East Dulwich and Peckham Rye Primary School Places Facebook page

[James Barber]

Request.

Schools are managed by the head teacher and governors working together with the support of Southwark LEA.

As a councillor I appoint Southwark LEA Primary school governors at the Dulwich Community Council and as chair of Southwark's Voluntary Appointment Panel appont secondary and special schools governors.

We have a shortage of applicants. On Tuesday we filled a governor role left vacant for 12 months.

A good governor can really help shape how quickly a school improves.

Eaxample. About 18 months ago a school governor was in touch with me about a capital spend they wanted help with. I helped arrange an advance on their capital grant so the works could happen early. But the point is the governor made a huge difference by highlighting the issue.

If any parents on this thread or friends or family would like to apply to be a Southwark LEA Governor please do get in touch with me. We need more people putting themselves forward who have a passion for improving schools in our area.

[toast]

This is something i thought about, but heard it's lots of work. Worth a thread?

[Smiler]

There is a public meeting coming up about the schools issue - see other thread.

With respect to "failing" schools, as judged by Ofsted, I feel strongly that while some parents will want to send their child(ren) to such a school anyway, judge it on their own experience, support the school, see the positives, support work to help the school improve in the future etc. etc. those who do not want to do so - who want instead to send their child to a local state school that has already been judged as "good" or "outstanding" - should not be criticised for that decision, nor for lobbying the council to improve access to the latter schools.

[Coach Beth]

Smiler - that is an excellent point. All schools need to be supported - as we've seen in the area, schools that we're given good or outstanding status several years ago can fall to satisfactory - it is very easy without local support or lobbying for schools to slip in standards between Ofsted reports - since the period is often many years.