professional development - Doubled Up

Just a quickie today, it being half term and me having three children (two of whom have colds) to cope with. Don't know how primary school teachers cope with 30!

We have received a list of governor details and I have noticed that, this time, there is a new column at the end after the phone numbers etc. This column lists training attended. I was shocked at the number of cells in this column that are completely blank - some governors have done no training whatsoever, not even the introductory training. And some of these governors are on their second or third term of service.

Personally, I find it hard to do the job as well as I would like despite having had experience of education from working in a school and from some of the research I do and having done three lots of training. It makes me wonder what is in it for the school, and for the governors, if there is so little training. My immediate concern was that only one person has attended any training on finance. Thankfully, he is the chair of the finance committee, but I would think that other members of that committee should have attended training?

We are always told of what training is on offer, but it would seem that not many people take this up. I just question (once again) why people bother standing as a governor if they don't intend to put any great effort into it.

Now I feel less guilty about asking dumb questions at the FGB finance meeting - my guess is that I'm not the only one who doesn't understand, but I'm the only one brave enough to speak up.

Thankfully, I think that our new Chair of Governors is on to this and that one of the reasons for highlighting the training is so that she can address it.

I’ve been looking at the May copy of Governors magazine.  Yes, I know it’s July, but I’ve been busy, OK?! The front page brings me good news – there are plans afoot to make governing bodies smaller and more effective. The idea being that the people that are taken on are more skilled, better trained and are made more accountable. I think this would be fantastic. Take our school, for example; I don’t know exactly how many of us governors there are, but it’s enough to over-fill the staffroom at a meeting. Most people turn up, which I guess is a good start, but the vast majority of these see the meetings as their only responsibility. It is evident that, if they have read all the material sent out in advance, they are not prepared to ask questions (mind you, I guess Libby Bigmouth here does that for them!) and when it comes to a voting most just vote in favour of whatever the Head wants anyway.

A key example of the general lack of understanding of how a school works came at our last meeting, at which the school’s head of finance was talking about next year’s intake. It went along the lines of; “Well, we have a full intake next year, not a single empty space. I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous – even Year One is full now with people who want places here. It’s just crazy – there’s only one space in Year Two now….”

I sat quietly for a while – that is a feat in itself for me, let me tell you – thinking; “In a minute, someone will say how great it is that the school is doing so well and that we get paid on account of the number of children there are in the school.” But no-one did. Eventually, I could hold it back no longer and I said as much, to which everyone else took a huge sigh of relief and agreed with me.

What is it about being so afraid to upset anyone that people won’t speak up?

Anyway, I think that in our governing body, there are a few people who want to improve the school further and who have fantastic drive, and there is a larger number who mean well but don’t truly know what the job is about. In truth, I don’t either (otherwise I wouldn’t spend the whole time panicking about whether I should do/say something and then worrying about who I may have upset.

So, (possibly for the first time) I fear that I agree with Mr Balls. Let’s make governing bodies smaller, let’s recruit people who are committed and who are going to really make a difference, and let’s give them the training they need so that they can do this.

Last week was manic. Not only did I do two visits to my link class – both were brilliant, the energy primary school teachers have to have is boundless! – but also I needed to write them up. That in itself is a task and a half. You want it to be more than just a description of the lesson, but you are not allowed to be judgemental and must only write comments that are facts. I can see why this may be necessary, but it also makes it hard to move forward and make improvements.

I also did some appeals panel training. It's going to be hard to be completely unbiased. I'm relieved that I can't sit on this year's panel, as our school has received 180 applicants for 90 places, and I have heard today that people who live half a mile away have not been given a place at any of the three local schools, but must travel two miles or more to the school they have been given! Nightmare.

Seems that I am also likely to be the person who speaks on behalf of our school for next year's appeals. Not sure how I got into that, but at least I'll have a year before I have to face it – that is REALLY scary.