REFLECTIONS OF A SCHOOL GOVERNOR

NICK WRIGHT

Whenour Editor Fr Richard asked me to pen a few words about my experiences as a School Governor I readily agreed but it has turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Essentially, how to make it interesting with a few personal anecdotes, coupled by necessity with some rather dry, factual, legal requirements. Obviously, schools come in all shapes and sizes and each one will face different problems at varying times. There is one constant – the next problem is just round the corner. A Governing Body with a broad range of skills sets is absolutely essential in any type of school to support the Head and give strategic direction to the Senior Leadership Team. These life skills include detailed knowledge of financial management and governance, property matters, integrity, education in the round, health and safety, safeguarding and wellbeing, understanding special educational needs or disabilities: the list goes on but both local authority and diocesan courses are available to support you.

I am a Foundation Governor of Wardour Catholic Primary School, primarily by virtue of being a Trustee of Wardour Chapel, a private chapel attached to Wardour Castle in the diocese of Clifton. Uniquely, for a state school, the Bishop of Clifton does not own the school as it predates the formation of the Diocese and as such is owned by the Chapel Trust. This article will therefore focus on my experiences and responsibilities as a Foundation Governor in a small Catholic rural primary school but this can be read across to other primary and secondary schools whether they are state run or independent. In addition to the Foundation Governors, who form the majority of the body, we have a Local Authority Governor, a couple of Parent Governors, a Staff Governor and of course the Headteacher. The chairman allocates governors to various sub committees such as resources, education, Headteacher’s performance management and property matters. These sub committees then support the Full Governing Body. Chairmanship appears an almost full-time job and I am sure the outstanding Chair of the Ampleforth Trustees, Edward Sparrow, will know just what I mean!

Foundation Governors in Church Schools are appointed by the Diocesan Bishop and are expected to follow Diocesan guidance. They are specifically appointed by the Bishop to ensure that:

• The distinctive nature of the school is promoted, developed and evaluated;

• All aspects of school life are conducted in accordance with the trust deed of the diocese and Canon Law;

• The Religious education curriculum and the curriculum for Relationships and Sex Education are in accordance with the Bishop’s policy for his diocese;

• Religious worship is in accordance with the rites, practices, discipline and liturgical norms of the Catholic Church;

• All Bishops’ Conferences directives are fulfilled; and

• The Bishop’s vision for his schools is fulfilled.

Readers will not be surprised to hear that local authority and OFSTED inspections do not major on the above directives! Governors of course know the particular local challenges facing their schools and occasionally this can bring them into conflict with the Bishop and some of his directives. I will return to this later as it can be a very troubling situation in which to find oneself, as Ampleforth Trustees will be well aware.

So why do people become school Governors in light of their considerable timeconsuming responsibilities? Cardinal Hume’s answer was: “To be a Governor of a Catholic School is to be in involved in the mission of the Church because our Catholic Schools are a very important part of our work for young people in the Church. I believe profoundly in our Catholic Schools and the Governors are there to make quite certain that the Catholic character of the school is maintained and forwarded. That is, in terms of teaching the Catholic faith and ensuring that the whole atmosphere is in fact Catholic: a good Catholic community. But it is also very important that our Catholic schools should be first class schools, giving an excellent education. This means the realising of the potential of every pupil, high academic standards, good vocational training and the development of the whole of the young person, preparing them for adult life. In all of this Governors play a key role, a very important role.”

The Bishop has high expectations of a Governing Body but so too does the Department for Education, as in maintained schools it is ultimately the taxpayer who pays the wages. Unlike independent schools, the role of the Governing Body is reflected in law which state that “the purpose of maintained school governing bodies is to conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement at the school”. It does this by adhering to the following core strategic functions:

• Establish the strategic direction of the school by setting a clear Catholic vision, values and objectives for the school and by agreeing the school improvement strategy with priorities and targets;

• Ensuring accountability by appointing the Head; monitoring the educational performance and Catholic character of the school and performance managing the Head;

• Ensuring financial probity by setting the budget, monitoring spending against the budget and ensuring money is well spent; and

• Ensuring that other stakeholders are heard by gathering the views of pupils, parents and staff and reporting on the results and by reaching out to the school’s wider community including the parish.

A key area of cooperation is the relationship between the Governors and the Head and this is key to the success of any school. The Governors are responsible for the overall strategy and thus determine the school policy in conjunction with the Head. They act as a critical friend to the Head who is often in a rather isolated position. The Head’s role is to determine how the strategy and policy should be implemented and does so on behalf of the Governors.

