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HR professionals share their experiences as school governors
6k Plays11 months ago
Hosted by Charles Western (Senior Partnerships Manager for North) and Anthony Melia (Partnerships Manager for the West Midlands), this episode of the Governors for Schools Podcast is geared towards an introduction to school governance for HR professionals. This episode was produced as part of Governors for Schools Inclusive Governance Campaign.
Charles and Anthony are joined by guests Kayleigh and Joanne whose bios can be found below.
Kayleigh is currently Head of Human Resources at a globally recognised international charity based in the City of London. With over a decade of experience in Human Resources management, Kayleigh has mainly worked within the not for profit sector, including a London based independent School. Kayleigh is a Chartered member of the CIPD having completed the Level 7 CIPD Diploma and is currently undertaking a Masters of Law with a focus on employment law. Kayleigh has been a community governor of a secondary school in her hometown in Kent since May 2022.
Joanne is a seasoned HR leader with Level 7 CIPD qualifications and a solid grounding in accounting. Her career spans a variety of sectors across the UK, and she is currently applying her skills to SMEs in Lancashire. As a mother and a professional, she uniquely understands the importance of effective people management and its impact both in business and in educational settings. Her role as a school governor allows her to contribute to shaping the educational environment, ensuring it benefits from the strategic insights that HR expertise can offer.
If you have any questions or want to find out more, feel free to send us an email at: [email protected].
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Transcript
Introduction to School Governance
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of the Governors for Schools podcast, the best place to learn about a wide range of issues affecting today's governance landscape. My name is Anthony Melia, the Partnerships Manager for the West Midlands region, and I am delighted to be one of your hosts today. This podcast is geared towards an introduction to school governance for HR professionals, also working alongside our inclusive governance campaign.
Campaign for Diversity in Governance
00:00:32
Speaker
We know inclusivity is at the forefront of many minds within the education and governance landscapes, so we're launching a year-long campaign to encourage a wider pool of volunteers to take up all important governing roles. The inclusive governance campaign will run throughout the 2023 to 24 academic year and will encourage prospective and current governors to consider their strategic role in helping nurture a more inclusive education system and governance landscape.
00:01:00
Speaker
We've brought together two of our placed volunteers with a HR background to speak on this panel. This session will be chaired by two members of our team, and we will be posing questions about our volunteers' motivations for applying, experience to date, and how their HR skillset plays a part in their governance role. As hosts, we will be contributing today by letting you know about who governors for schools are, why you'd want to get involved as a HR professional,
00:01:29
Speaker
are so important for good governance and at the end of our time together how you can sign up.
HR Professionals in Governance Roles
00:01:35
Speaker
So without further ado I'll introduce the rest of the panel starting with my colleague Charlie. Hello, it's lovely to be here co-hosting this podcast today. I'm Charlie Weston, I am Senior Partnerships Manager for the North Region here at Governance for Schools.
00:01:53
Speaker
I work within an amazing team with partnership managers and partnership coordinators, and we work with various partner organizations, our volunteers, schools, local authorities, and multi-academy trusts in our roles, with the aim of recruiting and placing governors at schools and ensuring they are well-equipped to succeed in their role. On a slightly personal note, after working at Governors for Schools for some time, I am now taking on a governor role at my local primary school.
00:02:22
Speaker
So I'm really interested to hear from our speakers today and soak up lots of information about their volunteer journeys so far ahead of my first meeting this month. Thank you Charlie. So I'm going to introduce our two volunteers now. First up we have Kaylee. Kaylee is a currently Head of Human Resources at a globally recognised international charity based in the City of London.
00:02:48
Speaker
With over a decade of experience in human resources management, Kaylee has mainly worked within the not-for-profit sector, including a London-based independent school. Kaylee is a chartered member of the CIPD, having completed the Level 7 CIPD Diploma, and is currently undertaking a Masters of Law with a focus on employment. Kaylee has been a community governor of a secondary school in her hometown in Kent since May of 2022. How are you, Kaylee? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.
