Introduction

ESGA (Essex School Governors’ Association) was formed 16 years ago by a small group of governors. Since then it has grown to be a respected and valued organisation and is the only Association serving governors in Essex

All Governing Bodies are automatically members of the Association. As an Association we are members of the National Governors Association . This has a number of benefits, not least that we have direct access to the DCSF (Department of Children Schools and Families) through the various committees on which NGA Directors sit. This has brought about such changes as the ending of the Annual Parents Meeting, as the DFEE, as it was, realised that there were better ways for schools to inform parents. Currently Joyce Woodham is your representative on NGA.

Services

The Executive of ESGA is constantly seeking ways to improve the support which we provide for governors.

Each term a Newsletter is sent to schools, with sufficient copies for every governor. In the Newsletter we aim to highlight items of current importance and on the back page is a list of the members of the Executive, all of whom are willing to give support and advice to all governors.

Additionally there is a Chairs Mentoring Scheme, which is available to any Chairman experiencing difficulties. The contact for this is John Hunter who can be reached via the contact us page

We are also represented on all the consultation groups at LA level, such as the Schools Forum (making decisions about how the money coming into Essex shall be allocated). And the Schools Partnership Board (formerly the Education Committee) which is at the ‘cutting edge’ of decisions made in education in Essex.

Meeting the team

The Executive consists of the following members.

Each on can be contacted by telephone or by e-mail via the contact us page

What School Governors Really, Really Think

Those of us who are school governors know our own Governing Body (GB) and, perhaps, we assume that all GBs are the same, but we have no evidence to prove that. As a governor for both a Primary and a Secondary school I know how the two GBs vary, but are all Primary School GBs like mine? And are the Secondary ones like mine? I suppose one way of finding out is to ask to visit schools when there is a full GB meeting. A lovely idea, but totally impractical with around 750 schools in our Local Authority (LA). The Rowntree Foundation did some research on a few GBs in 2007. Their results were rather damning, so I decided to conduct an ESGA Survey of Governors’ Perceptions by means of a questionnaire to be sent to a sample of Essex School Governors.

To read the full survey click here.

Who can help me?

If you have a problem relating to the governing body your local ESGA representative will be happy to help you. The map below show who is your local representative along with their contact phone number. They can be contacted via e-mail from the contact us page