This got me a little flustered this morning "School governors: Call to recruit more widely" BBC News
Think i have said on a few occasions i'm a Governor at a local school that both my boys went to, youngest left nearly 4 years ago, yet still i remain vice chair. My remit was and still is to be a critical friend to the school and assist the head in managing the school and ensure the safety of the pupils.
Have to be honest, during my first 3 years or so i took little interest in the meetings due to the fact they were so damn long & boring, often over 2 1/2 hours, that was after a full working day at the office. Then a new Chair took over and between us we re-vamped the way meetings were held and now a 90 minute meeting is a long one, but still this is voluntary.
I receive no pay, no expenses and recently got abuse from the staff because they didn't like my management style of the way i handled the last fire drill.
There are also daytime meetings to run individual smaller committees that report back to the main panel, i cant attend these due to work. I am Health & Safety Governor, but have to do this at 7.30am, so i can be in the office at 9am. I have repeatedly asked for the other sub committee meetings to be held outside of school hours to be told that teachers don't have to report back outside of school hours, yet i am required to take time out of my day for NO PAY!
I have also attended Governor Training sessions, again in my own time, with no pay, not even travelling expenses.
If Mr Gove wants more high calibre & more diverse Governors then he is going to have to at least pay for expenses, Governor training and for my time to be there. Teachers are paid to be at the school, even the clerk to the Governors is paid for her time, i'm not!
