Additional Skills Governor Programme

Yesterday (Saturday 19th March) I attended a full day of School Governor training called the 'Additional Skills Governor Programme' run by Babcock 4S on behalf of Surrey County Council.

The programme is in it's 10th year with 91 Additional Skills Governors now available to Surrey for deployment.

There was 17 of us in the class of 2011. We were mostly Surrey school governors with one Governor from Waltham Forest.

The programme is designed to train existing school governors from effective governing bodies to help with invention in other schools which require help.

ASG can be deployed in a number of ways:

Appointment by the Authority as an additional governor to an existing governing body

Membership and/or Chair of a Temporary Governing Body(TGB) or Amalgamation Committee

Membership and/or chair of Interim Executive Board (IEB)

Mentoring a Chair of Governors

Mediation between a Head Teacher and a Chair of Governors

Observing a Governing Body and giving feedback

The training delivered by Babcock Associate Trainer Steve Barker and Surrey Governance Manager Sue Boustead focused on Local Authority powers of intervention, deployment of ASG's, Surrey's Additional Support and Intervention Programme (ASIP),the difference between temporary governing bodies (TGB)/Amalgamating Committees and Interim Executive Boards (IEB), case studies when ASG have been deployed and performance data including understanding Raise Online and CVA scores.

In the afternoon we explored our personal traits by using the Packtype self discovery programme to find out if we were hounds, guard dogs, pointers, terriers, coach dogs, mastiff's, retrievers or sheep dogs.

I found out I was a Guard Dog first, Terrier second with a hint of Mastiff third.

You can find out more about PackTypes here:
http://www.packtypes.com/Education-Schools.aspx

The final part of the programme explored the skill of mentoring and conscious listening to support Chairs of governors.

If you are a Surrey Governor I can really recommend taking part in next year's ASG training to become one of the class of 2012.

If you are not a Surrey governor why not ask your Local Authority Governance team to create a similar programme.

Useful Links

The School Governance (Transition from an Interim Executive Board) (England) Regulations

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/1918/note/made?view=plain

DfE Statutory Guidance on Schools Causing Concern

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/schoolperformance/pedagogyandpractice/a0013170/schools-causing-concern

The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2007 Temporary Governing Bodies

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/960/schedule/1/made

Raise Online

https://www.raiseonline.org/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2findex.aspx

Things that school leaders need to know about CVA and RAISEonline

http://www.sha.org.uk/MainWebSite/Resources/Document/Using%20data%20Peter%20Kent%20Annual%20Conference%202010.pdf

NGA: Supporting Chairs of Governing Bodies A Framework for Action

http://www.nga.org.uk/uploads/Mentoring%20document%20Final.pdf

Teachers TV Mentoring the Chair

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/just-for-governors-mentoring-the-chair

Babcock 4S

http://www.babcock4s.co.uk/4S/index