 Why Volunteer as a School Governor?
The real question is – What’s in it for me? What will I get from it?
People volunteer for all sorts of reasons but basically they all want to get something from it, and what they want, or what they take from volunteering, may change over time.
Parents and “Retired” people [i.e. those who have retired from paid employment] are fairly obvious sources of volunteers:
– Parents are likely to volunteer because they want to be involved in their child’s school or education.
– Retired people are likely to volunteer because they want to give something back to their community, to give them an interest and/or to make use of the skills, knowledge and expertise they developed during their working life which still have value and are transferable to the school setting.
But what about younger people generally, often fully committed to work or their careers, why should they make time to be a school governor, what’s in it for them?
A key problem for anyone seeking promotion or a better paid job is to show they have relevant experience at the level they are applying for rather than the level they are currently at. As a school governor they would be working as part of a management team providing strategic direction and oversight of what in the private sector would probably be equivalent to a medium sized business, or a department of a large company.
Key areas are:
-Strategic direction – setting the purpose and the strategic [3-5 yr] plan; agreeing the annual objectives/targets and ensuring these relate back to the strategic plan; monitoring progress.
-Policy Development – setting and reviewing school policy on a wide range of issues including Staff [incl. pupil] Behaviour, Health & Safety, Use of IT.
-Performance Management – monitoring and assessing the performance both of the organisation and of the head teacher against the agreed annual targets.
-Financial Management – setting the annual budget; making strategic decisions about how money is to be prioritised and allocated; monitoring expenditure against the agreed budget and the use of special grants; assessing tenders and awarding contracts for goods and services
-Staff Management – as well as setting the policies and procedures, governors may, in more serious cases, be involved in individual disciplinary or grievance issues.
-Leadership – Being a leader is different from being a manager. It is about setting the direction, motivating people, showing that you have confidence in the objectives you have set and their ability to achieve it; it is about establishing an environment and stability to give people the confidence to achieve the agreed objectives and the desire to want to.
To find out more please contact Julia Newman, Officer for Governor Services julia.newman@bedford.gov.uk
To register your interest please go to the Bedford Borough website. bedford.gov.uk/school-governors |
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