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?

@Hedgerow2 If you are outnumbered, you are outnumbered! I was MICPD but (for example)!the governors delegated all recruitment to the head. I had helped with the recruitment process at other schools. I had no input on HR at all but we hardly had any issues. Yes, we had a Send teacher as a governor but she wasn’t interested in anything else. We had a finance officer from another school but, with delegation, finance wasn’t a huge issue. We had a good finance team and loads of info and obviously were not making operational decisions. Just ensuring the scheme of delegation was adhered to. They could be short of money now - I don’t know. We didn’t have anyone who knew the first thing about buildings.

When I joined it was diverse with business people and a mix of skills. It gradually became a mates club. Luckily they were mostly competent but I don’t think teachers possess all the skills needed.

I believe there is only a point in being a governor, if you are of some use. If you are not privy to much of what goes on, you can’t be useful. A governor’s role is strategic, as has been said and is also that of a critical friend. If the head has the majority of governors on side, it’s difficult to offer a challenge or to be a critical friend.

I left as a governor of one school, because it was utterly impossible to challenge the head on anything. Not long afterwards, the school went from Good to RI and the head left quite suddenly.

@TizerorFizz - there's no need for governors to be involved in staff recruitment other than to recruit the HT. That's operational not strategic.

@Hedgerow2 Yes I’m aware of that and that is why it’s delegated. It’s just that I was never sure what my expertise actually meant to them. In a previous school I had been more involved - more as a sounding board. I simply didn’t have anything to offer this school that was worthwhile and that they wanted. The teachers on the GB did.

So I believe a good school can work with governors but the role is not necessarily linked to their skills and yet they are supposed to recruit people with skills such as HR. I spent a lot of time interpreting stats and that’s ok but my skills were never used. It was the same for the other business people who all left.

Depends on scheme of delegation
SLT is typical- not just Head

In a previous school where no one was HR trained, having someone who was appeared to be helpful. However I know full well it’s not strategic.

It’s interesting that the latest handbook makes no mention of “critical friend”. This concept is now outdated. I don’t think either words work. The handbook is pretty clear on the strategic role but it’s also true that heads run schools. I think there are still occasions when governors don’t know their role and don’t get good info from the head to enable them to have a strategic role. I used to clerk governing bodies and years ago heads would give a sheet of A4 for their report. Now they produce a dossier and governors must interpret the data. I’m not convinced all schools do this well enough.

@TizerorFizz - totally agree. The term 'critical friend' is very misleading and should be avoided.

And as for HT reports!!! I see them regularly for a couple of schools and they're impossible to navigate/understand. They're full of huge blocks of data with no overview/interpretation, loads of acronyms, staff names with no job titles etc etc. No consideration given to the poor governor who would have to spend ages wading through so much information (or probably doesn't bother).

@Hedgerow2 We got a synopsis at the last school I was at. Then detail after that. Maybe ask for that? It was linked to improvement goals. The reports were mostly 36-40 pages long - for a junior school. I think the secondary reports are much longer!

I think it’s a job most parents don’t understand and essentially is only doable if the data is trustworthy. When schools are failing, often the governors don’t know, and if they do, it’s difficult to do anything about it. I’m not doing it again that’s for sure.

Been on many boards and they all vary.

Depending on the Chair some without the right training and drive are ineffective.

Others are proactive and drive the school forward with good questioning, link visits and working with SLT. The Chair can change the whole board.

We have a governor's away day once a year, during which we meet off-site for a day of training, reviewing the school vision, new build, or direction/ guidance. We have done this for over ten years

I do not prepare paperwork. The agenda is set at least two weeks before, and we don't usually add extras. Our link reports go the Head and should show impact.
Policies are read and signed online.
Link reports are online and signed for and linked to SDP.
Every governor has a robust induction, given a mentor, yearly chair 360, skills audit, and an action plan formulated
We attend interviews as needed and follow safer recruitment procedures.
All governors must be DBS checked and read all KCSIE and sign for it. etc etc

Never had any school allow free access to a Governor. This would be challenged in my view. A lanyard or code to log in within the school might be provided

Another school will struggle to do the legal minimum because the Chair is lazy or doesn't see the importance of upskilling others.