00:03:17
Speaker
Not a problem, thank you for taking the time today. Next up we have Joanne. Joanne is a seasoned HR leader with a level 7 CIPD qualification and a solid grounding in accounting.
00:03:30
Speaker
Her career spans a variety of sectors across the UK and she's currently applying her skills to SMEs in Lancashire. As a mother and as a professional, she uniquely understands the importance of effective people management and its impact both in the business and educational settings. Her role as a school governor allows her to contribute to shaping the educational environment
00:03:52
Speaker
ensuring it benefits from the strategic insights that HR expertise can offer. Joanne, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here. Brilliant. Thank you all for your time today. Now let's get cracking and over to Charlie for the first question.
00:04:08
Speaker
So before we ask our panelists any questions, Anthony, I wanted to come to you and sort of set the scene a little bit for those that will be listening and not exactly know what a school governor is.
The Strategic Role of School Governors
00:04:21
Speaker
So are we able to provide a bit of a summary and let everyone know who's listening, what a school governor does?
00:04:27
Speaker
Of course. So the governor role is strategic rather than operational within a school. So governors don't get involved with the day to day running of a school, so there is no teaching or education experience required. Instead, they work at a board level to support and challenge the school's leadership team to drive school improvement. So a school governor will sit on a board comprising of around seven to 12 other individuals
00:04:54
Speaker
who are all passionate about improving opportunities for all young people. And they volunteer their time, their skills, their experience to impact the effectiveness of the school they support. Principally, the role is that of a critical friend to the senior leadership of the school to ensure the best outcomes for all young people. Thanks Anthony, thank you.
00:05:17
Speaker
So over to Joanne first, I suppose there's so many potential volunteer roles out there where you can get involved and make a difference. Why did you want to become a school governor? What was the draw there? From a personal standpoint, my desire to become a school governor came from my commitment to my local community. I have a belief in my mind that the role of education
00:05:42
Speaker
is important because it lays the foundation for our future society. I've always viewed children in our community not just as pupils but as future leaders and future thinkers and creators. Those are the people who will inherit our communities and the world at large. So my professional experience in finance and human resources
00:06:01
Speaker
has equipped me with a skill set that I believe can be leveraged to enhance the educational landscape and I felt a strong sense of duty to contribute these skills. It's about investing in our children's future and ensuring that they receive the highest quality education that we can provide and in turn that will help shape positive futures for everyone.
00:06:19
Speaker
That's amazing to hear and I know that will definitely be reflected by a lot of our volunteers and those listening. I think putting it in a way where you say empowering the young people of today, it empowers the decision makers of tomorrow and so it's to a certain degree is incredibly, incredibly important. Kayleigh, I'm interested to hear how your interest in becoming a school governor was sparked.
Personal Motivations and Community Impact
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I've worked in an independent school for six years as the HR manager there. So I was aware of and worked with the governing body to a degree. But obviously, as a member of staff, you're not privileged to know all of the things that are going on in those meetings. So I always wondered what was really going on. And when I left the school for my current position, I wanted to keep a link with school life as I really enjoyed working within the education sector.
00:07:08
Speaker
and seeing the difference that that made in, you know, we could make in students lives. So I registered for Governors for Schools and was contacted about a local school in my hometown who had a vacancy. Having lived here for the majority of my life, I'm very familiar with the area and the community and
00:07:27
Speaker
wanted to really support a local school in my own area, similar to Joanne in terms of having a passion for improving the outcomes for young people in our communities. That's great to hear. That's really great to hear. Anthony, is there any follow up to these motivations that have been true of a lot of the volunteers that we see coming through?
00:07:49
Speaker
Yes, they do. That's a near universal want. I suppose of all of our volunteers is a real commitment to their local community. We recruit people from all walks of life, professional backgrounds, people who have lived in their communities for their entire lives, people who are new to communities and want to get to know their new area. It's a real fantastic mix of people. And what I always say whenever I'm talking to people who might
00:08:17
Speaker
be unsure about whether a governor role is for them is that everyone can and should become governors if they are able, because they have such a huge impact on, as Joanne was saying, the future of their local community through the young people there. So I think it absolutely rings true with my experience of working with volunteers. Definitely. So Kayleigh, having been in your role as a school governor for a year and a half, what is the biggest challenge that you've faced in the role so far?
