The Old Bordenian Association

Being a Borden Grammar School Governor – the inside story by Alan Snelling

When I was at School in the 1960′s it seemed that you had to be over 60 and have grey hair to be a Governor – well it seems I now qualify on both counts. I have been a Governor for BGS for 10 years now, 3 of them as the Old Bordenian Association Governor. It started because my son was at the School and I applied to become a Parent Governor. There were several others also applying and the process had to go to a vote among Parents and each applicant had to product a paragraph or so about themselves. I noticed from the other parents that I was the only one from the Isle of Sheppey so I prominently mentioned this in my statement and I think I got most of the votes from the Island which catapulted me to stardom as a Governor – a sort of ‘Sheppey’s got talent’?

There are now 18 Governors – Five Foundation Governors, Two County Council Nominees, Six elected parents, Two elected Teacher Governors, One Elected Staff Governor, Two co-opted Governors. You will be interested to know that there are 5 Old Bordenians on the Governing body (Denis Jarrett, John Shepherd, Robert Hough, Alan Wilson and myself, and 6 if you include Giles Ford, the Clerk to the Governors. So you can be sure that the interests of the School are being given extra attention by these six former pupils.

The Governing body has 4 sub-Committees: Finance, Staff and Personnel, Premises, and Pastoral & Curriculum(which also includes the Disciplinary committee). Each year there are 3 Full Governors meetings, plus at least 4 sub-committee meetings. All Governors are allocated to a particular sub-committee mostly according to their choice and field of expertise. I am in the Pastoral & Curriculum committee, and also on the Disciplinary committee. I don’t really know how I ended up there because I thought Pastoral was something to do with the countryside and I cannot usually spell curricullum. The P&C committee deals with all aspects of teaching, assessing results and reviewing relevant policies such as anti-bullying, or bullying as it used to be called when I was at School. The Disciplinary committee deals with the very serious issues that arise from time to time between pupils, and occasionally with staff. There are very strict guidelines laid down for these hearings because there can be significant legal consequences. It is not just a question of waving a red or yellow card.

Now most of you are thinking that I am writing this during a long and boring meeting, well you are wrong. There is plenty of business to discuss, much of it being of critical importance to the running of the School and in particular, planning for the future – and I do find it very interesting. My background has always been in sales and marketing, so I look at the School as a business model which produces the best education within the constraints of its budget, while adapting to the challenges of the future. The UK education system does have a language of its own and it takes some getting used to, especially its acronyms. For example, here is an extract from a recent report….

“At GSCE the CVA for 2008 was 1005.2. The APS per student of 478.9 met FFT model B, and the figure of 97.3% of pupils gaining 5 A*-C met FFT model D. 95.6% of pupils gained 5 A*-C including English and Maths and 92.9% gained 2 or more A*-C grades in Sciences. 2009 GCSE results again met FFT B for aps per student(488 compared with FFT B 483) but were slightly lower than FFT B for 5A*-C  including English and Maths(88% compared with 90% FFT B). “

A Governor has to understand what goes on in the School without getting involved in the detail which is not as easy as it sounds. A broad overview is needed on all issues. The phrase “ a critical friend” is often applied to a Governor and this is quite correct in my opinion. There is indeed a National Strategy for Governor Support and Training, and a national annual Governor Conference. You can even get a BTEC Advanced Certificate in School Governance. So if any of you out there have the opportunity to become a Governor of any school, I challenge you to take it – you will enjoy it, even if you are under 60 and do not have grey hair.