Due to being away for a couple of weeks (did I mention the beautiful weather?) I missed the last governing body meeting. Consequently, I only skimmed through the paperwork I received in advance of the meeting and am now going back through it in more detail.
I am guessing that all schools are in a similar situation at this time of year – updating, writing and rewriting policies – and I wonder if other people feel that it is becoming excessive?
I can see the sense in many policies – literacy, special needs etc – but one or two which I have been looking at just seem a step to far. In particular, we have a ‘promotion policy’, which I assumed was about promoting staff to new roles. Not so. It is a policy on how the school promotes itself. It has been written by our vice chair, who (apart from being highly committed to the school) is a mum of two and works almost full time. I just can’t but help feel that her time could have been better spent elsewhere, rather than writing a long and thorough document on how we use our website/press contacts etc.
I don’t know why I am particularly surprised – I remember how much seemingly unnecessary documentation I produced when I was teaching. I certainly would have preferred spending the time on planning lessons and creating resources. Having not worked in the system for nearly seven years now, I don’t know if it is the case but, from what I see as a governor and parent, the amount of paperwork teachers are required to produce does not seem to have decreased at all.
I wonder how those that are working in the system feel about this?