It goes without saying that Governors are expected to adhere to the Nolan (a hugely distinguished OA) principles with which all public servants should be familiar – in an ideal world everyone should conduct themselves according to the 7 principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

Many of the challenges facing school governors are common across the education spectrum. Safeguarding and good governance are obvious and ongoing challenges which will be only too familiar to members of the Ampleforth family. At our last Ofsted inspection the inspectors really concentrated on this area. Wardour School has always had a public footpath running straight across our playing field and OFSTED said this should be diverted for safeguarding reasons. Straightforward and obvious one would think, but diverting a footpath in a rural environmental is a bureaucratic challenge. Ampleforth’s excellent Headmaster explained, at the thankfully reinstated Brompton Oratory Mass and reception on 10th November, that the school’s governance and emphasis on student wellbeing is now recognised as a ‘Beacon’ example of what can be achieved. I am sure I am not alone in thanking Robin Dyer, Edward Sparrow and their excellent supporting team for their outstanding Teams updates to the Ampleforth family during the existential crisis the school was facing at the beginning of 2021. It was particularly encouraging to hear from Robin that 129 new pupils entered the school in September and that the proportion of Catholic students has gone up to over two thirds. A really heartening example of the faith and trust these new parents showed in a reborn and refocused Ampleforth. And remember Edward and his fellow trustees invested all their time, energy and knowledge for love, not personal gain.

Another constant challenge facing the Wardour governors is pupil numbers. Wardour school, like Ampleforth, is set in an idyllic rural location and, unlike the other local competing primary schools, our pupils can’t walk to school. This is important because pupil numbers dictate local authority funding so we have to be imaginative in attracting our pupils, the majority of whom are of course non Catholic, given that we are in a remote part of southern Wiltshire. Ampleforth faces similar challenges and probably, although I do not know the facts, has fewer pupils from the south of England than in previous years.

A further similarity between Wardour and Ampleforth is that both these high achieving Catholic schools have non Catholic Heads which is contrary to a directive of the Bishops’ Conference and herein lies the difficulty for Catholic school governors who have to live in the real world and recruit from the market place. We recently appointed our non-Catholic Head, who had previously been deputy Head, as she was streets ahead of the other candidates during the interview process. Her vision, knowledge and experience have turned the school round after a failing Catholic Head, whose removal for the good of the school was another bureaucratic challenge. Numbers are now on the increase, optimism abounds and our last OFSTED inspection was Good. A familiar story I hear you say. However, it took a formal meeting between the Bishop, the Chairman of the Chapel trustees and the chairman of Governors for common sense to prevail. The pupils walk to Mass at Wardour Chapel every Tuesday and the Catholicity of the school is assured, as it is at Ampleforth. The Wardour governors are in absolutely no doubt that an outstanding practising Christian Anglican Head, who regularly attends Mass, is far better for the success, indeed very survival of the school , than having a failing Catholic Head. That way we obey the Bishops’ directive that the School should be at least as good as other local schools. It is gratifying that the Ampleforth trustees have taken the same pragmatic approach.

I have tried to set out the role and purpose of a school governor and what is involved. It is time consuming, challenging and at times frustrating but it does have its unique rewards. Not only are you involved in the mission of the Church, but you are closely involved in the life of your local community, and if all is going well in the life of the school you certainly sleep well.

Captain Sir Nicholas Wright, KCVO, RN (T68) after retiring from the Royal Navy and following 17 years as Private Secretary to the Princess Royal, has been a governor of Wardour Catholic Primary School for the last four years.

GERRY ROGERSON (H85)

The Abbey Church dominates the valley it overlooks. Its position, scale and architecture make it the pivotal point for life at Ampleforth. It is the heart of this institution. But there is a very special part of the Abbey that few of us are lucky to see… its loft. This hidden space is a vast, cavernous and inspiring journey through the mind of its creator, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Below, in the familiar main body of the Abbey, the two periods of its development are clearly defined by the Blue Hornton stonework of the older 1924 portion, Monks’ Choir and associated chapels, aisles and crypt, compared with the larger 1961 portion of the Sanctuary, Nave and Transepts, with pale rendered walls and lighter stone dressings from Dunhouse Quarries of County Durham. The same definition is above the domes, out of sight and “back of house”, where the stage development is seen in the construction details employed. Older parts to the west are all formed in mass, shuttered concrete, beautifully cast to reveal the grain of timber shutter boards crisply moulded into its structural beams, pitched concrete roof, and the Monks’ Choir dome itself, which is also concrete cast and can be walked on, despite being only 3 to 4 inches thick.

