 | | Question: I've recently become a governor at my children's secondary school (a community school) and attended my first curriculum committee meeting.
Each of the governors is to meet a different faculty head to discuss how 'things are going'. To do this slightly more formally we would like to have a list of questions we could ask that would cover key points the governors should be aware of and to be able to compare the good and bad points of different faculties.
Can you suggest questions please?
Joan Sallis replies: Could I first say that I am not in favour of great formality in this process. Indeed I’ve always found it a bit hazardous though I know it is very common and I’ve taken part in it as a governor. It’s dangerous territory as it comes very near the border between management and governance, we have not been trained to evaluate teachers and we should not try to behave as though we had. The system should be considered as mainly a learning process for governors and a ‘fire-watching’ precaution at most. The idea of having questions to provide comparison between faculties makes my blood run cold for you. But ask questions for your enlightenment by all means and make it clear that this is the purpose.
First of all there will probably be documents you could read – national curriculum subject guides, timetables, schemes of work, perhaps lesson plans and something on the staff structure of the department. But please, stress that you are learners not judges. Ask if you could listen in on a lesson or two with the same reassurance. Then you could ask how different ability levels are handled, what practical activities take place where appropriate, what are the aims of the course at different stages of it and how progress is measured. There may come a time when the governing body discusses your department for a particular purpose. Then all your knowledge and impressions may be very relevant to the sort of decisions appropriate to governors: on organisation, staffing, funding
etc. But it is background. Judging teachers is a matter for senior colleagues and inspectors.
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