First Impressions from a New Parent Governor
As a new parent governor, and link governor for Science and Food, Textiles and Health & Social Care, I was keen to get up to speed quickly with the workings of these departments. I prefer to be a “hands on” governor who can give knowledgeable support and challenge, so these first visits were an important learning curve for me. The Heads of Department kindly offered their time to me, to give me a tour of their departments, discuss the departmental self evaluations, meet staff and look into some lessons.
Both departments have detailed self evaluation reports, judging themselves on Achievement, Quality of Teaching, Behaviour & Safety and Leadership & Management (Ofsted criteria). I was impressed with the level of analysis within these reports, showing clearly the strengths and areas of focus, the evidence to support judgements and the impact of specific strategies in place. Pupil performance data is scrutinised in detail to identify trends, and this is used to determine next steps.
I appreciated the opportunity to visit some lessons, which is obviously the heart of the school. The enthusiasm of the teachers was notable, as was the focus of the pupils who were engaged in their learning.
My thanks to all the staff involved, especially those whose lessons I visited. Also thanks to the extremely polite pupils who I spoke to during lessons, to ask (daft) questions about what they were doing!
I’m looking forward to returning as a judge for the upcoming Masterchef competition!
Mrs Ginny Getting
Parent Governor