What do you think of governors - are they helpful for teachers?

[Sleepymorningcuddles]

I'm thinking of becoming a governor- but not at my kids' own schools.

I believe the best teachers are happy teachers and that everyone can do a crap job if the circumstances are bad.

So....what are your governors like? Do they affect your professional lives, for good or for ill?

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The governors at my school (primary) all seem to be 'YES' people and go along with what the head wants!

Tbf I think they only joined because their own children are treated differently/picked for the good stuff and of course the staff nights out!

funny - I just don't get this. I can;t imagine any teacher worth their salt choosing governors' kids just because they are governors' kids.

And what nights out? We would not be invited on staff dos (which staff would want the governors along anyway??)

I kid you not they do go on staff nights out!
Maybe it's just a coincidence then.

It takes a lot of work to be a good governor. Secondary schools are complex organisations and really benefit from having lawyers, HR and finance specialists on the board. These people have jobs so can't get to visit the school regularly whilst the kids are around.

Boss, well I am a lawyer,but the literature goes on about not using your professional skills to give professional advice.

It sounds very varied.

Oh and I have had my own business for ten years.

I dunno - It's all a bit odd!

I find this thread a bit sad reading. I'm a governor and I think I'm a good one. I think the majority of our governing body are engaged and useful. We get the paperwork we ask for, not just what the HT wants to give us. I don't know whether the staff think we are useful. I know the HT does. We commit evenings, visit during the day and work hard to help the school, using our professional expertise when relevant/useful/appropriate.

Wouldn't dream of intruding on a staff night out, how utterly bizarre!

The staff night out thing sounds dreadful........

Re no music department, EvilTwins, maybe you are not in England? Or maybe you just mean no department rather than no lessons. Presumably there are lessons up to year 9? If not - if there simply no music lessons - then that is a governor issue I would have thought, because it's a national curriculum subject compulsory up to a certain point I think?

That's quite different from a governor pushing a minority/specialist music ed. programme or fad.

Oh, and the "learning walk" (bloody awful term).

I agree that this is someone giving in to their "I want to be head too" fantasies. Why is the head allowing it?

You wouldn't give professional advice, sleepy but you could use your range of skills effectively as a governor.

It all boils down to strategy rather than operation.

"I think governors are yes people doing what the school tells them too."

I can assure you our governing body are not yes people. Neither are we power-crazed, how strange!

Glad to hear that jellyhead - your post did sound as though you were assuming all governors were yes people/power-crazed, based on the however-many you've known.

I do often feel sorry for teachers/HTs in particular, as presumably it's luck of the draw as to whether they get a decent governing body or not, and what a nightmare it must be if not.

OP I'm intrigued, why not at your kids' school? I'm not actually a parent governor, but it is my kids' school I am a governor at.

Re music. I know what I'm talking about. No music lessons. No music teacher. No KS3 music. As an academy, the fact that it is a NC subject is irrelevant. The school has far more pressing issues than the lack of formal music at KS3. It is not a governor issue.

I know I'm sounding confrontational but the fact is that good governors work with the school - they don't go in with their own agenda or ideas and they certainly don't mount campaigns to try and change or fix relatively minor issues when there are bigger things to deal with first.

I was a governor at my kids' primary school for 4 years. I joined because I thought I could make a contribution, mainly to the way the school communicated with parents (PR/comms is my business area). I found that the HT and head of governors weren't really that interested in improving that aspect of their performance. To be fair there is a lot of responsibility and if you're not experienced in the education sector or the wider public sector then it's really hard to understand what's going on. There was a lot of box ticking and toward the end I did feel that I and a couple of other governors were just there to make up the numbers. The focus on achieving an outstanding OFSTED and raising the SATs levels was the be-all and end-all.

The vast majority of school governors IME are teachers themselves because they're the only ones who have a clue what's going on, although HR people, lawyers and social workers are quickly co-opted for their relevant expertise.

I don't know whether governors are helpful for teachers or not - but that's not the point. They're supposed to hold the teachers and SLT to account - so they're not really there to help - although I think most realise how hard the teacher do work.

Thanks wordsmith that's helpful. Depressing but helpful.

Flowery, it's because I am already a service provider to my kids' own school.

So, how does a governor hold the SLT to account if what the SLT are doing is degrading and mistreating the teachers? I get how a governor could demand more procedures, more paperwork, etc.

Eviltwins, out of interest, why has drama survived but music been axed do you think?

Because we have a drama teacher and not a music teacher. Simple as that really. I've been there 10 years and have built the dept and the reputation of drama - the standard has gone up and up. In the same timeframe, we've had music some of the time but not always and not at the moment. It wasn't a conscious decision to axe it, but the previous teacher, who was mediocre, left last summer, having been offered a new job at the end of May, and it was decided not to replace her. It doesn't stop us from turning out top quality school shows, and kids do have instrumental lessons, but there is no music in the curriculum.

Sleepy, I dn't know. To be honest I left at the end of my first term because it seemed to be less and less about the kids and more and more about ticking boxes and reaching targets. I've spent my entire working life in the private sector and was completely confused by the whole thing.

The chair of governors in my last school was very helpful to the Head.

If you get my drift

Wordsmith - lol, I'm private sector too. It's odd, the government seems obsessed with being more like the private sector but no-one I know from the private sector recognises the box-ticking stuff that goes on in the public sector bizarre.
Maybe I would be good because one of the skills you learn as a lawyer is to always say "I don't know what that means" whenever people use jargon :).

Your experience worries me....

Stevie, were they sleeping together, nicking money, or just being a yes-man/woman? (hoping the former as that would be quite exciting).

As a lawyer you would be VERY welcome - especially if you have any experience of employment law! One of the big issues at our school was single status payments for cleaners, teaching assistants and so on - it was a huge problem for our local council and a chunk of the school budget had to be put aside each year to pay for any claims that arose.

Likewise we were having some new buildings put up and one of the governors was a construction project manager - very useful in scrutinising the work and challenging the delays and cost increases!

But as for me with my namby pamby PR and marketing hat on - my expertise wasn't really valued. Not feeling sorry for myself but I didn't feel I was making a meaningful contribution although I did continually challenge their use of three letter acronyms and 'shop talk'. And at the end of the day, if the HT wanted something to go through - it would go through. The Chair and Vice Chair were all in complete awe of him.

"I did continually challenge their use of three letter acronyms and 'shop talk'. "
good for you. Bet they hated that!

What's a single status payment? (see how I would avoid the job coming to me? :))