It’s incredible. Things had gone really quiet on the governor front. No meetings until February, no policies to read, school profile completed, SEF summarised. I was beginning to a) relax and b) wonder just as what I could blog about next week, when last night there was a knock at the door and who should be stood there when we opened it, but our chair of governors.
It turns out that we have had a letter from the men (and women) in suits and that we are due our Ofsted inspection early next week. It also happens to be a day on which our chair is in Newcastle with work and can’t exactly pop back down south to meet the inspectors. Consequently, as the governor who summarised the SEF, I have been nominated to go to the meeting.
I had a lovely chat with the head this morning in which she expressed her faith in me that I wouldn’t let the school down at the meeting – “you know everything because you did that work on the SEF. You know our strengths and what we are doing towards improvement. You’ll be fine.” And she refused to listen when I admitted that I can’t remember what I had for breakfast by 1pm each day, let alone the work I did on the SEF, so it looks like I have been well and truly roped in.
In fairness, I am quite looking forward to it. There is so much good about the school and plenty that I can say that is positive. I’m slightly nervous about what questions they may ask, but am resolved to have another thorough look at the school development plan, that SATs results and the SEF between now and Monday.
I feel pretty confident that all things are pointing to the school being outstanding, but I really, really don’t want it to be governors knowledge of their responsibilities that lets everyone down.
We’ll see, I guess!