What else do school governors do?

I spent a week visiting my older brother and his family in New England over Thanksgiving last November.  At the main celebratory dinner, I got talking to a friend of his, who is a leading shoe designer in New York... he had been chief designer for Reebok and is now chief designer for Sears.  Educated in Leicester.  That's our Leicester, as no doubt there are several Leicesters stateside.

Anyway we got talking about George Abbot School (converter academy), where I am a governor, and the fantastic Art/Design faculty there.  I told him that I had persuaded Michael Bichard, who had been VC of the University of the Arts, London, as well as Chair of the Design Council, to come and give a talk about design to the sixth form.  Before I could get much further Steve (Weston) offered to come and do the same.

Well, today I met him at Waterloo and we travelled down to Guildford together for him to speak to the students.  It was great to see them enthralled by what he had to say, as they listened to his theories as to what made great design - and how to become a successful designer.

I consider it one of my roles as governor to try to do all I can to help it be well connected with the big outside world.  All too often, schools become worlds of their own, rather cut off.  I reckon as governors we can do a lot to support them in this area.

And I now know a lot more about the concept behind the range of sports shoes that Porsche commissioned from Reebok than most people....