BBC ant Elizabeth Stanley on how g up to be a school governor has helped her understand that a school does a lot more than teaching.
“I have been a parent school governor for my daughter’s high school since November 2014 and my daughter is in year 8.
I knew I wanted to be a lot more involved with the school based on the high school open evening.
I found the head teacher and her team extremely encouraging and they believe strongly in rewards for good performance and behaviour.
Our school uses Vivo points where the children choose their own rewards which are very varied. They are also firm on discipline all of which combined works towards stronger results for the children.
Our first meeting at the school ended with the head teacher showing my son a spider’s web and showing him where the spider was by following the web and talking about the pattern made.
We left the school with both children really excited to study there and I wanted to become more involved with the school.
This academic year the opportunity to the Governors presented itself and in November I was accepted and started.
I attend the full board meetings and also the Finance committee meetings each term for a couple of hours. Training is essential and mandatory courses are frequently run.
The official part of the role includes meetings where you discuss a variety of areas including how the school results are reported, why they have changed, internal changes, contract renewals and financial performance.
The lighter part of the role has to be seeing the childrens’ achievements by way of exam results, school productions and awards ceremonies. The pride I have for them is second to none.
I have learned that being confident enough to ask questions and challenge new initiatives is essential.
We also review initiatives from the local authority and Welsh Assembly that affect the school.
Our role is to provide via our relevant liaison during the governors meetings.
We are sent packs to pre-read and the acronyms can be like a scrabble selection at times – but there is a code to help us.
Being on the board of Governors has helped me understand better what the school really does in addition to teaching.
So what have I learned about our audiences?
The other governors know I work in the BBC and hold the BBC in high regard. There is a misconception that we spend all day, every day with famous people!
I hear all the positives – the love for the radio spanning through all the genres, the pride for BBC Wales productions - location spotting is particularly popular - and the compliments for BBC Bitesize and Skillwise to name just a few.
*BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.
