Governor training days

Recently I attended a training course entitled "Preparing for Ofsted". We are due an inspection any day now, and have quite a few governors who are new this year, so it was a good topic to study.

I read the SEF* like a good governor, and showed up to the training expecting to be lectured on knowing the school's vital statistics, its strengths and weaknesses, and our role in visiting the school, especially for link governors.

However, the exercises were all about communicating with each other - things such as telling three facts to the others, two truths and a lie - and just as I was wondering if I was in the wrong room, the trainer finally said "But what has this got to do with Ofsted?"

We were shown some more techniques which might be useful in brainstorming and problem solving, all useful stuff but I'm not sure how it will help if I am chosen to be interviewed by the inspectors! The only thing that came out of this for me is that I am better at lying than I thought...

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* Note for non-governors - This is the Self-Evaluation Form, which is written by Governors and Head together. It's a living document about the schools's situation.