00:08:47
Speaker
I think the, you know, there are the sort of the practical challenges of getting used to if you're not familiar with schools or the education sector, just getting your head around some of that terminology and the things that are discussed can be quite, quite
00:09:02
Speaker
daunting to begin with. So things around curriculum and exam results and percentiles and all that sort of thing. But the beauty of a governing body is where you've got so many different skill sets and so many different people from so many different walks of life that the answer to a question is only one person away really. So it's certainly not insurmountable. But I think from a sort of broader, more holistic
00:09:26
Speaker
approach. I think that some of the really difficult topics and difficult decisions that have to be made are the most challenging area. Recently, we've spent a lot of time talking about the cost of living crisis and the impact that that's had on students and schools and the rise in child poverty in our local area. My school
00:09:46
Speaker
operates in one of the most deprived areas of Kent. So it's something that has a real impact on our students and on our school. So they're really tough topics to hear about and that we need to kind of use to inform our decisions. But it's really important as governors that we don't lose sight of those children who are most vulnerable and who rely on the education system to work well for them and to support them in times of need. So it's both the biggest challenge, but also the most rewarding when you see that impact of the decisions that you're making.
00:10:14
Speaker
I think one thing that I hear a lot from volunteers is the elements of the social aspects that come into the education sector that perhaps you don't think about in the first instance. And it's interesting you mention jargon and acronyms because that's something that with myself starting a governor all soon, I'm trying to get up to speed on as quickly as possible, but it seems like that's going to take quite a bit of time because the education sector loves a good acronym.
00:10:43
Speaker
But yeah, like you say, questions and the answers to questions are only one person away. One thing that I always find quite reassuring when speaking with volunteers is saying that the school governors are one of the largest groups of volunteers in England and Wales because of the number of schools there are. And so there are a wealth of resources out there for potential volunteers too. So coming back to you, John, I'm interested to hear what your biggest challenge that you faced since being in
Overcoming Challenges and Personal Growth
00:11:08
Speaker
the role is.
00:11:08
Speaker
Professionally, I'm no stranger to challenges. However, taking on the role of school governor presented me with a different kind of challenge and a much more personal challenge and that was imposter syndrome. It's been a journey through self-doubt and wondering whether my contribution was of any value against a backdrop of much more experienced governors. The biggest hurdle was silencing my inner critic
00:11:32
Speaker
questioned my credibility and my expertise and it's a battle that many people face in new roles but overcoming that has been immensely rewarding. Not only have I proved to myself that I have valuable insights to offer but I've witnessed the tangible benefits that my presence brings to the school and I feel pride in contributing to the school's progress and a constant reminder that stepping outside of my comfort zone
00:11:55
Speaker
it's necessary and it's rewarding. That's really great, and I think is something that's definitely a worry for a lot of new governors, so it's really great to sort of bring that to the forefront of this conversation. Anthony, is there any reflections on that, anything that you'd like to bring into this? Absolutely. I understand both what Joanne and Kaylee have said about
00:12:15
Speaker
the pride and the passion that they feel volunteering and how those initial steps can be quite daunting but that there is a wealth of support if you volunteer with governance for schools for example. We do have lots of e-learning and other modules to get you up to speed with governance but also I find that governing boards are really fantastic at ensuring that new members feel comfortable and are able to contribute as soon as possible.
00:12:44
Speaker
I always say to volunteers who are unsure about, you know, have I got something to contribute? That there are no qualifications needed to be a governor. There's no stage at your career you need to reach. What skills are looking for are the qualities of an individual, such as having the time to commit,
00:13:02
Speaker
to being objective when you're sat around that table to be able to hold the senior leadership to account and providing your personal professional experience to the discussions that go on around that board table. So there definitely is room for everybody around a board table and there should be.
