. It’s not for the Chair to casually observe or comment on.

There’s a lot of poor practice on this thread. I’ve no idea why governors are preparing for meetings in the school office. Everyone should prepare paperwork at home or bring a computer. Then arrive and go to the meeting room. Usually the head will arrange a tea or coffee but food is ott. It’s really like a board business meeting.

It’s also good practise to visit a subject area and have a focus based on school improvement. Governors should never ever judge a lesson! What do they know about the lesson? They can observe an area of the curriculum with a view to informing school improvement. It’s vital governors operate strategically and not casually. If pupil welfare is not a key improvement area, it’s not a subject for a governor visit or jolly in school.

As a teacher I felt like this but no as a governor you’re holding SLT to account as a critical friend and questioning data eg who does this Sen parents survey cover? Why does it not cover parents of children who have referals in place? Or why is maths your focus this year when your date shows writing is a weakness?

Governors should be paid by government for their strategic oversight. With a professional minimum standard
I was a governor for 5 years and on the body was a complete fuckingvweirdo who liked the power trip of being a governor.

Agree with @CountFucula School governance is a joke. Voluntary positions of power, some of which carry statutory legal obligations. I was a governor for a while. Given my background, I’m very well qualified for the role. But - what the head/clerk actually wanted was ‘yes-men’/‘yes-women’ and very little actual strategic change. What I saw actually, ultimately, caused me to move my DC to another school. The chair of governors was just dreadful, a patronizing man with little educational experience but thought he was God. Makes me shudder thinking about it. I left in the end when it became clear that during the pandemic, our school was the one that was doing the bare minimum locally. Days when they could have opened and when rules changes to lower isolation periods - did they? Nope! It was like they actively didn’t want the children to come back. A school that didn’t put the needs of its children first was not the place for me. IMO, governors should be employed, paid properly and accountability should be taken more seriously.

@Rocksaltrita There are not that many GBs who are this bad. You do find ones that won’t train and think they know everything. However our LA produced a standard agenda each term with all the important matters on it. There was loads of training available. Heads and chair can get cosy with the GB not holding anyone to account and other governors being sidelined. Often new governors come along and stage a coup.

We binned the term “critical friend” 10 years ago. The GB role is not critical or best mates. It’s a board which has clear guidelines regarding conduct and role. It should not be in school all the time unless undertaking a specific role. GB Meetings should be 2 hours max and committees do the leg work. Data and info from the head is key. The GB asks questions and seeks clarification but must remember the head is a lead professional. Governors set ethos and direction. They work together to improve the school. Governors are not bosses and neither are they supposed to champion different aspects of school life.

I've seen school governing bodies do a great deal of damage in schools, largely by appointing absolutely disastrous Headteachers (when the teachers could see they would be a terible choice), due to knowing absolutely bugger all about teaching or what makes a good headteacher, but also in other ways. I think a lot of teachers, unless they are very lucky with their governors, regard them as well-meaning meddlers and therefore an encumbrance. They have a lot of power in schools, considering most of them have no relevant experience in running a school.

Hrmph we don't even get a cuppa for our meetings! I've done school governor for a few years in various schools but I'm considering stepping down as our current Chair is doing my head in to be honest - total control freak who can't delegate and not micromanage everyone. I do genuinely believe in what the school is doing, and there's going to be so many people stepping down this year for personal circumstances that I can see guilt kicking in and me gritting my teeth for another year.

👌🏻

I'm a governor at a secondary in a large MAT. That we're volunteers doesn't mean much and the only time I've had it brought up is in training to remind us of the limits of our role.

How valuable we can be depends on a lot of factors - our own perspective, training, and ability to remain strategic, the composition of the LGB, the HT, clerk, Chair, in a MAT it can depend a lot on the CEO and scheme of delegation & how the school improvement officers view things, and more. I think we have to proactively be of value, it doesn't come with the role, but even those who are proactive in any of the roles can be stopped from doing so by other parts of the system.