The Abbey Church dominates the valley it overlooks. Its position, scale and architecture make it the pivotal point for life at Ampleforth. It is the heart of this institution. But there is a very special part of the Abbey that few of us are lucky to see… its loft. This hidden space is a vast, cavernous and inspiring journey through the mind of its creator, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Below, in the familiar main body of the Abbey, the two periods of its development are clearly defined by the Blue Hornton stonework of the older 1924 portion, Monks’ Choir and associated chapels, aisles and crypt, compared with the larger 1961 portion of the Sanctuary, Nave and Transepts, with pale rendered walls and lighter stone dressings from Dunhouse Quarries of County Durham. The same definition is above the domes, out of sight and “back of house”, where the stage development is seen in the construction details employed. Older parts to the west are all formed in mass, shuttered concrete, beautifully cast to reveal the grain of timber shutter boards crisply moulded into its structural beams, pitched concrete roof, and the Monks’ Choir dome itself, which is also concrete cast and can be walked on, despite being only 3 to 4 inches thick.

By contrast, the newer portion is lightweight in structure, with sectional galvanised trusses supporting a traditional timber roof, from which thin hanging straps support mild steel hoops and expanded metal lath (EML) formwork, (Figs 2 & 3) through which the render that forms the domes is pressed through like mincemeat. Stand on these domes and you would doubtless crack the egg!

These were all pioneering details typical of Gilbert Scott. He was an Architect out for adventure, pushing boundaries and using new and often untried techniques to achieve his goals. Such giant leaps are inspirational and formative in the standing that Gilbert Scott has earned in the architectural community. But greatness is not always flawless. The loft also shows evidence of failure, mistakes and last minute changes. The highest of the three domes spans the Sanctuary. Part of the second phase build, the dome is of the lightweight form. The domes, once cast, became self-supporting, but to form them, the framework and EML had to be supported initially. The straps used for this purpose remain in place and create a strange sense of temporary stage set within the loft. On first sight, one might assume the domes are suspended from these straps. But they are no longer taut, instead they flex freely when touched, as they are no longer in tension… their work is done and they remain a memory of the construction process. Above the Sanctuary dome however, there are signs of a different story and this one starts the next level up, at the concrete floor of the Belfry.

The Belfry floor spans the 10 x 10m of the Tower footprint, strengthened with a pair of concrete beams, framing a central opening through which Gregory John was raised into place. Gregory John is the giant bell that calls us to Mass, strikes during the Consecration, rings the Angelus, and tolls the Death Knell when a member of the Monastic Community dies. It is a thing of beauty and I feel blessed to have seen it, tapped it with my finger tips and heard that familiar “A flat” tone sound softly back at me. (Fig 4)

When it rings though, there is nothing soft or gentle about it. The bell is 4.8 tonnes of bronze, set within a 1 tonne chassis. This combined weight had more impact on the structure than had been catered for, as the concrete beams and floor below are visibly bowed under the load. Consequently, the dome below had to be installed differently. Here, the temporary support straps hang not from the abandoned connector straps cast into the underside of the concrete slab above, but rather from sectional, lattice truss beams, brought into the loft in sections and assembled in situ to span the space. This alternative solution, clearly retro developed, negated the need to impose any additional load on the concrete slab, which had been pushed to its limits of performance, before completing the task it was designed to do.

In this instance, the flaw was identified, addressed and dealt with. But there are other areas where design ideology took precedent over detail, with questionable success. A prime example of this was the design and execution of rainwater drainage. Ordinarily, we see rainwater collected off roofs into gutters, discharging into downpipes, running down the external wall face and into underground drainage. But Gilbert Scott did not want visible gutters on his Abbey, or rainwater downpipes, so instead he detailed hidden gutters and buried the downpipes in the walls. This led to convoluted routes for rain to get from roof to underground drains. Rain landing atop the tower, for example, discharges through gullies into exposed downpipes mounted on the internal wall face in the belfry, before disappearing into the walls and popping out again into external, hidden gutters below the main roof eaves. These gutters then discharge back into the walls, before popping out over flat roofs below. By this time, the potential volume of water can be significant as numerous roof areas are combined into very few, concentrated routes across the lower flat roofs, before draining to more gullies and yet more downpipes buried in the wall. By design, from the tower to the ground, rainwater is led into the building and back out again three times. Usual good practice would be to avoid doing this even once.

