Back to school for the new governors

For lawyer Hugh Golbourne, being a governor of Lister Community School, a secondary school in Newham in east London, has changed his life. For four years he has combined his career, first in corporate finance for City law firm Herbert Smith and more recently with APACS, the UK payments association, with serving the school, contributing to key issues on finance, personnel and strategic planning.

Golbourne, 30, signed up because he wanted to give something back to his local community. He made contact through the School Governors' One-Stop-Shop (SGOSS), a recruitment organisation for volunteer governors.

"My involvement has rekindled my interest in community issues, given me a forum to express myself and helped build my confidence - particularly at the beginning of my career." he says. "As a student reading classics at Bristol University I was politically active in the Students' Union and have recently become involved again, standing, albeit unsuccessfully, for the Labour Party in last year's Hackney council elections."

Golbourne, who is of Afro-Caribbean and Indian descent, is exactly the kind of governor SGOSS is looking to place. While 60.6 per cent of schoolchildren in Newham are from ethnic minority backgrounds, only 34 per cent of governors are.

Funded by the Mercers Livery Company, the recently launched Breaking Down the Barriers campaign aims to broaden the diversity of governing bodies in Newham, with a focus on black and minority ethnic communities, younger people, refugees and the disabled.

SGOSS chief executive Steve Acklam says: "People labour under the incorrect presumption that school governors are middle-aged, middleclass and male. [Young people] are discouraged from applying because they think they will be frozen out by the older governors and often young adults do not believe they can add value to a governing body.

"In fact, the only qualifying factor is that you have to be over 18 - you don't need specialist knowledge, just a desire to help, energy, common sense and an interest in education. Young adults tend to have strong opinions on education, the pace of change at a school and IT skills."

In England, there are 350,000 governor places within 23,000 schools. At any one time, 40,000 positions (12 per cent) will be vacant and this figure can rise to 25 per cent in deprived areas. SGOSS can boast some success, particularly in increasing diversity.

While nationally only three per cent of governors in England are under 30, 11 per cent of SGOSS-placed governors are under 30. Similarly, while a maximum of 11 per cent of England's governors are from an ethnic minority background, 24 per cent of SGOSS's governor database are from ethnic minorities - and in a survey of local authorities in England, 73 per cent said ethnic diversity was a top priority.

"Schools need to keep up with a rapidly changing environment in terms of the current socio-economic climate," adds Acklam. "Having a younger, more diverse generation on board is more important now than ever before."

Today's schools are increasingly autonomous, placing heavier responsibility on the governing body for budgeting, standard-setting and strategic decision-making. The governor's role is to be a "critical friend" to the headteacher, helping with overall management.

Lister Community School faces many of the challenges common to inner-London schools serving a deprived area where a high proportion of pupils speak English as a second language. As a governor, Hugh Golbourne has taken a particular interest in finance and is involved the school's planned rebuild as part of Newham's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

"I'm also a link governor to the modern languages department, observing lessons, and on an ad hoc committee about to appoint a deputy head," he says. "I was educated in both the state and private sectors where I had good teachers and parents who helped me. My experience made me appreciate that good education is very important, particularly at secondary school - and it has made me think again about my own work/life balance.

"When I was at Herbert Smith, even though the company was supportive, I was working so hard I would go to governors' meeting in the evening and then have to go back to the office - my fellow governors thought I was mad. In my current role, I have more time to pursue my interests."