If you're stuck with someone in a position of authority (including other governors) who just wants yes-people or to get through the tick list, if the composition of the board or SLT or trust school improvement officers are largely people from similar backgrounds with similar perspectives, if you're focused on the how they're 'nice people' or on how governors are 'giving our time voluntarily' (technically everyone should be, no one should be forced to be there, some are just getting some financial compensation), or other barriers to strategic scrutiny, we can be just a tick box exercise that eats into time for the real work. It's very easy to be a warm body in a chair tick boxer as a governor, especially if you have a trust that prefers their LGBs that way.

For the specific issue on the school office - I've never waited or even been in the school office. It may be helpful for the staff and for the governors to discuss alternatives. I always ask for a place to meet if I'm meeting a staff member as I know reception can get crowded - usually If I arrive before the meeting room or staff member I'm there to see is available, it's agreed to wait in the LRC unless it's being used for a lesson (a couple of my linked area involve the LRC, so it fits well to start there). On a few occasions, I've been asked to wait in the staff room or outside a particular toom. Sometimes when possible governors will meet up outside to talk before going in.

Yes, I think our school is a bit unusual in the sense that there isn't really anywhere else to congregate- we don't know the code to get through the main door for instance. The clerk is in the office and we are guided by him on where to go for the meeting so gather there for 10 mins. It never used to be a problem however it seems as if there is an atmosphere- I've heard staff talking badly about the clerk too- and I'm close to knocking it on the head given the change in school culture to how it used to be.
I'm not sure that governors in schools work to be frank.

@jennylamb1 As you are not DBS checked you should not be given the code to get through the front door! It’s not your place to let yourself in and out. In the three schools where I have been a governor, a member of staff lets in governors and gives them a visitors badge and you sign in. The meeting room should be ready for you. Hopefully the same one each time? That is usually down to the school and certain tasks are required of them to facilitate governors.

Good governing bodies work well. Do you buy a clerking service? Or does a “mate” do it? The former is a professional service usually offered by LAs. Or presumably mats.

The reason I quit being a governor for good was that 7 out of 9 non staff/head governors in my last school were, or had been, employed in schools in one capacity or another. They worked in several local ones and a private school. Or were retired teachers. Therefore hardly diverse and not always open to other views. It felt overwhelming, Governors are supposed to have diverse backgrounds and have different skills. This was clearly lacking and even the parent governors worked in schools. That’s a big selling point to parent voters. In many ways it was a good GB but various business skills were lacking.

We are DBS checked.

You don’t need to be. I wasn’t. However I still would not expect to let myself into school. It’s over familiar.

Erm - you absolutely do. DBS checks are mandatory for school governors.

In the nicest possible way, does it really matter if the office staff don't see the value in governors? Lots of people don't really get what they're about.
They aren't running the school. They may be a bit territorial - who knows? If you get an 'off' vibe from SLT that is another matter.

Obviously it's nice to be on side with everyone, but as long as you are professional and courteous in your dealings with staff then you have probably done what you can to appease them.

My mistake. Yes. DBS checks! However I still would not let myself into school.

The reason I quit being a governor for good was that 7 out of 9 non staff/head governors in my last school were, or had been, employed in schools in one capacity or another. They worked in several local ones and a private school. Or were retired teachers. Therefore hardly diverse and not always open to other views. It felt overwhelming, Governors are supposed to have diverse backgrounds and have different skills. This was clearly lacking and even the parent governors worked in schools. That’s a big selling point to parent voters. In many ways it was a good GB but various business skills were lacking.

Yes governors are meant to have a broad range of skills and should do periodic skills audits to pinpoint what skills their board is missing and therefore what the focus should be on when recruiting new governors and where training existing governors could help. But sadly there isn't a long queue of people waiting to join many governing boards. Most boards are lucky if they get one applicant for a vacant post. Did you ever suggest approaching local businesses when vacancies occurred on your board? People work in schools in different capacities - teaching, finance, HR, business admin, safeguarding, SEND etc so the fact that a lot of governors on your board worked in schools doesn't necessarily equate to a lack of skills diversity.

Absolutely not! Big safeguarding issue.