Back to School

WHEN Kath Knighton was asked by a friend if she wanted to become a school governor she laughed and said "not really". Kath had not set foot in a classroom since her daughter left school more than 20 years earlier and her work background before retirement was at Rowntree's, where she had been an office supervisor.

But something in her must have been interested, because she asked for a day to think about it and, nine years later, is still loving her role as a governor at Lowfield School in Acomb.

Kath, of Postern Close, York, is one of 370,000 volunteers across the country who help run their local schools, an unpaid army who have taken on increasing responsibilities over the past few years.

But more recruits are needed. A campaign to find more volunteers is being launched by the City of York Council later this month, in line with a national drive to enlist more help.

Vacancies are currently running at ten per cent across York and in other areas of the country the percentage is higher.

It seems Kath's initial reaction is typical of many. Governors hardly have a high-profile image and many people's recollections are limited to hazy memories of anonymous, elderly people sitting on the stage at speech night.

Kath says: "People say in the old days all governors had to do was eat a four-course dinner three times a year, which I don't think is quite true."

But Kath's experiences, and those of her neighbour Jill Thompson, a primary school governor, quickly dispel images of stern-looking worthy people sitting round a boardroom table.

When Kath first started, before the mentor scheme was set up, she said it took her a while to get used to all the education-speak going on, but over the years her role has grown and she is now head of the governors' personnel committee, one of several smaller sub-committees.

And this is where her years of experience in dealing with different people at Rowntree's has come in.

"We meet at least once a term and look at staff problems, appointments of new staff and so on.

"I'm also involved in interviewing staff from the headteacher down."

Kath knows most staff from the dinner ladies to the office staff to the teachers and her biggest staffing job was the appointment of current headteacher John Thompson.

She was involved in setting up the two-day selection process and interviewing candidates alongside education officers from the City of York Council.

"The candidates got some hard questions about education from the officers, but our job was the other part - the human part," she said. "It's very important to get the right head."

Jill first got into governing as a parent, 20 years ago. "My daughter came back from school with a piece of paper for parents to vote for parent governors and the first name on the list was mine! I didn't know anything about it," she said.

Since that first stint as a parent governor, Jill has served at several schools and is now a governor at both Our Lady's RC Primary School in Acomb and St George's RC Primary School in Fishergate.

Jill, a former schools' inspector, is on committees at both schools, but has also got more involved by helping children with reading in school.

"I go in regularly to Our Lady's once a week, and do that, partly because I like it and partly because it does help me to get to know the school," she said. "I like feeling that I'm part of the community and contributing to it and having the time now to do it now."

One reason for the difficulty in recruiting governors could be that in today's target-setting, efficiency-driven world, people are being put off by the growing responsibilities of governing bodies, or maybe it's because they think they would have to commit a lot of time after already-long working days.

But Kath and Jill say they are governors simply because they enjoy it and stress it is up to each governor how much time they put in, which can be as little as four two-hour meetings a term.

Jill says: "It's as much or as little as you make it - you can get involved or not as involved, like most jobs."

Colin Richardson, who runs training courses for governors in York, said governors had a legal responsibility for staffing levels and for over-viewing the budget prepared by the headteacher.

Each headteacher is accountable to the governors for the management and performance of the school, but the governors don't get involved in day-to-day management.

Their main role is to oversee the school's direction and to have a say in the way the school is going.

"In a way, they have a trusteeship of the school for a short while on behalf of the rest of the community," said Colin.

Most new governors, who do not need to have any particular qualifications apart from an interest in schools, start off just attending meetings - around four a term - and if they want, they can stick to this amount.

They get help with this by attending Colin's training sessions and also through a mentoring scheme. This works by an existing governor sitting by the new governor and being on hand to explain what's going on before, during and after meetings.

Newly-retired people are particularly-well suited to becoming governors, according to Sue Pagliaro, from the council's governance service.

She said they tended to find they had a lot of time on their hands and lots of experience to offer, but anyone aged over 18 could volunteer.

"Many go for their local school because it's in the community they feel part of, but they don't have to," she said.

Sue sends out regular newsletters to governors and sets up training courses and an annual conference for governors.

She said governors could be appointed in several different ways: parents, through elections at school; volunteers, appointed by the council; people with specialist skills in things like finance, asked to join by the governors; foundation governors, asked to join at church schools.

Teachers and other staff are also represented on the governing body.

Kath, who was nominated by the council, said she had never regretted saying yes and said the job has now become part of her life.

She said: "It has opened up a new world for me in retirement. I'm happy to give the time and I'm sure I get something out of it and put something in. And I've made a lot of new friends."

- Anyone interested in finding out more can contact Sue Pagliaro on 01904 554258 or the headteacher of the school they are interested in. A Government-funded information line for governors was also set up this week - call GovernorLine on 08000 722 181.