00:13:22
Speaker
Definitely, and that's what makes boards successful, isn't it, having that diversity across that board. So talking about the boards and the impact that they do have, Joanne, what impact have you seen on your school so far since being in role?
00:13:36
Speaker
Well, my professional background has allowed me to approach school data through a dual lens. So the finance aspect of my role has honed my ability to scrutinize financial statements and spot discrepancies or areas that have required further attention. On multiple occasions, this has led to constructive discussions with the head teacher and subsequent beneficial changes.
00:13:57
Speaker
But popping on my HR hat, the HR expertise provides me with the tools to delve into more qualitative aspects, such as the staff wellbeing or the resource management. By examining patterns in absenteeism or resource allocation, we've managed to implement staff rotor adjustments, which have resulted in improved staff attendance and more effective learning environments for our children. And I think the two pronged approach has not only strengthened our school's operational efficiency, but it's reinforced our core mission
00:14:26
Speaker
which is to ensure the well-being and success of all our pupils. That's really great to hear. I think being able to approach the role with that dual lens is vital and seeing the way that you can bring the data aspect of your professional role into the board level discussions is great as well. Kayleigh, have you seen a similar impact in the way that you've contributed to your board?
00:14:50
Speaker
Yes, certainly. Yeah, in a very, very similar way with more of a focus on the HR, so sort of bringing that holistic kind of approach. And I think the positive impact that we've seen is when you get that feedback from staff and students,
00:15:05
Speaker
about decisions that have been made at board level and the part you've played in those and the positive feedback that comes back and is passed back to governors. I think that that's really rewarding. I also see a great impact more recently in our governing bodies
00:15:21
Speaker
we're getting a lot more involved in the sort of meeting and greeting staff, having those link governor visits, really building rapport and relationships with the staff at the school to help them understand the purpose of the governing board and what we do and why we're here. So that's been really good and we've had some really really positive feedback from our individual link
00:15:43
Speaker
staff members to say that it's brilliant to see governors walking around school, sitting in on lessons, actually trying to understand what the day-to-day running of school is like and not just coming to a meeting every term.
00:15:56
Speaker
to discuss those big picture aspects. So I think that's been a really positive impact is people seeing the governing body and being a much more visible body of people. That's been really positive for me. That's great to hear. And I hear this a lot about school visits being one of the most beneficial ways to get insight into the school, to see the children they're learning, to see the teaching actually happening rather than just sitting around a board.
00:16:22
Speaker
table once the children have gone home from school as a way of number one seeing the impact but then also learning to then contribute to the conversations you're having at that next board meeting as well definitely seems a vital aspect. Anthony I'm interested to sort of bring in to the conversation here the topic around how long it might take to see impacts on a board because obviously the term of governance for a school governor is four years so that's quite a long time.
Long-term Benefits of Governance
00:16:50
Speaker
Do we see it quite
00:16:51
Speaker
quite a lot where volunteers take some time to actually see that impact, because I know that's something that we do talk about quite a bit. Yes, you're right. So the term for a governor is four years, and I speak with people on a day-to-day basis who have been a part of the board for much longer than that, four years, eight years onwards. And what I hear from those more long-standing members is that because schools
00:17:18
Speaker
take the time to really look at what they need to do and then apply it so that it comes into effect further down the road, they can see that impact over the course of their tenure on a governing board. So what that means is that the decisions that boards make in year one
00:17:37
Speaker
might not necessarily come to fruition until the second or third year but that will have the long-term impact of having an impact on many many children and that's something which is really rewarding for the governor role is that you will be involved in the lives of hundreds or maybe thousands depending on the size of the school
00:17:59
Speaker
of children and decisions that you make there will have an impact for several years. So a child comes in in reception for example, you may be able to see them progress throughout the entire time at primary school until they move on to secondary and it's a really fantastic way of seeing how discussions around the table are then put into
00:18:20
Speaker
practical use in the classroom or within the school structure. So hearing that is absolutely fantastic that you're starting both to see the positive impact of your being on the board and I would be remiss not to take this opportunity just to say that people with HR skills are very much in demand
00:18:42
Speaker
from a governing standpoint. As Charlie mentioned we have many vacancies across England and Wales and when it comes to people who are those with HR skills we have around on average 800 to 900 vacancies at any one time looking for people with a HR background who can go in and bring their knowledge and experience to bear on a board so everybody can make a real difference.
