Governors

Governing Body

Strong leadership is central to our Christian Vision of ‘Love, Learn, Thrive’.

It focuses on creating outstanding, nurturing provision that improves outcomes, develops a lifelong love of learning and values uniqueness. Every member of the Federation plays a significant part in its success.

We have a full complement of active and skilled governors who support the school in its work to achieve its vision. As you will see from the information below governors are appointed to represent different bodies or organisations. Regardless of their designation all governors embrace the Federation principle of serving all the children across the schools. Led by our foundation governors all governors understand and embrace their role of supporting, upholding and developing the distinctiveness of the schools as Church of England Schools. Governors work collectively on this priority.

Governors are volunteers who want to make a positive contribution to children’s education. They have a wide range of responsibilities, with priority being the strategic direction of the school and with fellow governors, being accountable for the performance of the school.

On 15th October 2015 Follifoot School federated with Spofforth Primary School, a decision approved by the Governing Bodies of both schools in July 2015. The joint Governing body has a range of duties and a general responsibility for the conduct of both schools with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement. It’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

– setting and monitoring the strategic direction of the school
– managing the school’s finances
– making sure the curriculum is balanced and broadly based
– appointing new staff
– reviewing staff performance and pay

The structure and makeup of the Federated Governing Body is set in statue:

-2 Parent Governors-From either school (elected by the parents of each school)
-1 Staff Governor- (elected by staff from both schools)
-1 Local Authority (LA) Governor (appointed by the Local Authority)
-1 Head teacher Governor
-2 Foundation Governors (appointed by the Diocese)

In addition we have 3 Co-Opted Governors so that the total number of Governors is 10. Co-Opted Governors can include parents at the schools, staff at either school and other members of the community. They were co-opted by the seven appointed and elected Governors.

As you can see from the above, the number of elected Parent and Staff Governors is set in statue. However this does not prevent parents or staff becoming Co-Opted Governors. Members of the existing Governing Bodies were eligible to continue to serve as Governors in elected or co-opted roles or appointed roles. In addition the Governing Body has the ability to bring on board parents, staff or members of the local communities as Associate Governors if necessary. The Full Governing Body meets a least 6 times each year but usually more often than this, as well as separate meetings for the School Development Governors together with individual Governors conducting monitoring and evaluation visits to the schools regularly.

Our Governors:

Mrs Marianne Tharby

Role: Local Authority Governor and Chair.

Appointed by: Local Authority

Term of Office: 8th December 2021 to 7th December 2025

Marianne is a local authority appointed governor and been a governor in our Federation since 2021. She qualified as a Social Worker in 1979 and worked for the whole of her Social Work career within Child Protection and Safeguarding working with children and young adults. The latter part of her career was education based (22 years in a special school) working with children with life limiting conditions and SEND. Marianne made a career move at the age of 64 to working for HMCTS/MOJ (courts service) as a Serious Case Investigator, again within Safeguarding and Child Protection. Marianne’s priority is to keep children and their families safe, enhance children’s life chances, ensure they have positive educational experiences and are accepting of the diversity and embrace differences and are well prepared for adulthood. Marianne came to live in Follifoot in 2021 from Leeds. She was approached by the LA to join a Governing Body as she was previously a Staff Governor. Marianne is also involved actively with a national charity – the Samaritans. She is with the local branch having been the Director of the Leeds branch previously.

Mr David Harrington

Role: Foundation Governor

Appointed by: The Diocese

Term of Office: 26th September 2023 to 25th September 2027

David has been a school governor since 2015.

Mr Robert Lakin

Role: Interim Executive Head teacher

Appointed by: Ex-Officio

Term of Office: 1st January 2025 to 31st August 2025

Role: Staff Governor-Vacant

Mr Lawrence Pomeroy

Role: Associate Member

Appointed by: The Governing body

Term of Office: 16th September 2024-15th September 2025

Lawrence is an associate governor and been a governor since the end of 2018. He lives In Spofforth. As a chartered accountant and Head of Finance at Candlelighters, a children’s cancer charity.

Mr Adam Jackson

Role: Associate Member

Appointed by: The Governing Body

Term of Office: 16th September 2024 to 15th September 2025

Mrs Anna Grant

Role: Parent Governor

Appointed by: Parents

Term of Office: 14th July 2025 to 13th July 2029

Mr Nick Dawson

Role: Parent Governor

Appointed by: Parents

Term of Office: 19th December 2023 to 18th December 2027

Nick is one of our parent governors having been elected in December 2023. He lives in Follifoot and had has a daughter in year 2. Nick‘s background is rights and acquisitions within the media industry.

Mrs Hilary Staves

Role: Co-Opted Governor

Appointed by: Governing Body

Term of Office: 15th February 2022 to 14th February 2026

Hilary has worked in HR throughout her career and now specialises in supporting organisations with transformational change. She has worked in multiple sectors including Education. As a governor, Hilary will focus on staff related matters and provide support to the Resources committee.