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Governors in the staffroom (19/07/06)
Question: Should governors be allowed unfettered access to the staffroom, for example during lunchtimes?

Joan Sallis replies: I don’t think anyone should be allowed in the staffroom except with the willing consent of the staff. Teachers have a right to a place of their own. Don’t go there. Having said that I immediately realise that I often go into the staffroom to say hello to whoever is there when I go into the school to help slow readers, or have a short time to kill between two commitments, and sometimes eat a sandwich there if I’m in on school business. A staff member always makes me a cup of tea and everybody talks to me. We usually meet in there for evening governors’ meetings so it feels familiar. I feel privileged, indeed I love it in there, but only because I have been welcomed. That certainly isn’t so in all schools – in ours I hope we governors have earned it. It should never be taken for granted or considered a right, and if there is any question of governors seeing it as a chance to observe staff off duty or pick up attitudes on any matter which has become governors’ business I would be very concerned. In most relationships there is a need to keep things separate.

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