00:19:08
Speaker
Thank you Anthony. So going back to you Kaylee, what has been your favourite part of being a governor so far? I think it's just been stepping outside of my comfort zone and learning something new. It's been so rewarding to speak with other professionals from different fields who all come together but with the same goal in mind and that is improving
00:19:29
Speaker
the education system, improving outcomes for the young people in our community. Everyone's doing this in their free time, meeting staff and students, making really, really big impactful decisions. It's just been such a learning curve and it's been amazing to sit around with people and learn from their expertise and also see how your expertise
00:19:54
Speaker
benefits the board and it's just really rewarding to see the school flourish and thrive from those meetings and from those decisions that we have to make. That's lovely to hear, really great to hear. Joanne, same to you then. What has been your favourite part of being a governor? One of the more gratifying elements of being a school governor for me has been the opportunity to
00:20:15
Speaker
utilise and discover untapped potential. The role of Governor has given me the chance to be involved in various committees, encompassing resources, appraisals, training and development. And each one of these committees has presented me with unique challenges and opportunities for growth, which I love. Unlike my corporate role, where success is often measured in profits, the rewards here are measured in the impact that we have on the children and our community.
00:20:41
Speaker
And the role has offered me such a sense of purpose that enriches my professional life with depth and significance.
00:20:49
Speaker
lovely to hear as well. Two sort of key elements that are coming out of this really are the impact that that's having on the children at the school but then also the growth in terms of skills and development that is seen in both your professional lives and then in the board setting and that's something that I do see a lot when speaking with volunteers is that there's
00:21:14
Speaker
It's not a one-way street. The skills that you have in your professional life, you can take onto those school governing boards and utilise there and then you build new skills that you then bring back into professional life. It's just a bit of a cycle of constant learning and development, which is really great to see and really, really useful. Anthony, anything to add there?
00:21:36
Speaker
Just really to echo what you've just said Charlie that a lot of volunteers feed back to me a few months after being placed on a board about how they've benefited and how they've grown into the role and they benefit both professionally and personally so they develop skills such as
00:21:58
Speaker
increasing their confidence, how they are more prepared and more efficient at analyzing performance data, how they can recognize better when it comes to value for money and other skills which kind of feed into their
00:22:18
Speaker
workplace, but also they talk about that networking and collaboration on the governing board, meeting people from their local community, meeting people from different walks of life who come together on that board. So it's really a great professional and personal development opportunity. Definitely. It definitely is. So to loop back on something you mentioned earlier, Anthony, you mentioned the inclusive governance campaign at the start of this podcast.
Diversity and Representation in Governance
00:22:42
Speaker
So at Governors for Scores, we want to encourage individuals from all backgrounds to take on the school governor role.
00:22:48
Speaker
It's incredibly important for the school to have diversity on their board and for governing boards to be representative of the communities they serve. And at a time where 77% of boards are struggling to recruit new governors and trustees, it's important that everyone who's eligible to be a school governor really knows that it's something they could consider. So on that note then, Kaylee, why would you recommend being a governor to other HR professionals out there?
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, so I totally, totally agree and really passionately believe that governing boards along with any kind of boards or committees really need to reflect the community that they serve in. Our students and the people in our wider community need to see people like them contributing to these decisions and I think it's only when that is the norm will
00:23:39
Speaker
more people from more diverse backgrounds think, oh, that is something that I could do. But as a HR professional, we're so well versed in the tricky parts of running businesses.
