Barriers to outstanding governance
Is this an issue in your governing body? / Suggested solutions
Time and commitment /
Yes
Always an issue
6/16 do most things
Yes /
- It’s a volunteer post – will always be an issue.
- Length of meetings – timed agenda
- Times everyone can meet
- Time outside of meetings
- X 2 : Online documents access
- Teleconferencing
- No tabling of docs.
- Clarity in Recruitment & Induction
- Proper in-school induction?
- No solution depends on age, work etc.
- Dates for training need to be well in advance
- Bring booklet back?
- Life gets in way
- Skills audit to identify weakness in areas for development
- Whole “school” training (staff & GB)
- Whole GB training
- Schedule in-house training evenings.
Lack of high quality LA/community governors and governors with skills required for the role. Retention of governors /
Yes
But sometimes difficult to recruit comm governors – time/commitment – need to be retained.
No. /
- Good LA are great but can be difficult to find
- Retention of parent governors
- Advertise in local/town magazine
- Need to promote LA vacancies more
- Auditing process
- Skills Quest
- Not specifically LA/Community
- Retention less of a problem
Governors not attending training. Governors not attending meetings regularly /
Mixed but one found good for meetings not so good for training other good for both.
Long standing govs don’t wantto do training.
Not particularly but… /
- Linked to time commitment
- Linked to timing of training
- Code of Conduct
- Training in Code of Conduct
- Experienced governors may not feel they need more training, as they have years of experience.
Governors having confidence to recognise and deal with weaknesses. Knowing the right questions to ask and acting as a critical friend /
Work as a team more so no problem.
No /
- Head that covers everything
- Getting started is tough
- Questioning/digging deeper into details
- Information coming promptly
- Training and Experience
- Recording in minutes – evidence of challenge.
- Problems are dealt with as a team – not seen as a weakness
- Direction (?) from an independent source.
- Skills audit.
Lack of understanding of the role and of daily life in school. / Yes
Not an issue
No /
- When starting – need to be proactive to learn.
- School Visits
- Attendance @ Mentoring Days
- Planned Gov Visits – focus on school improvement plan.
- Less formal – assemblies/visits/concerts etc.
- More visits, allotted class parents evenings etc.
- Need to email newsletters and parent forum minutes to non-parent govs.
The amount of knowledge needed to undertake the role. /
Interest first followed by training and experience.
Problem esp. transition to Academy /
- Getting worse – STOP abbreviations
- Breath (and depth) of knowledge
- Need for strategy/gov. forum meetings to go over “stuff”.
- Induction
- Mentoring
- It takes time to have a full overview
Parent governors having playground power rather than contributing to the success of the school and governing body. Parent governors also having personal agendas /
Seems Quite solved but an issue for all.
N/A
Not a problem. /
- Infant School only in school 3 years but 4 years governor terms.
- Pre-election meetings, come in before election to see what it all about.
- Have a good interview procedure. If possible – make clear from the start.
- Can be resolved by good induction – explaning what is involved.
Constantly changing goal posts and priorities for the school. Keeping up with new initiatives. /
Always a problem /
- Infant free school meals
- Ofsted guidelines
- Changing curriculum
- Changing role of governor
- Change the government
A clear understanding of what outstanding governance looks like /
Goal posts will keep changing hard to keep up.
/
- Not always clear
- Sometimes – ofsted change
- Getting into business of governing rather than strategy/overview of governance.
- A good understanding of procedure and school.
- Look at what Ofsted is looking for.
Identifying individual governing body needs and providing bespoke courses to meet such needs /
- Skills audit
Please return completed survey to Penny Giraudeau