Supporting governors

There may be members of the worshipping community who are governors of schools in the area. School governors have a very important part to play in developing the overall policies within which the school operates and also in providing links between the school and the local community. This is an important Christian service and as such should be valued by the church.

Being a school governor is one of the ways in which Christians can express their vocation to follow Christ by serving their local community. If it is clear that there is somebody within the congregation who has the capacity to undertake this work they should be encouraged to do so, even if it means reducing some of their commitments within the congregation. Christian governors may have a very important role to play in encouraging the links between the school and the local churches. This will not be their only task. They may be able to make an important contribution to the development of policy in religious education, school worship, sex education, and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils as well as areas of the general school curriculum where they have insights or expertise. They may also be able to support those parts of the school's management that are concerned with staff recruitment, selection, development and reward. They will bring important insights to bear on matters of pupil or even staff discipline. Governors are asked to contribute a considerable amount of their spare time to the role. It is important for churches to realize that one of the ways in which they can support members of their congregations who are governors is to free them from other commitments so that they can undertake this service.

Whenever schools teachers or pupils are the subject of prayer within church, governors should also be included in the prayers, focused on education. This should be happening on several occasions during the year, including Education Sunday. Where parishes use one of the services of rededication for teachers, governors should also be invited to take part in and reaffirm their commitment to their work of service for schools. See the service of rededication in Churches Serving Schools (resources for services, pp. 84-86, PDF, 64 KB) for an example.

Being a governor involves accepting responsibility for the formation of school policy and for the care, as employer, of the school staff. If a priest or minister accepts the role of governor, there may be times when these responsibilities seem to conflict with any chaplaincy role that the ministerial team are also fulfilling in respect of the school. In such cases it may be important to divide the duties between members of the ministerial team, if this is possible. Indeed, in a number of Church schools the local ministers are breaking the tradition of accepting the chair of the governing body, and are instead supporting a lay member in that office in order to facilitate this. The duties of the parochial clergy in respect of the Church schools in their parish, including being ex officio a governor in many cases, are such that it is important that, when changes occur, new ministers are aware of the presence of a Church school or schools in the parish, and are positive in their commitment to them.

Where there are a number of governors within a particular congregation it will be potentially helpful and supportive to them if they are occasionally invited to meet together as a group to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest or to hear a speaker on a topic of education policy or practice. This may be particularly important in parishes where there are a significant number of schools, most of which are not Church schools. In areas where there are only a small number of schools, and therefore a small number of Christians who are governors, this type of meeting for mutual support and encouragement could take place at deanery level rather than at parochial level.