Governors
DECLARATION OF BUSINESS INTERESTS AND OTHER GOVERNANCE INFORMATION
The Board of Governors
ANDREW BROWN, co-chair of governors
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 on the board of Knowledge Schools Trust.
Term of office, four years. Appointed May 2021.
IAN HAYNES, CO-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, four years. Appointed November 2022.
Roger Cumming, Governor
Roger was born and grew up in Kent. After school he won a commission in the Royal Marines and served for 10 years at home and abroad from a base in Devon. Then, as a mature student he studied computer science at Exeter University and worked for a short while as a software engineer. He and his young family moved from Exeter to his current home in Pitstone in the mid 80s when he joined the civil service. He worked in a variety of roles in government until just after the London Olympics. After a few years working for a global design and engineering company he left to establish his own consultancy specialising in infrastructure protection strategies.
Roger was a parent-governor at Brookmead School in Pitstone in the 90s which his son and daughter attended. Now, with two young grandchildren (and more on the way), he knows the vital importance of a sound start to a child’s education and is keen to find opportunities to apply his knowledge and skills to the advantage of Edlesborough School, its pupils and staff.
Roger is an enthusiastic, but not particularly talented, golfer.
Term of office, four years. Appointed November 2022.
CAROLINE EMERTON, PARENT GOVERNOR
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.
Adam Webb, GOVERNOR
Adam grew up in Swindon, where he attended the local state secondary school and college. He studied for a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Southampton, followed by a PhD at the University of Bath. Since then, he has worked in a variety of roles related to fundraising; supporting scientists to undertake research and development. He currently works for a company headquartered in the North East, which performs contract research in areas ranging from batteries and novel foods to RNA vaccines and medical devices. He has a wealth of experience relating to the life science and research.
Adam is a parent governor at Edlesborough Primary Academy, where he has two children at the School. He was previously a Trust-appointed Governor at another Trust with several schools in the Milton Keynes area. In his spare time, Adam is a keen hiker, and has recently started to share his love of mountains with his children!
Term of office, four years. Appointed November 2022.
Heather johnson, Staff GOVERNOR
Term of office, four years. Appointed October 2023.
GOVERNANCE
Edlesborough Primary Academy and its neighbouring school in the Trust, Dovery Academy, share a local governing body. 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.