00:23:51
Speaker
that there are so many parallels between our day-to-day roles as HR professionals and what we can contribute on a governing board. For example, any HR professional is used to conducting disciplinaries, hearing grievances, those sorts of areas. And governors are sometimes required to hear appeals from parents or from staff. So having a clear understanding of the technical and the soft people skills of those kinds of processes
00:24:19
Speaker
And to be able to do that with integrity and professionalism is a really critical aspect of succeeding in the governing body. I also think it's so useful, and Joanne touched on this earlier, of being able to see some trends that are coming through and what the future workforce is going to look like and what they are wanting. I see a lot of trends in our board meetings of student data and things that are going on and things that are being talked about.
00:24:47
Speaker
that are quite similar to what we're discussing currently in the workplace and in sort of our HR roles. So it really opens your eyes to see what this kind of the future workforce are prioritising, what's important to them, what's being discussed currently in schools, because that's going to need to parallel in the workplace in the future.
00:25:08
Speaker
they are the future workforce. So it's a really, really key way for us to inform our HR practice as well and future-proof our recruitment and retention and workforce planning strategies. So it's kind of twofold. We give a lot to the governing body, but I've personally taken a lot as well into my sort of day-to-day professional role, thinking about the future and the future of workforce planning.
00:25:32
Speaker
That's really interesting to hear. I hadn't really considered that element to it, the whole workforce planning side of things from an HR side. So that's really, really interesting. Joanne, same question to you then. Why would you recommend being a governor to other HR professionals? As Kaylee said, the parallels between HR and school governance are quite striking. You know, as people professionals, we're accustomed to nurturing the potential within our workforce.
00:25:58
Speaker
and advocating for their wellbeing and aiming to enhance the quality of their professional lives. As governors, we strike to enrich educational experiences of our students, ensuring that they receive the best possible education. So the skills that we utilise in HR are highly transferrable to the governance setting, whether that's strategic planning or understanding human dynamics or ensuring accountability.
00:26:23
Speaker
And moreover, the reciprocal benefits are immense. And as much as I contribute to the school, I gain an experience and perspective and the satisfaction of giving back. You know, it's an incredibly rewarding journey that embodies personal and professional growth and the meaningfulness of that, you know, it's incomparable. But sort of going back to what Kaylee said in terms of the diversity and inclusivity on boards,
00:26:50
Speaker
You know, the best and most robust decision making is by a group of individuals who have all led different experiences and have got different life experiences. And I think it's really important for our children to be able to see themselves in those leadership positions. You know, we are role modeling for our children.
00:27:11
Speaker
And the way to do that is to have an inclusive perspective on governance. That's great to hear also. I think you've really hit, both hit the nail on the head there really in terms of how beneficial it can be. One thing I wanted to look back on as well that Kaylee mentioned is the element of disciplinary hearings. And I know that one of the biggest things as well that a governing board might do or a governor might do on their time as a governing board is
00:27:40
Speaker
to undertake head teacher recruitment is such an important process and of course you as HR professionals when it comes to disciplinary hearings when it comes to recruitment practices
00:27:53
Speaker
you're the ones that know best and the ones that can really help make sure that the governing board is doing everything the right way in that regard. So it's definitely, definitely a very useful skill to have there. Anthony, I'm interested to hear if you've got anything to sort of loop in on from your communications with all the many volunteers you do communicate with.
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, what I would say is that if any volunteers are listening to this and are thinking about putting together an application to become a governor, then what Kaylee and Joanne outlined, their motivations for applying are what governing boards are looking for. They're looking for individuals who are passionate about the future, are passionate about diversity and representation, and are aware of the ways that they can bring their professional
00:28:44
Speaker
experience to bear on the board. So I have nothing more to add on that because Joanne and Kaylee answered it perfectly and that would be the advice I'd give to anybody from a HR background listening to this podcast. Thanks for that Anthony. So before we do wrap up I'm interested to sort of go back to our panelists one last time and find out
00:29:05
Speaker
if they've got any final tips for those people who are listening today who are contemplating hitting apply on our website.
Encouragement and Call to Action
00:29:11
Speaker
Kaley, do you have a top tip for anyone who might be interested in becoming a school governor?
