School Governor Reflections Resource

What was the issue addressed?

The financial disadvantages to school budgets and support by being a high performing school with minimal PDG, take up of free school meals etc.

What happened?

We are constantly looking for other avenues of funding, which mainly involves the Head or another teacher being seconded out to the LEA or other schools for periods of time to share best practice. Great on one level however the roles need to be backfilled.

What lessons were learnt?

We are aware of schools who are not performing so well, or are in areas of deprivation, who have so much additional financial support they have not been able to decide what to spend it on.

The budget setting process within the LEA appears to have a mystery of its own.

Reflections…

What are the pressures on your school budget?

Has your school had to release staff for secondment? What were the implications of this?

In what ways do you think school budget allocation could be improved?

Have your say…

Have you had experiences similar to these? What do you think about the situation described?

Encouraging greater governor engagement

Read the commentary here

Welsh

What was the issue addressed?

It is hard to understand why some governors are happy to attend meetings but don’t feel they have much to add when in the meetings and don’t volunteer to take on work afterwards. It could be due to lack of confidence on their part in the value that they can add.

What happened?

Initiation of a skills assessments to understand what each governor can offer and sharing those assessments with the whole body.

Improving the structure and chairing of meetings to ask members specifically to contribute where a point of discussion matches their areas of expertise.

What lessons were learnt?

This was done at a previous school and I’m now elsewhere.

Reflections…

Does your school conduct a skills audit or assessment? Has this been useful? What, if any, problems has this caused?

What does your Governing Body do to encourage greater engagement from all governors?

Have your say…

Have you had experiences similar to these? What do you think about the situation described?

Safeguarding issues and need for LA support

Read the commentary here

Welsh

What was the issue addressed?

Difficulty arising from safeguarding pupils who have very high support needs which are potentially too much for school staff to cope with effectively. Issues arose with a very few pupils causing high risk situations (one with a blade), to staff and other pupils. Pupils with such high support needs have not been accepted previously to my knowledge.

What happened?

We are still waiting for a meeting with education and inclusion people at the LA to discuss this and discover what has changed, if anything, in their understanding of the different types of support needs amongst pupils with learning difficulties and what we can provide.

What lessons were learnt?

My feelings are that they don’t want to meet us. If we have legal responsibility then we ought to be heard, yet I have been told that they don’t normally discuss anything with governors. I absolutely disagree with that. We need to be able to support our SLT in whatever way we can, otherwise we are just there to comply with what we are told… the traditional view from our LA?

Reflections…

Are there particular safeguarding or pupil wellbeing issues in your school?

To what extent do you feel your school is supported when dealing with children who need support?

Have your say…

Have you had experiences similar to these? What do you think about the situation described?

Financial shortfall and potential redundancies

Read the commentary here

Welsh

What was the issue addressed?

Potential redundancies due to budget shortfall. The effect on staff morale. The impact on children’s learning. The impact on meeting requirements to raise standards. Satisfying all stakeholders that we are trying to provide an excellent service for all during trying financial times. The impact of not having a budgetary forecast beyond a year at a time.

What happened?

We put in place a plan to manage the potential redundancy situation in consultation with staff, unions and the LA – Advice and guidance was provided by each of these ‘players’. Increasingly schools’ budgets are in the red. How do we deliver excellence and a new curriculum when we are under resourced? Sadly, it appears we were not alone as other schools were and are facing similar dilemmas.

Fortunately, we were able to resolve the issue more by good luck than by good management!! Two maternity leaves helped us reduce our staffing budget as we were able to redeploy staff internally to cover. However, the knock on effect was to reduce our intervention strategies for supporting pupils with additional learning needs and some staff PPA cover was undertaken by teaching assistants – not ideal, especially as we were due an inspection visit by Estyn!

A restructuring of TAs duties and their willingness to reduce their hours on a voluntary basis also helped lower our staffing costs. Some welcome additional income from the LA also helped.
So, financially we managed to remain in the black but the collateral ‘damage’ in terms of supporting children, staff morale and well-being remain areas of concern.

What lessons were learnt?

Perhaps greater opportunities to share potential solutions with others in a similar boat would have been useful – having said that there were time constraints as we had to work fast to resolve our difficulties and there was a strict schedule to follow in order to comply with employment law!

Reflections…

How have financial shortages affected your school?

How would your GB go about evaluating the potential impacts of redundancies?

Have your say… Have you had experiences similar to these? What do you think about the situation described?

Getting to grips with the role

Read the commentary here

Welsh

What was the issue addressed?

There is no shortcut to the fact that when you start as a governor (as in any job), there is an awful lot to learn. In my experience the process of induction is still very paper-led and, as such, learning is very one-way. There are some existing support structures in place (such as Governors Services Cymru) which I think quite highly of but there is a responsibility on the new governor to seek out answers to questions they might have.

What happened?

I spent a lot of time looking for advice and guidance online as well as simply asking questions. Unless a quick question/answer opportunity would arise in the course of a meeting, I would often speak to another governor or teacher at the completion of a meeting and ask questions to make sure I understood everything properly.

Again, I’ve been to some training events with Governors Services Cymru, which have been very useful.

What lessons were learnt?

The key thing is finding a trusted source for information that is current, relevant and useful.

Reflections…

What could your GB do to support new governors better?

What resources have you found helpful and have you shared these with fellow governors?

Have your say…

Have you had experiences similar to these? What do you think about the situation described?

Research background

Welsh

Research was carried out by WISERD with the aim of understanding how school governors in Wales could be supported in their work. Data collection involved in-depth interviews with governors connected to Cardiff University and a survey of governors, administered nationally. Findings from these data led us to develop governor generated case studies. The aims of these case studies are to: prompt reflection about the kinds of issues governors may encounter in their role; provide insights on how governors have addressed issues; stimulate conversation and information sharing across governing bodies. There are three broad themes of case study: those providing examples of good practice; those that highlight the challenges of governance; and, those that reveal how governors can get things wrong or run into problems. It is important that users recognise the different uses the cases can have and appreciate that these are governor created reflections not definitive answers or complete stories. Broadly speaking, we see that cases that address challenges might be useful for new governors to consider as a way of broadening their perspectives on the role; examples of good practice can be shared more widely and offer suggestions on ways governors have tackled issues; cases that present difficulties and problems governors have encountered would be best used in training situations where additional information and material can be provided. Please note the aim of a case study before using it: Reflection; Insight; Debate.

Aim	Theme	Use
Reflection	Challenges	New governors, induction
Insights	Good practice	Governors addressing specific issues
Debate	Problems	Training situations

The case studies have been organised thematically and can be searched by key words and topic tags. We have hosted these in a blog format to allow colleagues to write responses and to allow the collection to grow and develop. We appreciate that the collection is limited in many ways, both in terms of the numbers of case studies from secondary, all-through and special schools, and in relation to the topics covered. However, we have taken the decision to proceed with publishing in the hope that this will stimulate other governors to contribute their experiences and insights, as well as test the value of such a resource. Accompanying each case is a helpful commentary, many with additional resource links, and we recommend governors reviewing these alongside reading the personal reflections of their colleagues.

There is also a link to a form that governors can use to contribute new case studies: Governor Reflections Proforma.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express us deep thanks to all the governors that participated in the research, both those who volunteered to be interviewed and the hundreds of governors throughout Wales who completed the survey. Special thanks also must be given to the governors who kindly provided case studies, many of which are used here.

A number of other individuals provided valuable support and information, including colleagues in Estyn, Local Authorities and Consortia. We are particularly indebted to the help and advice of Governor Cymru Services, who gave generously of their time to review the case studies and provide helpful guidance notes with useful resource links.