In recent weeks I have been told by a parent that he is not allowed to have a copy of his child's school record in case it falls into the wrong hands, and another where the head said he didn't know what the mother was talking about when she asked for a copy of her child's record. I regularly find that parents are not told their rights of appeal when a child is excluded and that far too much power is left in the hands of head teachers, some of whom are clearly as ignorant as their governing bodies. Hopefully those of us who deal with these problems daily will beable to approach them to suggest where their attention is needed most urgently. There is a growing awareness across the country of the important role school governors play in the running of our schools. The roles and responsibilities of governors have increased year on year and yet the professional standards expected of them have remained static.
Ultimately education suffers.
I fully support Gill Hetherington's stance on school governance and predict that unless the government introduces compulsory governor training and real accountability for professional misconduct and incompetence for governors, the courts will soon be full of teachers, parents and children with legitimate claims causing LEA's to pay out many hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money in compensation. Dear Bullydissolver I have read your page on Governing Bodies and wholeheartedly agree with its contents. I am a School Governor and have to say that the selection process for Governors is sadly lacking. Whilst the majority of Governors are good, some are indescribably bad and so ignorant of the law it defies belief, as does the behaviour of the Parent Governor closely involved in your husband's unpleasant case. It makes one wonder what sort of society our children are growing up in.