Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by The Governing Body of St Martin’s Catholic Primary School , Reading

Our Response

We propose that the current model of school governance remain unchanged and submit evidence of how this works for us.

1. On the purpose, roles and responsibilities of school governing bodies, within the wider context of school governance and leadership, the current strategic role of a “critical friend” remains pertinent to the successful performance of a school.

2. The implications of recent policy developments for governing bodies and their roles could very well destabilise a historically established and well understood role of governance which has been in place since the late 19^th Century. The fact that school governors form the largest body of volunteers in the UK bears witness to how successful and attractive this goodwill area of work is.

3. Recruiting and developing governors will to a great extent always be a challenging issue as it is dependent on people’s goodwill and other commitments that they may already have. Reading Borough Council runs a very effective Governor training and briefing sessions which provide invaluable practical advice and networking. Online training such as that provided by Modern Governor is also available at one’s convenience. Recruitment is an on-going challenge facing any governing body. People’s circumstances unavoidably change, more so in the current economic climate. What is much more important though is to recruit members with a genuine passion to help a school continue to improve. A commitment to this ethos would carry more weight than any skill set a potential candidate may have, although this, where available, is of added benefit.

4. The current structure and membership of governing bodies work well. The flexibility of membership to the governing body that was recently introduced also helps in that governing bodies can agree which the best structure of governance for their school would be. Each school is different and will have its own unique governance requirements. Although the basic structure of a governing body remains, consideration will be given to school types, for example, faith schools which require a considerable majority of its governors to be appointed through the Diocese. In terms of the balance between representation and skills, there is the collective responsibility of being accountable, not only as a governing body, but towards each other’s development as governors. To this end, it falls to the chair to evaluate the performance of the governing body, identify any training or support needs and to facilitate these. The Local authority avails itself to attend Governing body meetings to support any developmental requirements. Guest attendance to meetings of other governing bodies should be encouraged, given that all operate to a similar code of conduct. The success of all this though, depends on how much time, outside of their existing commitments, governors have to spend on this.

5. As alluded to above, the effectiveness and accountability of governing bodies falls to the Chair as it is their duty to ensure the engagement of all within their governing body, and to seek help if need be (A vote of no confidence can be passed for a non-performing chair). Again the Local authorities (Reading) provide a good governor training and support, to ensure all governors are aware of their obligations, legal or otherwise. A New Governor training course provided should be compulsory, and on-going training in various aspects of governance is provided on a regular basis- dates for these are issued at the beginning of every academic year and regular bulletin reminders provided on a near weekly basis. The Local Authority needs to be supported in order for them to continue to provide this very fundamental service, which in turn helps to develop effective governors.

6. The remuneration of governors is an emotive issue given that this has historically been a voluntary role. Introducing remuneration could erode the genuine passion and commitment people may have to help oversee school improvement. This aspect raises a number of queries/concerns:

(a)Will governors be paid from the school budget, regardless of the size of school? Will the school budgets afford this?

(b)Who will assess the performance of governors and thus set the appropriate remuneration?

(c)Governors can claim expenses according to their agreed policy, would this not suffice, as it has so far?

(d)The new proposed Academies set up does imply a lot more commitment on the part of governors so perhaps remuneration should be considered for these, although the issues outlined above are still valid areas of consideration as well.

(e)Should remuneration be applied to academies governors, does this then not risk a 2-tier system of governors? Those who get paid for their work and those who do it out of their own goodwill? In either/both cases, how will effective governance be monitored?

(f)Could there be a risk of those schools that do not remunerate governors then fail to recruit the calibre of governors they would need, as preference could then be for one to be remunerated for the time spent on governor duty- if this became a choice?

7. Governors are accountable to the school children, their families, the local authorities, and the wider community and in our case, the Catholic Church. For this reason, relationships exist and should be encouraged among the various communities that a school relates to. This collaboration must continue for it is indeed for the benefit of society that all schools perform as best as they can and therefore all stakeholders must do their best to support schools to be the best that they can. Here again the local authority is key in coordinating the support that a particular school requires. They too should be supported to this end.

December 2012