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The BTEC Advanced Certificate in School Governance Case Study
Delegate profile: A Local Authority Governor for nine years within a school where he is currently chairman. During the last twelve months he has also been a Parent Governor at an additional school where his remit is to support the development of the governing body. He first became a school governor, where one of his children was attending, when he was involved in local politics and responded to a local councillor’s request for more school governors. Benefits of being a school governor: Satisfaction in supporting the improvement of the quality of education in school, putting something back into the community, and understanding aspects of learning and the progression of children and their education. Enjoys working with a diverse group of people with one common aim. Finding out: Introduced to the programme by the Head of Governor Services. A programme that provides accreditation through the work you actually do as a school governor. Researched a previous pilot programme in Essex. The gains: Confirmed what I do as a School Governor is correct. It is nice to have recognition from a National Awarding Body and it’s good to see a Local Authority valuing School Governors by supporting this programme. Helped to further develop my role as School Governor and chairman, and made me question my actions and that of the governing body. It improved our recording processes reducing volume and improving focus; making them shorter and punchier. The process: It’s about producing evidence of your knowledge and actions as a School Governor. Confidentiality of material was assured. Once I was aware of the requirements I was able to be strategic and plan an approach to avoid duplication and ensure effective use of relevant evidence. My assessor observed me at one of the School Governor meetings. There are five two and a half hour workshops usually supported by half an hour of personal reflection and follow on reading. These meetings give people the opportunity to ensure they are focusing on the right area and opportunities to network. Frequently Belfry Associates’ team and assessors participated in these workshops. I met with my assessor for one and a half hours prior to each workshop. It was good to have an active assessor, valuable to have regular meetings and receive plenty of support. It has taken approximately one and a half hours per week to assimilate my evidence into a referenced portfolio. Belfry Associates provided all the relevant Standards and documents in a Word format. The web based Interactive Learning Environment contained Unit and support documentation, this could be developed more as a communication conduit. What I would do differently: Don’t jump in but establish the actual requirements of the award so you use your energies most effectively. It’s about recognising the true potential of evidence to address a range of requirements and how they reference across a number of the award’s Units. School support: The Governing Body endorsed the development activity and it recognised it would also benefit from the development process. The Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher provided witness testimonies of my actions. Recommendation: It would be very good for new chairs of committees to help them be more strategic. I would recommend this programme to really committed governors; it compliments the other development programmes from Governor Services. With hind sight I would do it again. 26th July 2006 Return to School Governors page
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