Who’s running our schools?
The former Chair of Governors at a south Norwich school has taken the unusual step of going public with her views on school governing bodies, saying they have: “ridiculous amounts of power.”
In a year that’s seen two well-respected head teachers resign from local schools, we ask whether the system has enough checks in place.
Liz Ashby used to chair the governing body at Northfields First School. At Northfields, work by the Governing Body and the head successfully improved results. But while in post, she became aware of loops in the system, which she feels can be abused. She also feels there are not enough checks and balances to ensure governing bodies don’t exploit their power.
Drawing on her own experience, she criticises the current system: “Anyone can go in there with very little training and make decisions on local schools which have huge implications.” She adds: “I think governing bodies have ridiculous amounts of power, should they choose to use it.”
Last year Liz Ashby applied to become a Local Authority Governor at another local school. She subsequently heard that someone else had been appointed, despite never being interviewed. LEA posts are allocated by local councillors, something she describes as akin to “rotten boroughs” where one person decides who should get the appointment.
The role of Governing Bodies has grown enormously in the past 20 years. In 1990 a Governing Body would have had responsibility for overseeing around 1% of a school’s budget. Now in 2010 that’s grown to almost 100%. Over the years the Local Authority has delegated powers to school governors; lay people who volunteer for the role.
Stephen Adamson, the vice-chair of National Governor’s Association argues that checks are place if governors get too powerful and if finances go wrong - but admits things can go wrong very quickly. Speaking earlier this year at a governors conference, he said: “You can get a rogue governor whose got a particular bee in their bonnet, who we admit can make life very difficult for a head teacher, but if head teachers are properly informed they can remind governors about what their functions are and inform them, hopefully politely, and if they continue to do so, they can go to their local authorities.”
Neil Collins, spokesperson for the Norfolk Governors’ Network disputes the idea that governing bodies have too much power: “There’s a lot of guff talked about governing bodies’ powers. In reality – governors can do two main things to improve standards in their schools. Firstly ensure they have a really good headteacher. Secondly, operate as a critical friend to that headteacher – supporting when times are tough and challenging to ensure good planning and clear thinking and to prevent complacency coming in.”
There are undoubtably cases where heads and Governing Bodies work together for the good of a school. There are also a lot of Governors who volunteer their time to oversee improvements in their local school. But in Liz Ashby’s view, and others who didn’t feel they couldn’t speak on the record for the sake of their careers, there are governing bodies who go further than act as a “critical friend”. It leaves us with an important question: who’s governing the Governors?
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