In the firing line

With growing pressure on governors from Ofsted and the DfE, is it any wonder why people aren’t queuing up to take the bullet, asks Leoarna Mathias...

When the going gets tough – some step up. A little more than a year ago, one of the three schools in the primary federation I help to govern was given a judgement of ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted. Coming very soon after the move to federate, the judgement didn’t meaningfully reflect the work of the new senior leadership team; rather it revealed the shortcomings of the previous administration and unresolved staffing issues. It came as a bit of a jolt to everyone concerned, but the unified response of all was proactive and positive.

The governing body was quick to create a temporary sub-committee of governors who were willing to meet frequently, visit the school often, and take an active role in bringing about the changes needed. They quickly familiarised themselves with the salient criticisms of the report, and learned new skills of observation and evaluation in order to meaningfully contribute to the process. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty in working with the senior leadership team and the local authority advisors both to understand the problems and to contribute to the solutions. The outcome? Well, at the time of writing, we await the re-inspection, but we are reassured by the particularly positive feedback from our local authority advisor, and believe all of this hard work will be rewarded.

Events such as these in any school’s life tend to have the effect of focusing the collective mind of governors and teachers alike. But when it largely falls to the governing body to correct weaknesses in teaching and leadership that result in a ‘requires improvement’ judgement, have we created a pressured climate where there are too many reasons not to be a governor?

The non-conformist in me feels compelled to ask whether Ofsted’s benchmarking criteria and evidence-gathering methodology can ever tell a genuinely accurate picture. As Charles Leadbeater says, ‘The answer you get depends entirely upon the question you ask’. I am much persuaded by Mick Waters’ cogent arguments as to the negative consequences of the ‘Game Theory’ view of education that inspection regimes bring about. But, putting my doubts about the value of the inspection process to one side, the presence of the ‘threat’ of Ofsted can be most assuredly off-putting to potential governors, to say the least. In my first piece, I wondered why we have a governor shortfall of something like 11 per cent nationally; perhaps a better question is why is the vacancy rate so relatively small given the pressures governors endure?

On the popular blog, Clerk to Governors (clerktogovernors.co.uk), regular reviews of Ofsted reports highlight the varied pressures on governors. Recent posts have shown just how much is expected of governing bodies: to understand data, to ensure a link between performance and pay, to scrutinise pupil premium expenditure, to hold the head ‘to account’, to quality assure teaching, and more latterly, to underpin the school’s work in preparing pupils ‘positively’ for life in modern Britain (echoes of the language of the Birmingham schools ‘Trojan Horse’ affair abound).

As we now know, Michael Gove’s ideas would radically alter the educational landscape in ways that are probably irreversible. His November 2010 white paper ‘The Importance of Teaching’ suggested that governors should examine their own contributions by considering the answers to 10 broad-ranging questions. These covered topics from the provision of out-of-school activities to the soundness of financial strategies, through to the upkeep of buildings and equipment, the rigour of the curriculum, the management of pupil behaviour, the rewards for staff who do their jobs well and much, much more besides. It’s quite a list.

Once we had set in motion the idea, as we did under Kenneth Baker back in 1984, that parents and communities ought to have a say in how schools manage themselves, the logical conclusion has been that the governors would be increasingly expected to answer these kinds of questions. But I fear for the future of governorship altogether if the ‘question list’ continues to grow under future DfE regimes and Ofsted scrutiny.

About the author

Leoarna Mathias inspected early years settings for 11 years. She now lectures at the University of St Mark and St John and writes for a range of publications on education and early years issues.