There are 28 downpipes buried within the Abbey walls. These were first investigated during roof repairs carried out in 2017, concentrating on the upper half of the building (the tower and main, upper roofs). A second phase to complete all the roof and downpipe repairs was undertaken late 2020. Historic plans in the Monastic Archive were consulted during early stages, to identify the locations of pipes. In reality though, Gilbert Scott’s drawings were not necessary, as every one of the buried, internal downpipes was clearly mapped out by the stains on walls and ceilings within the Abbey. With safe scaffolded access, we were able to get to gully outlets at the head of downpipes, enabling jet washing and CCTV surveys to be carried out. Each pipe was surveyed, allowing the material and length of pipe to be established. We found a mix of materials used, some iron, some copper, some lead. There is no explanation for this… it was as if the build was making use of materials available in any given week, or the project had become a test bed for alternative products. The worst of the leaks related to copper downpipes, which had become severely corroded. This was attributable to their encasement within the walls, where the copper was in contact with cementitious compounds, which of the period often contained high levels of sulphur (from cinders or fly-ash, a by product from power stations, being used as aggregate), which is highly corrosive to most metals.

Lack of maintenance was another contributor to the issues. Regardless of material, pipes were installed in sections, with socketed connections. The principle of sectional pipes is sound, with water running seamlessly from one pipe into the next. But when the pipe becomes blocked, with moss or leaf litter, water can’t flow and instead backs up. When the head of water rises above the first joint, that joint becomes compromised. The worse the blockage and the heavier the rainfall, the higher up the pipe water would rise, bringing the added problem of high head pressure, with some height. The worst of the pipes, in the south west corner of the south was found to have been installed upside down; from day one it leaked with every rainfall, as water within the pipe would simply each joint. Of all the pipes, this was the one that caused the worst internally, and after rainfall this corner remained wet long after Abbey had dried in the sun. (Fig 5.) downpipes being over 15m in height. The worst of the pipes, in the south west corner of the south transept, was found to have been installed upside down; from day one it would have leaked with every rainfall, as water within the pipe would simply have leaked at each joint. Of all the pipes, this was the one that caused the worst damage internally, and after rainfall this corner remained wet long after the rest of the Abbey had dried in the sun. (Fig 5.)

The inconsistencies didn’t stop there… we also found differences in pipe diameter, ranging from 6” diameter pipes right down to 3”. There were just two of these smallest size outlets, found draining off the north aisle to Monks’ Choir, over which four separate downpipes of 4” (100mm) diameter pipes brought water from roofs above!

Given the encasement of downpipes, they could not be removed or replaced. The only viable solution was to reline them, for which we turned to a local company, InSitu, who specialised in lining underground drains. Ordinarily, their works would involve accessing two ends of a pipe, firing a sleeve between the two before inflating it under extreme pressure, all in a matter of seconds. These silicate resin-based sleeves start off sticky on the inside and smooth on the outside. When fired through the pipe, they turn inside out, so when inflated they bond to the pipe walls, leaving a new, smooth and continuous lining, with no joints. This is a system that worked underground, so we saw no reason why it could not work within a wall. It worked a treat. Once equipment was position in often precarious areas, the rest was relatively plain sailing. We did not expect to see immediate results; the Abbey walls are hugely thick and it is expected they will take years to dry out. Moreover, until render repairs are carried out internally, historic damage will remain evident. But in one part the result was immediate. The southwest corner of the south transept, with its old upside down downpipe newly lined, drained away its first rainstorm without a drop of water being lost from within. I went to the Abbey on that day and for the first time in years, the outer wall was not soaked… in that moment, I knew the work was done and the leaks had stopped.

I first visited Ampleforth in 1976, as a nine-year-old, to attend the Blessing of Abbot Ambrose Griffiths, second cousin to my father. While I was already “signed up” to join the school later in life, I had an adventure on this first visit that would shape my future. While the grown-ups enjoyed their hospitality, my sister and I were left in the hands of our babysitter, Fr. Charles Macauley. This meant trips to the tuck shop, riding around the valley in the Green Goddess fire engine and, most significantly for me, a climb of the 185 steps through the loft of the Abbey to the tower top, from where the very best view of the valley can be found. I fell in love with this building on that day, and when I returned four years later to start my Shack career, I was still overwhelmed by it. I hold that experience, this Abbey Church, responsible for the path my life then followed and I have no doubt that, in some way, the Abbey and indeed all of Gilberts Scott’s masterful works at Ampleforth will have played a fundamental part in the formation of every student that has passed through this valley.