I never imagined after my state-educated childhood in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, I would have ended up working in some of our country’s leading independent schools.
My first role in a boarding school was a rich experience in an unfamiliar sector, and the subsequent move to a highly selective girls’ schools as my career progressed offered me the experience of an education full of challenge and opportunity.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020 an unexpected opportunity to work as part of a central team in MAT (multi-academy trust) allowed me to make my first move into the state sector. This was followed by a role in a larger MAT working across eight schools, primary and secondary, in Southeast London.
“You quickly realise that there are big differences in the priorities of governor conversations.”
Coinciding with my move to the MAT sector I was able to secure my first governance roles, in primary academies, a secondary academy and an independent school. My previous governance experience was in a local authority maintained secondary school.
Partnership working has imbued my professional life from my first year of teaching; there is huge joy in creating things together and sharing our challenges. The sectors are all the better for collaborating and addressing broader educational challenges as equal partners.
Being a school governor in a different sector is rewarding; you quickly realise that there are big differences in the priorities and the focus of governor conversations. The counterpoint of working in one sector and governing in another pushes you to consider what you can learn as much as what you can offer. Most importantly, as an educator you meet others from different professions and learn about effective governance in action.
The strategic environment feels different in the state sector; we are working with greater urgency and aspirations for the longer-term are difficult to consider when the nature of funding in the sector is rarely longer-term.
“Both sectors need to find governors that can challenge the status quo and bring fresh perspectives.”
As an independent school governor, we could scan the horizon and be interested in what the sector could and should be doing; we had made space for strategy. But both sectors are not without challenge with the looming VAT increases resulting in conversations about what to retain and lose in a similar way as the state sector continues to grapple with lean resource. The data was richer in the state sector governor meetings, and we were interrogating outcomes in ways that the independent sector could learn from.
The challenge for both sectors is finding governors that can challenge the status quo and bring fresh perspectives; few governors will have experienced the educational and life challenges some of our young people have experienced in both the independent and state sectors.
Chairs should actively find those that bring a voice to the board of lived experience that can ensure every school meets the needs of every child.
Managing complaints and pupil exclusion panels is a difficult part of the governor role, and both sectors have these expectations. As a state sector governor, you can encounter some heart-breaking cases where a headteacher has made equally difficult decisions in balancing the needs of a pupil and the broader school community.
As the current President of the Chartered College of Teaching I see the richness of both sectors in action; the professional body for teaching supports, connects and champions the work of teachers, leaders, and teaching assistants regardless of setting.
Every teacher can thrive through connection to the College. Our Impact journal, now over twenty issues, demonstrates how all teachers can contribute their experience and expertise to how we explore the key issues in education.
“I see the richness of both sectors in action.”
As a governor in both sectors, you see that education is a challenging and rewarding sector. Both sectors share a commitment to an education that enables children and young people to flourish, and both have challenges surrounding the health and wellbeing of young people.
Both sectors have financial pressures, and both make difficult decisions to safeguard the future of their education. Working and volunteering across the sectors strengthens your ability to see new solutions to familiar problems, drawing on the insights and learnings from different schools.
It would be great to see both sectors welcoming educators from schools that can bring new insight and new challenge as we all look ahead.