She has two school-aged children, and has been a parent-governor at Manchester’s Levenshulme high school for girls for less than a year. Her husband Andy featured in this slot on May 26.

What made you want to be a

governor?

I work full-time so I have no

realistic chance to help in

classrooms. One daughter is already at Levenshulme so I decided to take my skills from work and use them to help the school.

Has the experience fulfilled your expectations?

I am really enjoying it, but it is very different from the working experience in my company. It is a lot less structured than the

business environment.

What dodon’t you like?

I like working with the teaching staff and making partnerships, the team spirit between governors and staff, and meeting the girls. I have a certain dislike of people who don’t turn up at

meetings.

What is the biggest, best or worst change you’ve seen during your time as a governor?

The introduction of performance-related pay. I think it will help teachers to gain job satisfaction. I am used to a monthly appraisal which determines if you receive less or more money. That hasn’t been properly brought into teaching. It is avery sensitive issue and the unions and headteacher must buy into it. Hopefully, because of my experience in a business environment, I can be of use.

What do your family think of your commitment?

They wonder how I manage to fit it in. My mum and dad are very interested, my dad was a teacher when the school was a grammar school, and it’s good to bounce ideas off him, and have different opinions expressed.

Where does governing fit into your life?

I am lucky in that my employers give me five paid days a year for public service, so that I can do interviews and meetings.

If you could wave a wand, what would you wish for the school?

We have a new learning support unit which, although nice, is buried in the school. There’s room for a new building on the top of the library and I would love to have the money to build a bright new classroom there.

And who or what would you make disappear?

Problems with attendance. We have a large number of girls from ethnic minorities. School terms are not flexible enough to take account of religious

holidays.

I’m not sure about the need for six weeks in the summer: it would be nice to have a few extra weeks which schools could take when they wished, to accommodate the needs of their population.