One year on the perspective of a new governor

Date: 5th Apr 2022 @ 3:54pm

One year ago, I was elected to the local governing body of Boughton Heath Academy. I am local to Great Boughton. I adore our area, the history, richness and diversity of our community and all that it has to offer. I applied for a role in governance on the belief that I should pay it forward and contribute to keeping that community alive and the best it can be.

I was given responsibility for governor training a few months after my appointment to the board. The skill set offered by the governing body is one that we should be proud of. Our expertise spans many sectors: local and national heavyweight financial institutions; adult and child development; international marketing; mechanical engineering; retired and current education specialists to name a few. For my part I am a (secondary school) teacher, which is why I relish being able to hold a head teacher to account as a break from the norm. Incidentally, it keeps me in a perfect position to relay any changes on the educational horizon that we might need to train our governors about.

The changes in education are many at the moment. A new Ofsted framework means that the criteria by which we monitor and govern school are being overhauled. We are aiming for oversight on a number of new ideas that have come to the fore – including new angles on what quality of education for our children means. As governors, we do everything we can do to keep abreast of anything that might impact on BHA. To that end, as a minimum, we have

• participated in online training;
• participated in face-to-face training sessions;
• liaised with other local governing bodies;
• read and discussed numerous government strategy documents.
   

All this in order to put ourselves in the strongest position to let the extremely talented team at BHA do what they do best: provide opportunities, ensure continued safety and ongoing pedagogical excellence so that our children - our local community - can be the best it can be.

Thank you for your continued support of the work that all of the team do here.

Rob Herd

Training Governor