Guest Blog on Parent Governor Representatives

This Blog Article was first published as a Guest Blog on ModernGovernor http://www.moderngovernor.com on 19th April 2010.


In 2009 my Clerk of Governors forwarded me an email asking for parent governors to volunteer to stand for our County Council Schools & Learning Select Committee as Parent Governor Representatives.

I did some background research to find that:

Parent Governor Representatives (PGRs) are elected from serving parent governors to represent the views of all parents on local authority committees dealing with education matters.
PGRs were first established in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. PGRs have speaking rights on any issue under discussion by the committee.
The role of the PGR is, primarily, to hold their local authority to account by consulting with and feeding back to parents on discussions and decisions relating to education.
It all sounded very interesting so I submitted my nomination form seconded by two fellow parent governors.

As election time neared I emailed our Governors Association, who were running the election, to find out why the ballot papers had not been sent out to parent governors.

I was delighted and saddened to learn I was the only applicant for the three PGR vacancies so I was duly elected without the need for a ballot.

Although I was delighted to be joining the select committee I was saddened by the apathy that no other parent governor had put their self forward for nomination.

The select committee is very akin to a school governing body where we act as a critical fiend and ensure accountability of the local authority.

But it is not all about reading committee papers, sitting through power-point presentations, listening and challenging; we also have the opportunity to have training and field fact finding trips.

At my first meeting we visited an Outdoor Educational Centre. We had a full VIP tour of facility and had the opportunity to speak to the staff. It is a truly inspirational place and the staff are clearly very passionate about what they achieve there.

The majority of the Select committee meetings start at 10am and finish around 12.30pm. Sometimes there may be a short presentation or fact finding visit afterwards which is purely optional but often beneficial.

There are around seven committee meetings per year plus the odd special meeting. This works out at less than 20 hours per year sitting on the actual committee which is not as big a commitment as some might think during the business day.

I have found the whole experience very interesting and rewarding so far and hope I continue to do so.I would certainly encourage fellow parent governors reading this to find out if their local authority has any PGR vacancies.

I sit on Surrey County Council Schools & Learning Select Committee so if you happen to be a parent governor in Surrey we have two PGR vacancies at this time. More info on Surrey’s PGR Webpage here.

by Sean Whetstone

Chairman of Governors of Polesden Lacey Infant School, Bookham
Parent Governor Representative Member of Surrey County Council Schools & Learning Select Committee

Guest Blog on 21st Century Governance on SuperGovernor

This Blog Article was first published as a Guest Blog on the Supergovernor Blog on 5th April 2010. http://www.supergovernor.co.uk

You Twitterers out there may already know Sean Whetstone (@schoolgoverning). A great supporter of this blog he writes a guest post today on the government’s latest report into school governance. Enjoy!

I am writing this guest blog two days after the government released its long awaited review on School Governance in the 21st century. It is perhaps unfortunate that the working group decided to release the publication on April fools day as it is no joke.

The review doesn’t contain any surprises and many of the anticipated recommendations for governance have been watered down.

The key recommendations are:

• The majority of governing bodies do a good job;
• Governing bodies need to be clear about their purpose and follow a defined set of principles for good governance of schools;
• There needs to be more clarity concerning the strategic management role of the governing body and the day to day management role of head teachers to ensure that neither party crosses over into each other’s role;
• The principle of stakeholder representation on governing bodies is essential but needs to be balanced against a requirement that all governing bodies have the necessary skills to carry out their tasks;
• Improvements to the training for governing body chairs, new governors and governing body clerks needs to be made to clarify the points above.

It is well worth a read and the full 33 page document can be found at
http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00351-2010.PDF

I am glad many of the recommendations complement what my own governing body has been trying to achieve.

When I became a School Governor just 18 short months ago we operated an old style committee structure based around six committees of Assets, Finance, Curriculum, Personnel, Communications and Eco Schools.

In my first two weeks as a governor, the full governing body attended a workshop training session for 21st century governance. The session was led by Steve Barker from VT FourS, a School Governance trainer/consultant for Surrey as well as a Chair of Governors for two schools & an Ofsted Inspector.

Following this informative training workshop, the governing body agreed to re-structure the committee work into just two formal committees.
The Resources committee deals with finance, health & safety and personnel while the Children & Learning committee deals with the curriculum, attainment and safeguarding.