Reading with children is not a governor's job but getting to know the school is.
If they have time to volunteer to do so this would be the same as any other parent.

There is a provision to pay governors an allowance or expenses if your policy allows this but the money comes out of the school budget and many Governors do it freely but some do put in for bus fare costs if your policy allows payment.

You might do a learning walk to see something in action in a class but you never monitor teaching. This is my experience.

The governing body I sit on works well. Meetings are short, apart from policies the head’s reports are short to read and are in layman’s terms, when we go in, we monitor e.g. check what the head is telling us is happening to move the SiP forward is happening. We have a wide range of backgrounds and that’s really important. We don’t have governor days, visits are planned with the head to take up minimal time and impact and tend to be small scale. Any waiting around is done quietly in reception or in the staff room out of the way. Consequently, we’re seen as part of the school team.

However I see all the time advice given to parents and also to teachers unhappy with a head’s decision - go the governors. Part of the problem then is some governors overstep their remit. I’ve seen a teacher post (not on here) I’ve been refused leave to go to X, advice is frequently talk to the governors. I’m certainly not going to intervene and any teacher coming to me would be told to go back to the head and use relevant policies. I can’t get involved in operational issues unless it comes to us as part of a formal policy.

@Ionacat What is in the short report?

It’s difficult to judge impact of improvement policies without data. Just visiting a school doesn’t tell you if strategies to improve maths have achieved anything. The Heads reports should include data linked to the improvement plan and analysis of the data. Otherwise, as you aren’t checking teaching quality, how do you know any strategies are working?

I'm a governor. We are legally required to exist. I wouldn't worry about adding to workload as it's legal requirement. Of course we all try not too but the only sure way to not add anything to the workload is all resign and watch the school shut down. I think volunteering can be a thankless task and once you start feeling like a burden what are you getting out of it? We are close to joining a MAT soon and I have done 7 years so that's the point I will leave I think. Not sure what roles will exist on the MAT but then it's easier for the MAT to replace me. If I felt like staff was hostile to me I'd be gone. Of course the SMT can get a bit hostile at times but because we are checking they are doing what needs to be done. We aren't there to say everything is perfect. It's much easier to be dishing out everything is wonderful and fail ofsted from my POV. But I'm there to serve the kids best interests within the education law and best practice.

I’m a Chair of Governors across several schools. I sit on interim executive boards to improve governance, troubleshoot and then I move on to other schools.

Respect and relationships is key. We have an important role to play, but we stay in our lanes when doing it. We undertake CPD, and look to add value to the school by doing our job well, genuinely looking after wellbeing (as far as we can with school budgets), we delegate amongst ourselves, never ask for the same data twice, access data directly where the software allows, eg Insight for governors. We know what high quality governance is, and model it because we are working with a profession, including all the “glue that holds schools together” professional support services that are undervalued and much maligned. I never go in the staff rooms, that is not our place. The only operational thing I do is I’ll make a brew for the team in the office and site staff in the kitchen, obviously I don’t force drinks on people. Then I will leave them drink it. If I can make a governance visit easier by adjusting how we do it, we’ll do it. We celebrate what went well, and where things don’t go so well, we understand. We learn.
As far is as possible, I learn everyone’s name (staff) that I come across. Everyone. Lunchtime supervisors, finance team, ECTs. If you get the relationships right, strategic governance is easier.

We get all the data (usually in a separate document) but we get headlines from head and plans to address gaps in his report which are elaborated on in his presentations but getting in advance means we can prep questions. His reports are succinct and to the point. We’re always asked if there’s anything else we’d like and sometimes we’ll ask for something specific to the SiP. However this is a junior school. I could see in a secondary or large primary that this could to run to pages and pages.

@Ionacat I was used to seeing reports including data so your explanatory report must be read with the data. It’s long then! Unless governors decide not to look at the data! Yes, the heads report is circulated in advance and we submitted questions in advance so head could answer them. These were documented so scrutiny was evidenced.

