All this social mobility, selectivity blah blah blah: what can parents do to make state schools BETTER?

[WilfSell]

We have chosen the local state secondary for our son. He is (naturellement ) very bright and accomplished. I know he will get by, and by god yes he may even get to do a double GCSE in IT and a D&T one too for good mickey mouse measure. Because, hey: he likes doing that stuff and is looking forward to it. But I damn well know he will come out with Maths, English lit and lang, 3 sciences, a language and a couple of airy fairy humanities with no discernable purpose except, um, to teach him about the world he lives in and, ahem, to learn to think, debate and argue.

So for those of us who chose it; or the many, many more who don't have a real choice, what things can people do to support and develop their local schools?

Governors? Is that about it? Offer to run additional stuff? Be very pushy about exam options? How do other parents get involved in improving schools?

Senua - I think it is a good comprehensive in a lot of ways, but believe me it is the sort of comprehensive that would have a lot of posters on Mumsnet throwing up their hands in horror if they thought their children might have to go there. GCSE results below national average, a fair few norty children etc.
The music dept is very small btw, but the music teachers and some other teachers who give up a lot of spare time, are passionate about getting pupils involved.