Meet the Governors | St Mary's CE Foundation Primary School

Our Governors

The Governing Body is the school’s critical friend. It has a vital role in setting St Mary’s strategy, vision and values and making sure that it provides the best possible education for our pupils. In every school, governors have three core functions:

Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils
Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Governors set policies and procedures, monitor standards and make sure that St Mary’s remains a safe and secure environment.

We do NOT get involved in operational matters or the day-to-day running of the school, which are the responsibility of the headteacher and senior leadership team.

Contact us:

If you would like to speak to a governor, you can contact us via the school office, which will pass on your request. We will then get in touch with you as soon as possible.

If you have a concern or complaint, please do remember that governors must not get involved initially. As a first stage, complaints should go to the relevant staff member or headteacher. If you are not satisfied with the school’s response, then this is the time for the complaint to be passed up to the governors for further investigation or appeal. See our Complaints Procedure (on the website) for more information.

Our current team

Name	Category of Governor	Appointed by	Appointment date/ End of term of office	Committee Membership	Business Interests	Full Governing Body meetings attended 2019-20	Committee meetings attended 2019-20 *
Tracey Harrison Co-Chair of Governors	Local Authority	Essex County Council	1.09.2020 31.08.2024	Education (Chair)	None	6/7	1/2
Jo Culhane Co-Chair of Governors	Co-opted	Governing Body	20.05.2020 19.05.2024	Education	None	7/7	2/2
Malcolm Lloyd Vice Chair of Governors	Foundation	Diocesan Board of Education	25.07.2018 24.07.2022	Finance & Premises; Ethos & Community	None	7/7	4/4
Matthew Curzon Headteacher	Staff	Ex-officio	N/A	Finance & Premises; Education; Personnel & Salary Review; Ethos & Community	None	7/7	7/7
Alan Corbishley	Foundation	Parochial Church Council	13.07.2020 12.07.2024	Finance & Premises; Ethos & Community (Chair)	None	7/7	3/5
John Elliott	Co-opted	Governing Body	04.07.2018 03.07.2022	Finance and Premises (Chair); Personnel &Salary Review (Chair)	None	7/7	5/5
Julia Dowson Teacher	Staff	Staff	21.05.2018 20.05.2022	Education	None	5/7	1/2
Emma Pelly	Parent	Parents	05.11.2017 04.11.2021	Education; Personnel & Salary Review	None	4/7	3/4
Ian Pledger	Co-opted	Governing Body	29.01.2020 15.03.2024	Finance & Premises	None	5/7	3/4
Britta Crawford	Parent	Parents	01.12.2017 30.11.2021	Education; Ethos & Community	None	5/7	2/2
Clair Rava	Parent	Parents	25.09.20219 24.09.2023	Education	None	7/7	2/2
Hannah Bouette	Parent	Parents	25.09.2019 24.09.2023	Finance & Premises; Personnel & Salary Review	None	5/7	4/5
Daniel Bryan	Parent	Parents	25.09.2019 24.09.2023	Finance & Premises; Personnel & Salary Review	None	7/7	4/5
Kara Power Acting Assistant Headteacher	Associate Governor		n/a	n/a	None
Bernadette Horton School Development Consultant	Associate Governor		n/a	n/a	None
Kim Radford Clerk
Governors who have recently stood down
Rev Paul Wilkin	Foundation	Ex-officio	Resigned 17.11.2020
Tom Deex	Parent	Parents	01.12.2017 Resigned 24.05.2019
Giles Greenfield	Parent	Parents	01.04.2015 Resigned 31.03.219
Richard Till	Co-opted	Governing Board	22.01.2018 Resigned 28.11.2019

There is one vacancy for a Co-opted governor and one vacancy for a Foundation ex-officio governor.

* There were fewer committee meetings than usual during 2019-20 due to Covid-19