By Gavin Mackintosh-
School governors and trustees should be held accountable to their communities, especially to parents and carers, according to a recent guideline.
A guideline from the Department Of Education urges schools to listen to their communities before making decisions.
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The guideline comes in an updated version of the original guidance by the Department for Education for academies and maintained schools. The updated document requires boards to show how the views of parents and the local community have shaped their “strategic decision-making”.
A revised section on workload also states that boards should review their practices in line with the DfE’s new workload reduction toolkit, published last summer. School boards are reminded they must be “connected with, and answerable to, the communities they serve, particularly parents and carers
School Boards are also told to aim to build productive relationships with the local community to create a sense of trust and shared ownership. They also need to build relationships in the community to “create a sense of trust and shared ownership” of the trust or school’s strategy.
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Boards should also ensure their schools are “regularly communicating with parents and carers, and that parental engagement is used by the board to inform their strategic decision-making”
CRITICISM
The fresh guideline follows criticism that the views of parents and communities have been ignored by some schools and academy trusts. The aim to ensure schools work in partnership parents in matters that can concern important decisions work with
The guideline runs the risk of placing parents in a superior position of power in relation to the idea. It also does not take into account the various types of parents that exist, including rude and ignorant parents. However, it can be assumed that the suggestion to listen to parents does not impose a duty to always take the advice of parents in a given situation.
Research shows some teachers can be very unreasonable and intimidating to teachers, making it all the more important for more judgement to be in the hands of teachers, but each judgement assessed on a case specific basis that depends on the pupil, the parent, and the individual situation.
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, was criticised after stating at a conference last year that it was “technically the trust, not the local governing body, that should be setting the vision for the schools and making decisions”.
School boards are reminded they must be “connected with, and answerable to, the communities they serve, particularly parents and carers”.
Boards are told to aim to build productive relationships with the local community to create a sense of trust and shared ownership. They have also been told to build relationships in the community to “create a sense of trust and shared ownership” of the trust or school’s strategy.
Boards should also ensure their schools are “regularly communicating with parents and carers, and that parental engagement is used by the board to inform their strategic decision-making”.
Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association, said she was “pleased” the handbook had been updated but warned it was a “missed opportunity” because a “more fundamental review of governance roles” was needed.
She said this was particularly the case for “academy trusts where there can be a lack of understanding” around roles. Another edition of the handbook is expected to clarify these roles later this year. Knights added. New guidance also imposed a duty on governors to “demonstrate the methods used to seek the views of parents, carers and the local community”. They must also show how those views have influenced their decision-making”.
Mechanisms should also be in place for parents to be able to put forward their views at “key points in their child’s education”, the guidance states, and decisions should be made in line with the principles and recommendations of the government’s Making data work guidance and the workload reduction toolkit.
“Boards and their organisations are encouraged to use these materials to review current policies and practices.” The specific instructions will put more pressure on school boards to guarantee they meet those high standards. The views of parents will need to be reasonable and well informed , for them to hold greater sway over the professionalism of teachers or governors in practical decision making, but school governors will have to make a record of it.
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