Both of these new committees are very closely aligned to the SEF (Self Evaluation Form). The annual work programme for each committee sets out which strategic, informational and policy review items should be reviewed each term and what sections of the SEF they relate to. It also means we don’t get sucked into discussing “the colour of curtains” as Steve Barker calls it.

18 months later and we wouldn’t dream of returning to the old committee structure.

Another important part of 21st century School Governance highlighted in the review is training. I completely support this recommendation.

I would certainly recommend every School governor completes a blend of face to face, online and whole governing body training sessions.
In my first 18 months of being a School Governor I completed nine courses to help prepare me to give the appropriate skills to support, challenge and help lead the school.

In January this year our school received an Ofsted Inspection under the new framework and along with the whole school the Governing Body was judged to be Grade 1/Outstanding.

I hope our restructuring and focus on training led towards this judgement.

Regards

Sean Whetstone

Chair of Governors at a Surrey Infant School

Parent Governor Representative of County Council Schools & Learning Select Committee

@SchoolGoverning on twitter http://www.twitter.com/schoolgoverning

Internet Links & Online Resources for School Governors

Here is a list of Internet Links & Online Resources for School Governors I have built up over the last two years.

Please let me know of any other School Governor related links which I may have missed or any links that no longer work.

Ofsted http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/

CWDC Safer Recruitment Information http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/safeguarding/safer-recruitment/e-learning#content

Safer Recruitment Online Training Portal http://elearning.cwdcouncil.org.uk/login/index.php

Independent Safeguarding Authority http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/

Teachers TV Section for School Governors http://www.teachers.tv/governors

Financial Management Standard in Schools (FMSIS) http://www.fmsis.info/

Governor Line http://www.governorline.info/

DCSF Governornet http://www.governornet.co.uk/

School Governor Guide to the Law http://www.governornet.co.uk/linkAttachments/GTTL 05.12.09.doc

DCSF Consultations relating to School Governing http://www.governornet.co.uk/consultationsList.cfm?topicAreaId=10

National Audit Office Guide for School Governors http://www.nao.org.uk/guidance_and_good_practice/good_practice/education.aspx

Raise Online https://www.raiseonline.org/

Governornet Jargon Buster List
http://www.governornet.co.uk/jargonList.cfm?topicAreaId=22

Fischer Family Trust http://www.fischertrust.org/

TeacherNet http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/

http://www.teachingawards.com/nominations/

Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency http://www.qcda.gov.uk/
DCSF Governors Newsletter Online from DCSF Spring 2010 Edition

http://www.governornet.co.uk/linkAttachments/Governors%20newsletter%20spring%202010.pdf


Governor Associations

National Governors Association NGA http://www.nga.org.uk

Governors Wales http://www.governorswales.org.uk/

Discussion Boards

UK Governor Discussion Board/Forums http://www.ukgovernors.org.uk

Governornet Discussion Board/Forum http://www.governornet.co.uk/threadListdate.cfm?topicAreaId=8

Times Education Forums http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/17.aspx

School Governing Blogs:

Modern Governor Blog http://www.moderngovernor.com/blog
Supergovernor Blog http://www.supergovernor.co.uk
Ramblings of a Governor Blog http://ramblingsofagovernor.wordpress.com/
School Governing Blog http://schoolgoverning.blogspot.com/

Recruitment of Governors

School Governors One Stop Shop http://www.sgoss.org.uk/home/

School Governor Online Training

Modern Governor http://www.moderngovernor.com
Link Governor http://www.linkgovernor.co.uk/
Educare http://www.educare.co.uk/
Gel http://www.elc-gel.org/governors

Facebook Groups

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=9233231497&ref=ts I am a School Governor
http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/School-Governors-One-Stop-Shop/36614609212?v=wall School Governors One Stop Shop
http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/School-Governors-One-Stop-Shop/36614609212?v=wall#!/pages/Supergovernor/343621889503?ref=ts Supergovernor

Twitter

SchoolGoverning http://www.twitter.com/SchoolGoverning
School Governor http://www.twitter.com/SchoolGovernor
ModernGovernor http://www.twitter.com/ModernGovernor
Supergovernor Http://www.twitter.com/Supergovernor

Education Related News in UK Broadsheets

Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/education

Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/

Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/

Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/