Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Umesh Raichada, Parent Governor

I would personally like to comment on my experience on the Subject of the Role of School Governing Bodies as I have been a parent Governor for over eight years now. The Governing body basically has a role of being a CRITICAL FRIEND, QUESTION and RECOMMEND the strategy for the school development plans. In order to make the Governing Body more effective it should have a CROSS REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLE ON THE BOARD INCLUDING PARENTS!!! The role of Community Governors & Political parity/councillors Governors should be limited going forward.

Personally I recommend that ALL Nursery, Primary, Secondary as well as the new so called ACADMYS MUST COMPLY WITH NEW REGISLATION in order to get more Parents to be involved in Joining the GB. In most cases up and down the country the role of GB and election of Governors is kept as a CLOSED SHOP and not enough COMMUNICATION takes places between Schools and parents to promote the role of Parent Governors, Too often Head teachers do not like CHANGE and Input from Parents as they have had freedom to run the schools all these years without questions being asked. But if such schools are funded by hard working parents who are in most cases high rate tax payers Schools should become more open minded.

ALSO OPEN INFORMATION ON GOVERNING BODY MINUTES—Going forward all schools should comply with the Freedom of INFORMATION ACT.

One of my daughters attends a high school which has been turned into an academy and before it turned into an Academy they put out a call for a Parent Governor this was put on hold until it became an Academy. During the consolation process which was done very fast with limited information given to parents and in most cases information in a form of large PDF files that parents had to visit the school website to read !!!! During the consolation process I met the Chair of Governors and informed him that I was very keen and interested in the position of a “Parent Governor” to my surprise he replied “You have to be selected to be a Governor by the Governing body” which is totally incorrect as the right to vote in a parent Governor has to be voted by parents!! Anyway I did not say anything at the time as it was inappropriate at the time. Since then I have applied to be a Governor and lost by one or two votes as the school did not remind parents about the election process and how important it is for them to vote. Since then I have asked the Clark to the Governing body to send me minutes of the GB meetings which she has done. I am now having to chase the Clark for the minutes and after several weeks of waiting I have received the second set. I copied the PA to the Headteacher so that she is aware of my request. The Headteacher has replied to my email saying: “You may well feel that this is a way in which you can personally keep yourself up to speed on what decisions are made and why they are made but as you are not an elected Governor of the academy I cannot see that there is any requirement on the Clerk to service your needs as if you were by action if not in fact a self co-opted member of the Governing body. Please do not, in your response to me, quote freedom of information.”

I have asked Brent Councils Director of Children and Families to look into this for me as well as the Information commissionaire both of which have not come back to me. THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG AND SHOULD BE LOOKED INTO BY THE RELEVENT HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE

January 2013