School

Our children are our future, their education is vital. I may not have sired any  children but I have ‘inherited’ three, one of whom is about to get a PhD, one of whom is somewhat dyslexic and whose school somewhat failed them and one who had such a struggle with school rules that they really didn’t get as much from school as she could. These different experiences with three children who had had similar environments reinforced my belief that schools must do better to educate the individuals in their charge.

I have been a Governor at five schools over the last 20 years and Chair of Governors at two of them. I was taking a rest from governance when I was asked to sit on an Interim Executive Board – these can replace Governors in a school deemed by Ofsted to need Special Measures (i.e. a failing school) and are charged with bringing the school back up to standard. This has been a real pleasure, working in a small group of experienced and professional people who know what matters, can delegate (to the HT and to each other) and can take decisions. I have to say that this has not been my experience of some other governing bodies – I vividly remember on ‘Buildings Committee’ debating whether and how to spend about £300 on something – when the Head had delegated authority from the full Governing Body to spend up to £10,000. They clearly didn’t know enough about the true strategic role of a GB but wanted to micro-manage. I have a separate occasional blog about governance – Governing Thoughts.