VIEWS & OPINION
Our school clerks and governance professionals deserve a fair wage
Comment by NEIL COLLINS, Managing Director and one of the founders of GovernorHub
Felicity Jackson is a highly experienced clerk who has for years advised her school’s governors on the intricacies of staff pay, absence hearings and financial reporting. And yet she’s paid just £11.59 per hour - barely £1 an hour over the National Living Wage.
There are up to 10,000 Felicitys across the country. The vast majority - 90% - are women, many of whom have caring responsibilities they are juggling alongside work.
They go largely unnoticed in our schools and Trusts, partly because they tend to work part-time and from home, advising governors and trustees, whose meetings tend to take place during the evening. These clerks and governance professionals are a vital part of the infrastructure of our education system and deserve to be paid a fair wage for the increasingly complex work they do. It’s standard now for a clerk to be expected to have an excellent grasp of the legal, financial and regulatory aspects of running a school and to coordinate pupil exclusion and complaints panels.
Why then are some paid so little?
An online survey we have just conducted at GovernorHub of 1,298 school clerks and governance professionals has found that some say they are on the minimum wage or even less and many others are paid for only some of the hours they work.
We have discovered that the average pay for clerks, £25,000, is well below what it would be in a comparable role in the charity sector or local government. In these sectors, some could command almost £34,000. The same is the case for more senior school governance professionals - sometimes known as governance coordinators. They are paid £32,000 on average, but could be earning more than £40,000 - £8,000 more - each year in a local government or public sector services role. The most experienced school governance professionals are paid on average £42,500, but could be on £60,000 - or just under - in an equivalent position in local government or public sector services.
We know that there is a significant squeeze on school resources and senior leadership teams are under more pressure than ever. However, it’s essential that schools, local authorities, Trusts and other employers don’t see this experienced, often hidden workforce as simply women who need flexible work. Organisations must start to annually review and benchmark the pay of their clerks and governance professionals so that it is commensurate with their skills and experience. Equally, clerks and governance professionals need reminding that they aren’t a volunteer workforce and should feel emboldened to demand a fair wage.
We know that governance professionals are one of the most female- dominated professions in the education sector and this should focus our attention more keenly on fair salaries. After all, addressing pay for clerks and governance professionals can also serve to reduce an organisation’s gender pay gap.
Can mainstream learn from SEND when it comes to
teaching employability skills? Comment by SAL McKEOWN, journalist and editor
Schools are not producing young people with the skills needed for employment; young people worry they will be jobless in a competitive market. There must be a solution.
Edge Foundation’s recently published “The perspectives of learners – How are schools developing employability skills? Joint Dialogue Phase 2” (http://bit. ly/3F6acBE) is based on:
• A survey with 67 learners (between the ages of 14-18) in Years 10 –Year 13
• Focus groups with 21 learners from a school or sixth form college in England
• Focus groups with learners across two schools for learners with SEND
Their list of 12 employability skills includes communication, numeracy and digital skills, which all link to the National Curriculum. However, they also add softer skills and competencies such as problem solving, creativity, resilience, drive, self-management, reflection, being informed, confidence and teamwork.
While mainstream school respondents struggled to identify the skills they were developing, learners in special schools talked confidently about how and when they had displayed different qualities valued by employers.
This raises some interesting questions: • Does the rigid curriculum in mainstream do learners a disservice? • Should there be more extracurricular activities, arts and sport? • Are special schools doing a better job teaching ‘life lessons’? • Do special schools focus more on life post-school?
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www.education-today.co.uk
When discussing communication skills, mainstream learners mentioned its importance in terms of job interviews, following instructions at work and delegating to team members. Special school students had a wider view and talked about team sports, showing visitors around the school and attending events which involved speaking to new people. One student said: ‘If people are not in a good mood, we sometimes do communication on how we are feeling,’ which shows an awareness of affective communication.
Special school learners were clear about the skills they were building because the teacher would often highlight them at the start of the lesson. A year 11 learner said: ‘We have lots of social and leadership activities, for example we have walkie talkies and we go out into groups into town and give instructions to each other about where to go.’ Mainstream learners saw ‘reflection’ as assessment, feedback and appraisal, in other words the formal curriculum. While drama and sport were mentioned, researchers noted that more teachers from independent schools highlighted extracurricular activities than teachers from maintained schools. Drama and teamwork were at the heart of creativity in special schools: ‘I’m quite good at my creative arts, I like dancing and singing. I’m not saying I’m good at it but I like it.’ Another said: ‘I develop creativity skills through interacting with peers throughout the school day and we can bounce ideas off each other’.
This report highlights that special schools have a different focus. While mainstream is geared to academic success, qualifications and identifying strengths, special schools prepare children to become independent adults: ‘Getting ready for the future, getting your own job, house, car, insurance, bank credit cards.’ These life events will provide first hand experience of those twelve skills that today’s employers seek and special schools are making sure they are well prepared.
April 2023
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