Governors
DECLARATION OF BUSINESS INTERESTS AND OTHER GOVERNANCE INFORMATION
Ian Haynes, chair of governors
Ian grew up in the Peak District, where he attended the local state schools. He studied a B.S.c (Hons) in Forestry at The National School of Forestry, based at Newton Rigg College near Penrith, before working in total land management, from designing and planting national afforestation schemes to caring for some of the rarest SSSIs in the UK. He passed a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from Birkbeck College and is a Professional member of the Arboricultural Association, a full member of the Royal Society of Biology and the Chartered Institute for Horticulture.
Currently, he is the Head of Grounds and Environmental Services for his local Town Council, where he is responsible for parks, open spaces, facilities, premises, and cemetery operations and acts as the Council’s Responsible Health and Safety Officer.
His eldest son is in his last year at Dovery Academy, and his youngest son has recently joined Edlesborough Primary Academy.
He is passionate about being a Governor and his role in effectively contributing to the school’s improvement journey.
Term of office, three years. Appointed October 2022.
Liz O'Brien, Co-Opted Vice Chair, Curriculum, Standards
Liz grew up in Bedfordshire and moved to Leighton Buzzard in 2019. She has two adult daughters; one works in marketing , with the eldest having recently retrained as a teacher. Liz has been involved in education all of her career. She studied for a BA (Hons) in English Literature at the University of Lancaster, followed by a PGCE at the University of Leicester. She spent the first five years of her teaching career as a secondary English teacher before changing to the primary sector. For the final twelve years of teaching before retirement, she was the Headteacher of an outstanding primary school in Harpenden. Still wanting to be involved in education, she continued to work on a part-time basis for the Diocese of Westminster, organising a nationally recognised course for teachers wishing to further their knowledge and understanding in Catholic faith and theology. Now fully retired, she is delighted to offer her services as a governor and use her skills and experience in support of the school's development and success.
Term of office, three years. Appointed September 2022.
Amelia Darley, Co-Opted, Safeguarding
Amelia grew up in Hampshire, attending a comprehensive school and then the local sixth form college. She studied Medicine at Trinity College Cambridge, and concurrently obtained her BA in Physiology with Medical Ethics and Law. After graduating in 2007, Amelia initially worked in hospitals in the East of England and London, before taking a year out in 2010 to undertake an unsupported expedition from Canada to the Geographic North Pole. Following her expedition she was awarded a Guinness World Record and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
On her return to the UK, Amelia returned to medicine and completed her basic surgical training and membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2011, though subsequently decided to switch speciality to General Practice in 2013 when starting a family, and completed her GP training in 2019.
Amelia lives with her husband and four young children on an organic smallholding. Her children have all attended Dovery Academy; she currently has one child in the main school and one in Dovery Acorns preschool, and two children at an independent school.
Amelia is passionate about ensuring that all children, no matter their background, have access to high quality, supportive teaching and opportunities to further their knowledge and co-curricular interests. She is keen to see Dovery continue to flourish at the centre of the community and give our pupils the very best educational and nurturing start in life, and is excited to see the Primary Knowledge Curriculum become firmly embedded into the school.
Term of office, three years. Appointed October 2022.
Becky Ellaway, Co-Opted, EYFS, Phonics and Early Reading
Becky was born in Windsor and attended a grammar school in High Wycombe. She was offered a place to read Law at Leeds, but before taking up her place she decided that her true passion and calling was to care for children. Whilst this started off with her own family of seven children, including triplets, (who have all graduated from Dovery Academy) - her energy, enthusiasm, drive and people skills were well recognised and with a bit of encouragement, she set up a successful childcare business from her home.
With as many as 30 children in her childminding setting, an Ofsted Outstanding rated facility, Becky does not get much time out, but she shares whatever time she has very generously, having variously chaired the Dovery PTA, both coached at and taken overall responsibility for running the school football club. She has also organised countless events to raise funds for the school but above all else been a friendly and constant presence in the close-knit school community for 16 years, since her eldest son started at Dovery.
When Becky is not caring for children, she takes every opportunity that she can to share her wanderlust and thirst for adventure for travelling the world with her family and friends
Term of office, three years. Appointed October 2022.
Caroline Emerton, Parent Governor, Curriculum
Caroline was born and raised in London where she attended a state school in north London. She has a degree in journalism and politics and worked in the media for a few years. Later, Caroline completed a PGCE in English at Canterbury Christchurch University. She has worked for several years as an English teacher at a middle school in Dunstable. She has also had the opportunity to teach in a few Special Schools and is currently working as a SEND teaching assistant. Caroline became a parent governor at Dovery Academy very recently and is passionate about bringing equality to the curriculum, so all pupils have access to a diverse learning environment.
Term of office, three years. Appointed October 2022.
Andrew Brown, Co-Opted, Finance
Andrew grew up in Redbridge on the edge of London but has lived in Buckinghamshire for the last 30 years. He studied Computer Science at City University in London and initially he worked in the design and development of computer systems mainly for the banking industry including a stint based in Singapore. Andrew changed in the mid-90s to marketing, but still in the software industry, and he has undertaken a wide range of business marketing roles for global organisations. Until his retirement he was Marketing Director for the payments business within NCR.
Andrew first became a Governor in the mid 90s at his children’s Primary School. As they moved to Secondary he too moved and joined the Governing Board at Chesham Park Community College and later led it through the transition to Chiltern Hills Academy where he is currently Chair of the Trustees. He is also Chair of Governors at Edlesborough Primary Academy (another school in the Knowledge Schools Trust), is a committee member of the Buckinghamshire Association of School Governors and is on the Buckinghamshire Schools Consultative Board.
Term of office, three years. Appointed September 2022.
PARENT Governor information
GOVERNANCE
Dovery Academy’s local governing body is responsible for the quality of education at the school. The governing body is a committee of the Knowledge Schools Trust Board.
Governors focus on ensuring the schools have a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction. We hold our headteacher to account for the educational performance of the schools, and we oversee the financial performance of the schools including ensuring that their budgets are well spent.
Governors exercise their responsibilities and powers in partnership with the headteacher and staff. We do not make day to day decisions on the operational running of the school unless there are weaknesses in the school, when governors then have a duty to investigate and take action. Instead, governors focus on longer-term strategic issues and on checking that the daily operations are taking place in line with the school’s vision, aims and strategic plan.
The Chair of Governors can be contacted directly at i.haynes@doveryacademy.org
KNOWLEDGE SCHOOLS TRUST
Knowledge Schools Trust (formerly the West London Free School Academy Trust) is the legal entity accountable for all schools within the group, currently the West London Free School, the West London Free School Primary, the Earl's Court Free School Primary, Kensington Primary Academy and Edlesborough Primary Academy. As such, the Trust is responsible for operating all schools within the group and holds the Master Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State.
The Trust's directors have specific responsibilities for defined aspects of governance across all the schools in the group, namely, Strategic Management, Curriculum and some co-ordinated administrative functions. They set the ethos and vision for the Trust, hold the title to the land the schools are on, employ the staff and are the contracting party for services that serve more than one school in the group (catering, ICT, etc). The Trust's directors have appointed a Chief Executive Officer, who is the Accounting Officer for the Trust, a Finance Director, and a Chief Operations Officer. HR and Legal services are outsourced to an external provider.
The directors have delegated certain functions for each school to a local governing body. The Chairs of the local governing bodies are also directors of the MAT.
You can see an organogram showing how the Trust relates to the local governing bodies here and read the Terms of Reference, which set out the relationship between the Trust, the local governing bodies and the head teachers, here.