Dinner

Had a very interesting full governing body meeting at the school. It was interesting and frustrating.

I presented some slides on the local community - including saying that some areas of Stevenage were deprived by the governments standards. That offended some governors who lived in these "deprived" areas, with them saying "I like the area!".

Then I queried the practice of filling governor vacancies with people who are unsuitable - in this case crowbarring a parent into the role of a community governor (eg should be someone from the community) to make up the numbers. Got into a bit of an argument about that, but I am glad I made a point. I said we didn't make any effort to fill it from the community, that it was lazy.

Then we went through the Headteacher's report - and it appeared I was only one who bothered reading it as I was the only one asking questions! Annoying.

Then we went through the list of governors who had not attended - some had not been seen for a year or more - I suggested kicking them off, as we are legally allowed to do if they have not attended in 6 months - but because we had not followed procedure at the start of meetings we can't. It was decided (not by me) that their term ends in December so might as well leave them until then. So have a wasted post for 6 months.

The teachers are great, but as a governing body we are letting them down by our complacency.

So then I went to the pub for a couple of drinks (uncharacteristically) before coming home and eating this! Yummers!