I am a teacher at Oak Grove College, a large generic secondary special school in Worthing, West Sussex. I am also the staff representative on the college’s governing body.
Our meetings recently have had to focus on developments regarding the conversion of all maintained schools to academies. This is an uncertain and worrying time. As a management committee we are fortunate to have members with a background in education and healthcare, which for the main part of governance is a fantastic mix. However, the more our chairs of governors investigate the academy opportunities, the more we are realising the skill-set of governors is going to have to expand into more legal and financial areas.
This being the case, we are looking for someone with a background in law to fill one of our governor positions. I thought that as all maintained schools will be in a similar position to us, this may be an issue that could impact on your readers.
Oak Grove College is a ‘good’ school (Ofsted 2014) that places the needs of all students at the very centre of everything we do. It would be great if you could highlight this in your magazine to see whether any of your members would be interested in becoming a school governor.
Sarah Ellis, lead teacher for English, Oak Grove College, Worthing
