School responsibility to the local community

School responsibility to the local community

The Schools White Paper (DfE, 2010) states that in the future: ‘Parents, governors and the public will have access to much more information about every school and how it performs.’

In the context of extended services, provision for 14– 19 year olds and the raising of the participation age, governing bodies will need to ensure that schools are effectively engaging local communities. The literature review suggests that, at present, the extent to which schools are engaging local communities is hard to assess. Evidence suggests that governors see themselves as more accountable to the schools and/or Ofsted rather than the surrounding community. Survey data revealed that a large proportion of governors strongly agreed or agreed that their governing bodies ensured that their schools ‘respond to the needs of the local area’. Over three¬quarters (78 per cent) of governors also reported that they strongly agreed or agreed that their governing bodies took into account ‘how the school can help to support all children and young people in the local community’.

Although coordinators represent a relatively smaller sample in the NFER survey compared to governors, their views differed slightly and were somewhat more reflective of the review evidence. Most respondents were not sure whether governing bodies ensured that schools ‘respond to the needs of the local area’ (53 per cent; 33 respondents) and just under a third agreed with this statement (31 per cent; 19 respondents). Similar proportions of coordinators were either not sure or agreed that governing bodies ensured that schools helped to ‘support all children and young people in the local community’ (37 per cent; 23 respondents and 44 per cent; 27 respondents respectively).

Further analysis showed that respondents on governing bodies rated as ‘outstanding’ for their effectiveness in ‘challenging and supporting the school so that weaknesses are tackled decisively and statutory responsibilities met’ were statistically significantly more likely to strongly agree that their governing body ‘ensures that the school responds to the needs of the local area’ (38 per cent) compared to governing bodies judged as ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ (30 and 19 per cent respectively).
Similarly, a larger proportion of governors on ‘outstanding’ governing bodies reported they strongly agreed their governing body ‘considers how the school can help to support all children and young people in the local community, (44 per cent), compared to those on ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ governing bodies (38 and 29 per cent respectively).

Accountability to the local community

The Importance of Teaching (DfE, 2010) states that in the future: ‘We will help governing bodies to benefit from the skills of their local community in holding schools to account.’

Interviewees across six case study areas felt that their schools were accountable to the local community by, for example, having community representation on the governing body, partnership links with local agencies such as the police and the local primary care trust, provision of extended services and supporting schools to work in clusters of schools.
In contrast, coordinators and governors across five of the case¬study areas felt that community involvement and accountability were limited to parent evenings, newsletters and the publication of examination results, with the governing bodies tending to leave this area of responsibility to the school senior leadership team.


The full Nfer Report by Tami McCrone,Clare Southcott and Nalia George can be found below

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/LGMS01/LGMS01.pdf