Academies are schools funded by the government with the freedom to govern independently – but all are accountable to the Secretary of State for Education. To share resources and best practice, many are part of multi-academy trusts – a network of schools under one legal body.

Ark Oval Primary Academy is part of Ark Schools - a leading education charity and one of the country’s top-performing academy operators. Ark is non-denominational and does not make any profit from running its schools.

Ark’s relationship with the Secretary of State is set out in the Amendment and Restatement agreement. There are also supplemental funding agreements for each individual school in the network, including Ark Oval Primary.

Every school in the Ark network is the legal responsibility of the Ark Schools Board. This board focuses on statutory duties and delegates most day-to-day responsibilities to each school’s individual Local Governing Body (LGB). This means that Ark Oval Primary Academy governors are able to concentrate on the things that really matter – educational strategy, school outcomes and aspiration.

Amendment and Restatement Agreement.pdf

 Ark Oval Primary Academy funding agreement.pdf

The Ark Schools Articles of Association, Master Funding Agreement and Accountabilities Framework can be found on the Ark Schools website here.

Our local governing body

Ark Oval Primary Academy’s LGB is made up as follows:

• Six to 10 members appointed by Ark, to include the Chair – usually people with a local connection or interest who are committed to supporting educational opportunity in the area
• The Principal
• Two parent governors
• One teaching staff governor
• One non-teaching staff governor
• One local authority representative from London Borough of Croydon

Ark aims to create a balanced group that will have the right skills, connections and dynamic for the LGB to work well and support the school in achieving exceptional performance:

• Good insight into the specific challenges at the school and the general challenges of operating top-quality schools
• Excellent community links
• Specific skills as needed by/relevant to the school
• A link to the senior executive team of Ark

The LGB meets four times a year.

Contacting the governors

The current Clerk to Governors is Katie Bird (katie.bird@arkonline.org). Governors can be contacted through Katie and the parent governor can be contacted through the school office.

If you are interested in becoming a governor, please visit www.arkschools.org/governance. If you have any governance-related queries, please contact governance.team@arkonline.org.

Current governors

Toby Martlew (Principal)

Coming late to the teaching profession I qualified in the borough of Croydon, and following some previous secondary experience sought out opportunities to make an impact with disadvantage groups at an earlier stage. This resulted in me gaining experience in two Croydon primaries before being drawn to the Ark mission and ethos, something that I believe in whole heartedly. I was fortunate enough to be appointed the Assistant head of Ark Priory Primary Academy under Principal Jacqueline Steele. This was a hugely influential experience building the school from the ground and earning an outstanding all areas grading from Ofsted in June 2015. Following this I was appointed the Head of School and took Priory from strength to strength with 3 years of perfect phonics screening scores and some of the strongest KS1 results in London. Having had some experience with Oval in the past, when the opportunity arose to come back to the borough I was proud to be appointed the new Principal in July of 2018. Oval is a school with boundless potential and with a strong community ethos will reach its full potential.

I am a father of two boys, a keen lacrosse player, cyclist and terrible golfer. 

Ann Ewing (Chair and Pupil Premium Link Governor)

John Phillipson (Vice Chair, ICT and Finance Link Governor)

I am chair of Governors at another primary school and advise two other governing bodies. I am lay chair of a local church council and also help to lead a drop in for homeless guests, that runs each Sunday in Croydon. I am very involved in Croydon churches floating shelter which gives overnight accommodation to the homeless over the winter months.I live in Addiscombe and when I am not doing any of the above I sing tenor and, as an integrated part of a mid life crisis, have recently started to play the bass guitar in a band! Ark Oval does an amazing job and I am very proud to be a small part of it.