Where I was last a governor it was a junior too. I would imagine adding data and report together and pp etc you are into many pages!

@CydonianKnight You have gone in when school governance is at rock bottom though. The new governors beyond the interim board must be better! I think plenty of governors bumble along - not bad but not great either. If the chair doesn’t have a clear model for meetings and relationships with staff, new governors have no idea. Many don’t do training. They should but often they do think they know enough to do the role. Plenty have pet projects eg Send. They are not interested in the full role of governance. However governors are difficult to get so it’s any port in a storm.

I am a chair of Governors, I would not be able to let myself into the school building because the Health and Safety Policy makes it clear that all visitors need to sign in at the office and wear a badge while on the premises. When attending a meeting I go straight to the meeting room. It is always good to have office staff on side and so it is important to check in with them occasionally; ask about their family and take biscuits. The Governors employ the clerk to the Governors and if they are not making proper arrangements for managing a meeting, then the chair should speak to the clerk about ways to improve the logistics. A good governing board will have a mixed skill set: HR; Finance; Education; H&S and can make a positive contribution, although I do accept that this can depend partly on the receptiveness of the head teacher and chair. The chair is usually elected annually and so if the rest of the board are not happy with them, they can vote in a new chair.

@Coffecakebakes Taking in biscuits is a bit? What about governors who cannot afford this? The staff are paid. They are not volunteers.

Governors tend to be professionals - solicitors, barristers, actuaries, accountants, retired headteachers, people put forward by the Diocese because they are their kind of person. So more likely to have income and job with the flexibility to allow time off during the day.

They're also normally in their late middleages and white (mostly male, too) despite attempts to make boards more inclusive. They're far more likely on the whole to be able to afford biscuits than the receptionist on under £22k pro rata and term time only.

The occasional parent governor doesn't change the overwhelming profile of those who do this for a hobby, career progression or 'for the good of society', any more than saying 'We're not being paid for this, you know' impresses women on less than a year round job on minimum wage.

@NeverDropYourMooncup That is less likely to be true in deprived areas and should not be the norm either. I hate the “lady bountiful” approach to governance by the better off. The governors are not there for that and schools can have excellent governors without them having (or needing) professional qualifications. If all schools were full of professionals how come some are RI or Inadequate with such star studded governance?

The lowest LA pay here is £25,000. Most earn above that and so do the finance staff. Quite a lot above! Obviously part time or term time alters money earned. Many governors don’t work at all but it’s not their role to dole out biscuits.

@TizerorFizz our school is around 35% FSM but like it or no the parent governors are drawn almost exclusively from the minority of middle-class professional families, despite the school's efforts to attract a broader demographic.

@TizerorFizz - just because boards are stuffed with professionals doesn't mean they're any good as governors. Two of the Boards I've sat on have had very middle-class professional Chairs who were absolutely bloody useless. I think some governors think they're so clever and have such successful careers they can wing Board meetings so don't do the prep/engage their brains properly/understand the differences between a school setting and a FTSE 100 organisation.

I've been involved with 6 boards - one in an affluent urban area, 2 in poor areas and 3 in rural areas. I can tell you that the vast majority of governors on all of them were professionals, all of whom could afford a packet of biscuits. Not that I would ever take biscuits into the school office - too difficult to avoid the lady bountiful/patronising look.

@Hedgerow2 That was my point really! I’ve clerked umpteen governors, been an education officer that trained governors, and been on 3 GBs. It’s not necessary to be a professional anything. Having an interest and training can really fill the gaps. No governor is operational anyway. They are strategic. So even if they are an accountant, they aren’t doing the finance. The school is. I do recognise that professionals put themselves forward but it’s a shame when they monopolize and think biscuits matter. I think a variety of backgrounds is best as long as they are willing to train.

I'm a governor. I sometimes buy biscuits for meetings. Not because of being lady bountiful but because biscuits make meetings nice.

There's a massive difference between buying biscuits for fellow governors to eat during a meeting and giving them to office staff.