Guest Lecturer - Steve Gullick

Our original lecturer for the What is Education? module Andy Reynolds was unfortunately said to be ill, so instead a myriad of guest lecturers have been put in place for us to reflect upon. This post will discuss Steve Gullicks lectures on the governing bodies of schools/ educational institutions. The role of being a Governor in a school is a voluntary one, as budget doesnt allow for this role to be paid, however travel expenses can be claimed. According to Steve many govenors are so passionate about their part in schools that they do not claim their expenses as they believe this money could be spent on bettering the school. Within the governing body of the school lies different types of goveners: - Authority governors - Community governors - Parent governors - Staff governors - Student governors The combined efforts of these people provide governance on key aspects of their educational institution, they are required to - Encourage high academic standards - Manage the curriculum (tailor it to the schools needs) - Make decisions on staff regarding pay or children to staff ratio. And arguably the most important role of the governing body is to manage the schools financial budget in all aspects, whether it be government funded or not. They are required to allocate resources efficiently and fairly on everything that the school does ranging from new textbooks/ learning resources to maintenance of campus/ classrooms. Steve goes on to talk about the idea of a debate in how governing staff should be selected, at the moment it is a voluntary system where governors are elected from parents of children from the school (stakeholders in the school as their children are in this educational establishment) and staff. But he proposes the idea of a system when paid professionals take governance. Is it that parents that care so dearly for thier children could be truely in touch with what the school needs? Or that they are unskilled and that professionals trained in governance could perform this job more efficiently? The chief of Ofsted Sir Michael Wilshaw (2012) believes that: "When schools do poorly or badly, it's not just the issue of the school leader, the head and the school leadership team, it's the way the governors have held the leadership to account." And that "...when a school is doing poorly, we need to think about paid governance." This shows that one of the top educational figures in Briton believes that paid governance is necessary for failing schools, meaning that if schools fail to elect successful governors professionalism is the only route out. This would allow for schools to attempt their own governance which should be allowed, and bringing in professionals could be useful to set up a successful framework from which elected governors could take up running. References: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17204548