Head believe boards will improve schools’ performance

Education, Sport & Culture has set up a board for each States-maintained school, including the Sixth Form Centre, which previously came under the same interim governance board as Les Varendes High School.

‘This is a founding governing board. It’s really critical that I have that support in setting up a new platform,’ said Sixth Form Centre principal Kieran James.

He is leading the Sixth Form Centre as it prepares to move from the 11-18 set up at Les Varendes to operating as a standalone facility at La Mare de Carteret from September next year.

He believed it was important for each school to have its own interim governance board.

‘There are 20 organisations [schools, etc.] across the island that cannot sit with one committee,’ he said.

‘That would be a huge amount of work, so distributing it and bringing in a diverse range of community members is important.’

Separately from interim governance boards, the Education Law still requires each school to have a committee of management. These committees are made up mostly of members elected by the parishes included in the school’s catchment area.

Their legal powers and duties include routine maintenance of school buildings, the lighting, heating and cleaning of the school, inspecting premises, furniture and equipment at least twice a year, and reporting to ESC on major repair requirements and any problems with discipline or conduct at the school.

Other legal powers and duties in the running of schools are essentially retained by ESC or its director of Education.

The new school interim governance boards have no legal powers or duties. They meet several times a year and include the school’s head teacher.

‘We talk through our school improvement plans or school development plans,’ said Mr James.

‘We get strategic dialogue but also supportive and challenging dialogue in those meetings. A lot of it is about supporting the school with strategic decisions.’

La Houguette Primary School head teacher Claire Judd said that discussion at meetings of her school’s interim governance board was more wide-ranging than at meetings of her school’s committee of management.

‘We report to it on buildings and infrastructure, but it really uses the Ofsted inspection framework as well and pulls that apart to make sure that we’re giving the best for our learners,’ she said.

Mrs Judd supported ESC’s move to add more members to interim governance boards.

‘Widening it to our community, and to our teachers who have really got that vested interest and know our schools well, is going to be the next positive step,’ she said.

‘I think the past two years have really helped politicians understand and move away from the politics into what is really, really good for our schools.’

She said it had been hard work to get an interim governance board set up but it was worth it.

‘It’s what really gives me that dedicated time to stop and think about my school, which can be really difficult when you’re in the day-to-day running.

‘This gives you the chance to pull things apart and look at what’s going well and what you need to do next to get even better.’