Officers from the Education Service will attend to give evidence to the panel and answer questions.
Minutes:
Karen O' Connor, Education Officer, Tony Quinn,
Senior Governor Support Officer, and Nicola Waterman, Strategy
Advisor were present to give evidence and answer questions from
members.
(TAKE IN
REPORT)
The Education Officer explained that she had a
range of primary schools in her portfolio. School governors are
always invited to her termly visits to schools; however the uptake
of this was minimal, which was a concern. Governors then had to
wait for the report to come to the school before they could see how
the school was performing. In addition to this some governing
bodies did not include the reports on the agenda for their
meetings, which was also of concern. In terms of school governing
bodies she said there was a mix of good and bad examples in the
city. Being a school governor was a huge commitment and getting
time off work to attend meetings was sometimes an issue for school
governors. There was also an issue with a lack of challenge, which
was partially due to governors not understanding how to interpret
the data before them and not knowing what questions to ask to
challenge head teachers. A good head teacher would ensure that
governors are trained in analysing data. The Education Officer
explained that as part of her role she offers training for
governing bodies, bespoke to their school, on how to analyse data
and advises on what challenging questions they should be asking.
The key to the training was that it needed to be evidence based.
Education Improvement officers also supported the whole training of
governor services. There was a varied take up of this despite the
training being offered at various times during the day.
In response to a question regarding what could
be done about poor governance, officers explained that there was an
interim executive board in place to deal with poor governance. They
felt that the best solution however was to empower governing bodies
and to take a proactive rather than a reactive approach by
undertaking self-review.
In response to a question regarding
reconstitution of governing bodies, Tony Quinn explained that
following the introduction of The School Governance (Constitution)
(England) Regulations 2012 that came into force on 1 September
2012, governing bodies had the opportunity to reduce in size.
Regulation 13 (2) states that the governing body of a maintained
school must be no fewer than seven governors and at least two
parent governors. The reduction in the number of parent governors
required for a governing body meant that parent governors could be
recruited on their skills base. Nationally few numbers of schools
were reconstituting and many had remained the same size after
reconstitutingi. There was no evidence
to suggest that governing bodies were more efficient after
reconstituting and it was felt that they would only be successful
if the governors selected had the right skills.
The Education Officer said that the most
successful governing bodies were those who were actively involved
and were empowered to do so by their head teacher. This included
gathering evidence such as talking to pupils, looking at extracts
of their work, listening to them read, monitoring behaviour in the
school playground and talking to parents to judge how well the
school was performing. Some governors felt reluctant to do this as
they felt they should not be interfering and required support to
have the confidence to do this. The Education Officer advised that
on her visits to schools she encourages head teachers to empower
their governing body she asks head teachers to empower governing
bodies to gather evidence to be actively involved in the monitoring
of the school. Officers work with governors on preparing for Ofsted
inspections to ensure that they are confident as head teachers are
not always taking this responsibility.
In response to a question regarding academies,
officers advised that the Council did not have any responsibility
or influence for governing bodies of academies and they are
entitled to choose any system they wish. If the Council had
concerns regarding the governance of academies they would go
directly to the Department for Education. Governing bodies of
maintained schools do not need to have sub committees but often
have one that reviews finance and one for standards. If there are
proposed changes to teachers pay and conditions the governing body
may also look to set up a sub committee to review this.
Leadership is at the heart of improvement and is
entwined with governance. The papers for governing bodies meetings
are legally required to be published seven days before the meeting
to allow for the papers to be read and questions formulated. This
provides an evidence trail and is very effective. There needed to
be an honest relationship between the head teacher and the chair of
the governing board for school governance to work
effectively.
Peer review should be factored
into the training plan. A networking event was included in the
training plan and 12 schools attended when it was last held with
the feedback concluding that a lot of value was obtained from the
session. In response to a question regarding whether there was
enough effective governing bodies in the city to do a peer review,
officers advised that they could do a short straw poll to ascertain
what methods of review they are using. There were good examples of
good governing bodies in the city but it was uncertain whether
there were enough to allow for self-review.
Nicola Waterman advised that
expressions of interest to become school governors had been
received from the business community. Officers were trying to
remove barriers to encourage more people to become school governors
and members felt it was important to showcase business people who
are school governors. The Education Skills Group were also working on providing training however this
was currently not resulting in people becoming governors. Tony
Quinn advised that he would contact Steve Piper and Alistair
Gray from the Education Skills Group to
establish whether they would be willing to attend a meeting to
provide evidence on what work they were doing to encourage people
to become a school governor. Officers advised that a concept needed
to be sold to businesses in order for them to release their staff
to act as school governors.
A question was raised regarding how many naval personnel were school governors and officers replied that there are quite a few naval governors and also staff at BAE who worked together to promote governance. Members said that officers at the Council would make ideal school governors. Officers replied that the rules had been relaxed around officers becoming school governors and the Council was supportive to staff wishing to become school governors. It was difficult for education officers to become school governors due to potential conflicts of interest.
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