Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Alan Short

“HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE’S REVIEW OF SCHOOL GOVERNORS

I have been a governor of a local Primary School for seven years and chair for five. I am now assisting the County in helping schools who have been marked down in their latest Ofsted Inspections by speaking at meetings of governors involved and also assisting a specific school chair of governors that are in special measures.

The school where I am chair has gone from Good to Satisfactory and back to Good at the last three inspections whilst I have been involved. Some of the change in the assessment has been due to changes in the focus of the inspection framework and I think the current one is on the right track. The achievement and attainment of our pupils has improved in recent years and we have a plan to build on that and a strategy to move from good to outstanding.

Firstly, I think the abandoning of the statutory requirement to have a School Improvement Partners (SIP) has been a move in the wrong direction. We were a weak governing body but have improved. During that period the support of the SIP to me and the head’s performance review committee has been invaluable. We are now paying for the service but have had problems finding someone to undertake the task. Fortunately this has been resolved; we have also had difficulty in recruiting governors and undertaking training. I feel that some established form of limited paid time off would have been and would still be an advantage for us. I am effectively retired so for me there is no problem but looking to my succession plan I can see that the more able governors would have difficulty in meeting the necessary commitment required of an effective chair and do a full time job.

I do not think paying chairs would be the answer. For a start who would appoint such a person? At least local Councillors have to be elected by a wide constituency.

Another key factor in my view is the commitment of the head and senior management team to recognise the role of the governors and to see value in involving them in the development of the school. There has to be a fine line between the day to day teaching of the pupils which should be under the control of the head and the role of the governors in holding the head and the school to account. But a diverse set of governors will bring a set of skills that will enhance the development of the school. I always feel happy when during a discussion of an issue or proposal I see the head making a few notes on ideas input by the governors.

The head has done a lot to enhance the role of the governors as he recognises that the school improvement will be judged in part by the quality of the governing body. However, he has now reach the stage where he knows that if he comes forward with an ill thought out scheme, it will be unpicked by the governors and that if a problem is raised he needs to identify causes and come up with a plan to rectify the problem and measures to demonstrate improvement.

The issue of payment is in my view a blind alley. We need to encourage people to come forward as governors and not denigrate the role or say it should become a semi-professional activity restricted to accountants and lawyers, or ex teachers. Some form of paid time off is required, especially for training, restoration of SIPs as an essential requirement and support through local initiatives, including federation or mentoring should be encouraged.

March 2013