By Monica Chard
Congratulations to Doris Neville-Davies of Church Road, Shepperton, who has been appointed a Member to the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to education. She was formally told about her honour on June 2nd but had to keep it se-cret until the official an-nouncement on October 10th. Doris has served as a school governor for 35 years across 9 local schools. Her appointment to 7 of those schools was because they were experi-encing difficulties.
Effective governance is extremely important in driving change in schools. It is the duty of governors to get to grips with issues a school may be experienc-ing and improve the quality of education so that children have the chance to realise their full potential. Doris describes the role of governors as being strategic, whereas the role of the head is operational. The key to success is a good and focussed working partnership between them. One of the most important roles of the board of governors is the appoint-ment of a new head when that is necessary.
Doris started as foundation governor at St Nicholas school in 1985 and in 1987 was invited to become the Local Educational Au-thority governor at Manor Mead School too. Her skills in governance led to her training as one of Surrey’s Advanced Skills Governors and later she was selected in the first cohort of National Leaders of Governance. Twice she chaired the Surrey Gover-nors’ Association and still sits on the Com-mittee. She was elected a Trustee of the National Governors’ Association and later became a trustee of ParentKind which is the national organisation for PTAs. If 35 years in so many edu-cational establishments, im-proving the lives of count-less children, leaves you breathless, then consider this; the role is entirely vol-untary! Such a vital and re-sponsible position, but all done as a volunteer. The appointment as MBE most certainly is well deserved in recognition of what she has contributed. Doris is immensely grateful to those who took on her nomination, and subsequent gathering and compiling of evidence, which is no mean feat in itself. “Of course” she says “I am flattered but I feel it is really important that honours such as these raise the profile of school governance. I get the impression that people neither realise that we are all volunteers nor the amount of time it can involve: it is not just a question of at-tending half a dozen or so meetings a year. Certainly locally, when volunteers are recognised, I have never seen a school gover-nor honoured and when I have raised the mat-ter have got the impression that we do not meet the criteria; yet some give a great deal of time and energy to doing our bit to im-prove the education of the children in our schools and thus improve their life chances”. Doris and her husband Ken moved to Shep-perton in 1974 and love the special communi-ty feel of the village. Their two children went to St Nicholas School. In her ‘spare’ time Doris works part time at Chertsey Museum where she answers enquiries in the research room.