Staff Governor

[MartinRouterKing]

Hi,

 

Are any of you a governor at your schools? I am thinking about applying to become one as there is a place at my current school. I am just wondering how have you found it? Anything I should know?

 

Thank you!

[Oaktech]

Paging @elsiegee40

 

[CAM]

I am one. Not too bad, no-one else wanted to do it so I picked it up. You'll learn a lot about how schools are inspected, run and assessed. Most of this aligns with my job anyway as data manager so I already understand OFSTED, RAISEOnline, etc. You might need a bit more reading than me but everything will be explained.

 

It's no easy ride however. Once you've settled down after the first few meetings you will need to be prepared to challenge your boss, your headteacher and the school with potentially awkward and difficult questions during committee meetings to hold them to account. And when "the call" comes in, expect a lot of stress.

[elsiegee40]

Hello there!

 

I have been a governor for around 9 years now. My school was an LA school, became an academy voluntarily and is now the lead school in a small MAT.

It's definitely worth being a staff governor. You are elected for a (likely) 4 year term and your role is is to be a representative OF staff on the governing body. (You are not a representative FOR staff like a union rep... there are school policies saying how staff take things to the governors!)

 

The Governing Body has a strategic role. The governors take corporate decisions - no governor can make decisions alone. The exception is the Chair who can, as an exception, take Chair's action but must then report this to the full governing body.

 

All governors are equal. Staff governors have a right to exactly the same papers and attendance at meetings as all other governors. They cannot, however, be Chair of Governors or Vice Chair and they can't be part of the Head's pay committee. It can feel a bit weird when you start having the right to challenge your Head as part of a meeting.

 

Your role will be slightly different if your school is part of a Multi Academy Trust as some decisions must be made by the Trust by law. So finance, for example, won't be a major part of the school governor meetings.

 

In terms of experience, development and CPD I would definitely recommend becoming a governor to anyone. I have learned so much.

 

I'm definitely not the only governor on here. @witch has been one for example

Edited February 25, 2016 by elsiegee40

[Danp]

I at one at my daughter's school.

[kathabell]

I've been a staff governor for 12 years. Since the re-constitution of the governing body, the number of staff governors has been reduced so with only 1 slot, I think most people would expect the role to go to a teaching member of staff. Clearly the responsibility is a useful insight for anyone who aspires to leadership. Since stepping down however I was invited back as a co-opted governor with voting rights. In the past I've chaired exclusion panels and been on several interview panels, but the fact of being a member of staff does provide some delicate issues; you need to learn how to raise questions in a non-threatening, positive manner. I'm fortunate that our environment is one of positivity and encouragement for asking questions. Governors now need to be far more committed; it isn't just a case of turning up, you need to read the papers and be prepared to voice queries and learn about FTTD vs FFTA targets, RAISEOnline analysis... and much more. It can also be very rewarding; it is a positive way you can contribute to an important facet of your local community. I'm vice chair of our Resources Committee, which covers buildings, maintenance and personnel; although for personnel promotion/pay/discipline discussions I leave the room. There are several good courses you will be encouraged to attend, usually early evening in our case; finance/VAT for Govs, Safer Recruitment, Health & Safety, Safeguarding, Dealing with Concerns & Complaints... all useful for when the Ofsted call comes in. Throw your hat in the ring and have a go - you will certainly learn a lot about how schools operate and the challenges they face. In particular when you look at the ICT budget as a proportion of the school finances it will help fuel discussions in your day job too!

[witch]

I was a parent governor and then a community governor at my children's middle school for around 8 years.

I enjoyed finding out more about the way a school is run and it certainly opened my eyes a bit too.

Governors are required to be a "critical friend" to the process, challenging the head and staff re progress etc. However, there are caveats - I left in the end because I felt that too much was expected of volunteer governors - we were Ofsteded and expected to be able to explain in excruciating detail, the data, results and what was going on re progress etc. Also I was IT governor (obviously!) and I felt I couldn't attend the school as often as I needed to in order to really get involved and know my stuff.

I was involved in recruitment which I very much enjoyed as it is my background I was able to advise on the best way to go about it etc.

However, the school was going through some troubles and were down at "satisfactory needs improvement" so the scrutiny by the LA and Ofsted might have been OTT.

Now the school is in an academy trust and I understand that the governors are not quite as involved as they were and it has gone back to the original remit which was to help the school in many ways.

[elsiegee40]

More information about becoming a governor here SGOSS - Home

 

All non-academy schools were required to restructure their governing bodies recently and have a maximum of one staff governor plus the head teacher. However, that does not prevent governing bodies from appointing a member of staff as a governor provided that the number of governors who are employed by the school does not exceed one third of the total number of governors.

 

If you're interested in being a governor you can contact your own school's clerk (information should be on the school website) or you can contact the clerk of any school direct or you can register with SGOSS using the link above... there are few schools with no vacancies! They'll want a cv so they can see what skills you might bring to the governing body.

 

Unless you are in a special occupation like the police, you are entitled by law to reasonable time off work to carry out school governor duties. Unfortunately this time does not have to be paid and the definition of reasonable is up to your employer.

[john]

I've also been a Staff Governor and was certainly an eye opener and gave a different insight to the working of the school and I enjoyed it. Well worth throwing the hat in the ring for a go at it you maybe surprised and may understand why you cannot get money for new servers as easily as you want.

[kennysarmy]

Support Staff Governor here, four year term comes to and end in November, when I'll need to decide whether to stand again.

 

I'm on the finance committee and find it interesting to have an insight as to what's going on and being able to "defend" the IT spend is invaluable.

 

Being a staff governor brings unique problems that other governors don't have! Are you prepared to question your line manager or head about decisions?

Being involved in the school on a day to day basis, there may be conflicts of interest and you do need to learn when to keep quiet and when to speak up!

[MartinRouterKing]

Thank you so much everyone. I am going to put my application in. It finishes tomorrow at 12 just going to write my statement.

[witch]

One of my employers wasn't keen on allowing me much time to go to the other school. Maybe once a half-term, and not for very long each time. It wasn't enough once all the new requirements to understand and look at data etc and how the subject was developing and the children improving etc.