Sarah Mills (Operations Manager, Partnerships & Business Engagement, Faculty of Science and Technology) and Amanda Ross (Marketing Manager Partnerships & Business Engagement, Faculty of Science and Technology) give their thoughts on being School Governors.

What is a School Governor, and what does the role involve?

Sarah explains, “The role of a school governor is primarily to support and challenge the head teacher to ensure there is good quality management and leadership in all aspects of school life. The role involves attending meetings and committees, being a subject lead and taking an active role in all aspects of the school.”

Amanda adds, “They are people from all walks of life who come together to help their school. It’s quite a responsible role, they act as a kind of safety net/check on the running of the school. I was a School Governor for a year 2021/22, so I was able to see a full cycle of school activities.”

How and why did you become a School Governor?

Sarah answers, “I am currently a governor at two schools, one of which I am a parent governor and the second a co-opted governor. When a position came available to my son’s primary school, I felt it was a great opportunity to become involved in the management of the school, and to give back some of my experience and skills.

“I am also a co-opted governor at a pupil referral school, which was looking for people to join their management team. I felt that my skills and experience would be of use to the school and that it would personally provide me with a great insight into a very different areas of the education system.”

Amanda explains, “I became a Co-Opted (i.e., member of the community not a parent) School Governor in September 2021. After some voluntary work helping the school with a review of their website, the Chair of the Governors, who used to be in my choir, suggested I become a Governor as they had done a skills audit and identified they needed someone with marketing skills.

“I agreed as I thought I could make a difference to the school, and I have done marketing consultancy work before for charities and businesses. I quite enjoy coming into an organisation, reviewing their marketing, clarifying their aims and needs, and coming up with ideas to change and improve their marketing to achieve their goals. The University permits staff to do some voluntary work like this, fitted around their University work, so I spoke to my Line Manager and got permission.”

How have you used your skills set to help the school?

Sarah explains, “At both schools, I sit on a finance and resource committee, which allows me to take my finance, budgeting and HR skills set and use this in a school setting. I have recently been involved in setting school budgets and recruiting for teaching and outreach staff.”

Amanda adds, “I completed a review of their website, which led to them changing the website considerably, making it more visual. I also completed a detailed marketing review, highlighting areas to improve and change, and encouraging the school to stop, think and reflect about what marketing is to them and how they could use it to increase recruitment. Working with the Head Teacher and Chair of the Governors, I used the review as a framework for discussion to create content to help draw out and promote the unique features and benefits of the school and generate many ideas and an action plan for the next few years.

“In resources and general meetings, I provide a positive, fresh approach, fresh ideas, and a marketing perspective, which they previously lacked. I also have experience of working on projects with very strict rules on spending, and understand the importance of providing evidence for decisions of spending for audits, so I was able to use that for the budget side of things.”

What have you gained from being a school governor?

Sarah muses, “I have gained a great insight in to the UK’s education system and seen where it works brilliantly and where improvements could be made. It has also been a great opportunity to broaden my networks and work alongside people from different backgrounds.”

Amanda reflects, “I have learnt about how a School is run in more detail than I knew before from my family. It has been interesting for me to join a different culture, see different ways of working, different paces and different styles. Having been at the University for some years, I found it useful and refreshing. It made me reflect on the differences between the two experiences, and have a new appreciation for both. I also enjoyed meeting other Governors at the training session, and learning from them. It’s been a good thing to do and I have been very impressed with the School and their ethos. It’s also been interesting to see how education has changed since my schooldays.

“I’ve also gained more experience of drawing out features and benefits from people, helping them to put a marketing hat on, so to speak, and think in a different way to they are used to.”

Are there any negatives about being a School Governor, or things that some people may not be used to?

Sarah replies, “Being a governor is a very positive experience. The areas I find most challenging are understanding the requirements set by the department for education on schools and how these impacts teachers providing excellence in school.”

Amanda follows, “Not really negatives, but you will notice differences in what you may be used to in your day job. In my role I am use to formal meetings with a Chair, agenda, lots of paperwork to go through before and during the meeting, but not everyone is. There’s a lot of jargon and acronyms, like any organisation though, but you do get a lot of guidance and training and it’s part of your role to ask questions and clarify things anyway. I think people who work in Higher Education would be well suited to being School Governors, but anyone could do it, and you can just do it for a year like I did.”

What skills/experience have you brought back to the workplace from being a School Governor, and how has it helped your career?

Sarah comments “Not so much skills, it’s re-enforced those, but is has helped me reflect and gain perspective on working in HE compared to schools.”

Amanda adds “It’s given me experience of being a marketing consultant and starting from scratch again with a new organisation, which I haven’t done for a while, and I’ll use the marketing review document again for other things like new projects at work, and to reflect and refresh current activities. It was interesting to see the similarities in coming in to do marketing consultancy in a school and a small business.

“It’s also heightened the importance and power of asking the right questions, and excusing my bias as a marketing professional, helping people stop and take time to think about marketing, to reflect, change and plan, which smaller organisations without dedicated marketing staff, caught up in the day to day of running their school/business, can find it hard to take time to prioritise and do, but which you need to do to innovate.”

What would you say to anyone thinking about being a School Governor?

Sarah concludes “If the opportunity arises take advantage of it, it is a great experience and a good way to give back.”

Amanda ads, “Go for it! You’ll definitely get more than you think out of it, it’s a great way to give back to your community in a way that is supported by the University, meet new people, and be part of something that can improve the education of children in your area.”

For more information on being a School Governor, see your local authority website, for example, Lancashire : Become a school governor - Lancashire County Council

Feel free also to contact Amanda or Sarah for an informal chat about their experiences.

Related Blogs

• 

  What Coaching is All About and How it Can Help You

• 

  The Science and Technology Careers Week 2021

• 

  Recycling Additive manufacturing waste: Shred-it, Dry-it and Extrude-it

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.