governor letter

[bloated1977]

If we write to a letter to the chair of governors and mark it for his attention private and confidential will it end up going straight to him or do you reckon the head will open it first. We want to inform him of some staffing issues the head has created. Thanks.

If it is marked private and confidential, it should not be opened by anyone else.

Who is we? School staff?
Surely it's a simple matter of writing to the chair of governors at their home address?

Are you staff or a parent?

Your whistle-blowing policy should be freely available to staff without having to ask. On that, it will state how to contact the CoG without going through the HT.

It’ll go straight to the COG but the minute it’s opened they will show it to the head.

Why don't you write to him and request a meeting and then give him the letter?

It should not be opened but sometimes the admin staff are over-zealous in their opening of letters. I would suggest an outer envelope and letter addressed to the office manager with the sealed envelope addressed to the Chair inside. Or hand deliver and ask for a receipt.

We as in staff. we've no idea of the home address of the chair unfortunately.

Ask the governor department of LEA for chairs home address and explain why you need it,

Mark it 'Personal' instead of 'Private & Confidential'. That's the convention if you don't want anyone else opening it, though there are no guarantees of course.

Can you email the chair instead?

Protocol would mean involving the unions first.

Can’t you contact your staff governor?

Staff Governor should have the chair’s email address....
Or contact the clerk of the governors.

Chair of Govs here. Hand it to chair of Govs in person. Find out the time and date of the next meeting. ( ask the staff Gov) and hand it over.

If I received a letter like that I would go through each point and decide if:

If any issue were operational - the headteacher to deal with.

Any grievances to follow grievance procedure - to be led by Govs if against the headteacher.

Any complaints about headteacher to open up an investigation and give findings and a right of appeal.

Therefore make sure you make it clear in your letter what your issues are, and make sure you are up to date on policies and procedures as to where to take specific issues. You may just be signposted back to the relevant procedure.

However if there are wider issues within a complaint that are valid I would look at those and make the changes required to correct these.

I am a teacher and a governor. The governors I work with are fantastic; the governors at my own school not so great (very pro head and anti staff, we feel) . Have you spoken to your staff governor about this? Soemtimes they are a good route through.

Also, as a PP said, union reps if it is staffing. Consulting CoG would suggest something very very serious which has not been resolved through other preliminary routes.
Some CoGs are basically in the pockets of HTs, unfortunately.

Do NOT email. Emails are so easily passed around without you even knowing. Hard copies cna of course be circulated but people seem less likely to do this.

I'm a parent Governor and we have contact details and addresses of all of the Board. Your clerk to the governors would have this information, as would your staff Governors. The Chair at my school is usually in a few times each term, so anyone in the office would know the dates, plus they'd likely be in the school diary as well. Doesn't it give any contact details for the Chair at all on your School website?

The staff governor is not a spokesperson for the staff, they are a representative staff member. They can not act individually. Any complaint would need to go to the chair directly. Probably worth consulting your union if it effects you directly.