Being a School Governor

I have been a governor at an infants' school in my ward for a year now and take every opportunity to improve my knowledge and usefulness by attending seminars and conferences. This week I attended a conference in Basingstoke entitled Leadership and Governance: Making an Impact. Our speaker, Liz Cross, was brilliant--funny, informative and entertaining--and led some very lively discussions among a truly diverse audience.

The role of governor is critical to the success of a school and richly rewarding, but many of us shared similar frustrations surrounding the volume and repetition of documentation created, the shortcomings of Ofsted inspections and the challenge of freeing teachers to teach and inspire. In the current climate, finance is also something foremost in our minds. And the issue of becoming academies must be considered too. Quite apart from the inspirational speakers that Hampshire County Council provides for such events, there is enormous value in networking with other governors and, in my case, shamelessly stealing their ideas. One way or another, this conference provided solutions to many of the problems governors typically confront.

Some of the issues that I found particularly valuable related to redressing the balance so that we don't lose sight of the children among all our legal responsibilities, strategies to optimise assets, both human and financial, ensuring succession as parent-governors move on, and generally involving parents as fully as possible. One idea I found especially compelling was to encourage teachers to take risk, which seems to fly in the face of prevailing health and safety concerns, but possible if risk is properly managed.

In spite of the perception of education being in a straight-jacket, there is a degree of flexibility and I came away from the conference with renewed enthusiasm and passion for my role as a school governor.