School governors
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
In the United Kingdom, School Governors are the largest volunteer force in the country and have an important part to play in raising school standards through their three key roles of setting strategic direction, ensuring accountability and monitoring and evaluating school performance (http://www.governornet.co.uk/).
Every state school has a Governing Body, consisting of of specified numbers of various categories of governors depending on the the type and size of school. These categories include representatives from the school staff (Staff Governors), members of the local community (Community Governors), parents - ideally of children at the school - (Parent Governors), representatives of any sponsoring bodies (Foundation and Sponsor Governors) and members nominated by the Local Education Authority (LEA Governors).
The proportions vary between differing types of school, but as an example, in Community Schools, which are usually owned by the LEA, the regulations prescribe that parent governors should be at least one-third of the governors, staff governors at least two places, but no more than one-third, including the headteacher; LEA governors 20% and community governors at least 20%.
All governors are unpaid for their governance duties, excepting that the Headteacher's Staff Governor role is ex-officio, but s/he is not required to take up the role. Should s/he decide not to become a member of the governing body, their place is left vacant.
Schools generally have a delegated budget to cover salaries, running costs, maintenance and equipment. The Governing Body is responsible for managing this budget. They can decide how many and what types of staff to employ, which equipment to upgrade or replace and what the priorities are for implementing new strategies and initiatives.
The governors are supported in their work by a Clerk to the Governing Body. In many schools this role is combined with that of Bursar or Admin Officer but this is not always the case. The Clerk is usually considered an integral part of the Governing Body although their role is primarily one of providing advice and interpretation on the regulatory and administrative framework in which governors work. The Clerk is remunerated for their work.
Most Governing Bodies use a committee structure to undertake their monitoring and evaluation roles. Finance, Staffing, Curriculum and Premises Committees are very common. Other areas covered by committes include marketing, discipline and management. Many Governing Bodies form working groups to tackle specific problems.
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