00:29:16
Speaker
I would say if you are interested and you're contemplating it, just do it. It's so rewarding. It really is. It's been an amazing experience. And I think one of the sort of main tips is I would say is remove any preconceived notions of what governing bodies are from your mind and go in really fresh because, you know, I wouldn't have thought that someone in maybe the early thirties like myself without children
00:29:45
Speaker
would be a good governor but actually it's been brilliant and it's not something that holds you back and actually it brings again a diverse opinion to the governing body because I don't have children and I'm slightly younger than you might consider a typical governor. So it just brings a different perspective and it adds to that diversity and inclusion aspect.
00:30:08
Speaker
I would just say, yes, don't think, you know, oh, I'm not old enough. I don't have kids. I'm not going to be, you know, I don't have the professional background. Just do it. Just do it. It's great. Thank you. Thank you. I think that's really, really important because that debunks some of the myths that we hear so often as in you need to have children, you need to have an education background. Really great to hear. Joanne, same question to you. Any top tips for potential governors?
00:30:33
Speaker
To echo what Kaylee said, really, I mean, if you're thinking about doing it, do it, because if you're having those thoughts already, you are exactly the type of person that a governing board would benefit from. So I would recommend you go on governance for school, take a look, there's plenty of information on there.
00:30:51
Speaker
But yeah, the community will benefit from somebody who is willing to give. And if you're having those thoughts, that's you. So silence that inner critic, don't overthink it, and go on this journey because it's so rewarding.
00:31:04
Speaker
Thank you, thank you, Joanne. I think that's something that I've heard a lot when considering the school governor role and particularly I'm gearing myself up for is to have this in my head that there's no silly questions. If there's a question in my head that someone, or if there's a question in my head that I want to ask, the chances are someone else on the governing board is thinking it and it's a worthwhile question asking. So yeah, that's definitely.
00:31:27
Speaker
Definitely some really good top tips there. So Anthony, for those that are listening now, is there any advice you'd give them regarding the application process? So I think for me what advice I would give anybody considering volunteering with us is that
00:31:44
Speaker
When you're completing your application, consider your personal and professional experience as a whole and think about your motivations for applying. So what is it about volunteering your time in a school governing board that
00:32:01
Speaker
you think is really important because what schools are always keen to hear from is why are you interested in becoming a school girlfriend and what is it that you think you can bring to a board. So that would be my number one tip is really just to take five minutes while you're doing your application to sit down and have a think about why am I applying.
00:32:23
Speaker
and what do I hope to gain both personally but also what do I hope to contribute to the school in my own professional and personal capacity. So that would be my one tip is just to have that little think then before you start an application about your motivations for applying and be able to put them into words because schools really are keen to hear that from volunteers. Brilliant, thank you Anthony and also thank you Joanne and Kaylee
00:32:52
Speaker
for those tips there. That was the end of my question, so thank you so much for contributing to a really interesting discussion today. I'm going to pass back over to you, Anthony. Thank you, Charlie. So starting off, again, a huge thank you to Charlie, Kaylee and Joanne for sharing their time, their experience and their advice for potential new governors. Next, it's over to you, the listener. If you'd like to volunteer with us,
00:33:22
Speaker
Visit our website www.governorsforschools.org.uk to complete your online profile with your skills and experience. You can also let us know your school and travel preferences. And we ask everybody to create a small personal statement that demonstrates your passion and commitment to improving educational standards through governance.
00:33:44
Speaker
which we share with schools during the process of finding you a suitable governor role. At Governors for Schools, we do more than just place you in a school, we want you to be effective in your governor role as quickly as possible. So once you join us, we do have a range of free learning modules to introduce you to the role. We hold regular webinars so they can continue your learning and have the opportunity to ask governance experts.
00:34:09
Speaker
questions. You also get 12 months free access to online governor resources and knowledge from governor hub knowledge once you are placed in a role. So once you've submitted your application or even beforehand it's definitely worth checking out all of that as well of course as any other podcasts episodes which strike your fancy. So once again thank you for listening and thank you to our volunteers and to Charlie.