More on governors

I’m puzzled. It is quite rare for the position of Chair of Governors to be contested. It is almost unprecedented for a contested election to be anything than polite and almost self-deprecating. For a contested election in a school with multiple challenges to become even slightly acrimonious must be almost unprecedented. An unfavourable OFSTED report will inevitably result in the “the blame game” with lots of finger-pointing being directed, from both inside and outside of the school, towards the governors in general and the Chair and Vice-Chair in particular. All the more so if the Governing Body is identified as an area of significant weakness. And yet all this is happening not so far from where I’m writing this blog.

Taking on the role of the Chair of Governors of a school involves accepting that you will need to spend hundreds of hours per year on school business.  Many of these hours will need to be during the working day. And what do you get paid for all this unpaid work? Nothing, zilch, not a penny! In practice you will be out of pocket since most Chairs don’t claim for their travel costs or for office consumables like printer ink or paper.

Add to this the almost local lack of thanks or appreciation Chairs of Governors receive from the Local Authority and you can see that it doesn’t make for a very attractive employment package.

So why am I puzzled? I want to understand why there are some governors who want to be seen as leaders but either haven't got - or at least will not share - their vision for the future of the school they seek to serve. This is bound to make people question their motivation for seeking the top job.