Governance
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 (katiebird@arkonline.org). Governors can be contacted through Katie and the parent governors 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, Pupil Premium Link Governor)
An experienced executive who has worked internationally in the energy, banking, and educational sectors, Ann is passionate about the value of education at all stages of life, including personal and professional development at work. She teaches a number of adult courses including leadership programmes within the Open University. Ann is proud to chair the Ark Oval Primary School governing body and also the Ark Paddington Green Primary School and to support the Headteachers and their teams as they take their schools forward to even higher standards of education for all pupils.
Danish Chaudhary (Early Years Link Governor)
Previously an M&A consultant with Ernst & Young, then 6 years in asset management at Blackrock Inc, after which I started and subsequently sold a mobile app startup. Most recently I've started a company that aims to reduce the inefficiencies in the educational recruitment market, which is currently dominated by job boards like TES and Agencies. Staffably, of which i'm COO and Co-Founder, aims to put schools directly in touch with teachers, saving the school time and budget while allowing for transparency, cost effectiveness and efficiency. This in turn should allow teachers to get paid more and get easy access to job postings.
Claire Chidzey-Carn (SEND Link Governor)
Claire currently works for the Ark central Governance Team and shares Ark's values in believing that children from all backgrounds deserve a high quality education and the opportunity to pursue a career path of their choice. She has previously worked as a teacher, SENCO and in children's social care teams across London and the South East. Claire has a BA honours degree in Education and has just completed a Masters degree in Psychology. She is deeply passionate about inclusion, SEN and the role schools can play in improving young peoples' mental health and wellbeing. Claire lives with her husband and two cats in London. She is slightly obsessed with cooking, baking and all things food-related and, whenever possible, loves to get out and explore the UK countryside and wildlife.
Rich Davies (Data and Ark Link Governor)
Rich Davies is the Director of Insight at Ark Schools. He is responsible for leveraging Ark's assessment, pastoral and operational data to inform decision making throughout the organisation. Rich has previously worked as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and has also worked with school operators in both the UK and the USA. He holds an MA Education and MBA from Stanford University (USA), as well as an MEng from Oxford University. He is a proud alumnus of Amman Valley Comprehensive School in South Wales. Rich is keen to bring his experience of strategic leadership and data analysis to help Ark Oval thrive
Elmozeene Gordon (Safeguarding and Key Stage 1 Link Governor)
I am currently working a dual role within a local secondary school / college - Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College. Here I work 4 days a week as the Business and Enterprise Coordinator and 1 day a week as the Careers Development and Guidance Practitioner. I love my career and the roles I complete. I get to develop, educate, inspire and guide people every day. Empowering them into becoming the person they want to be.
I endeavour to do one fun or new thing a day. The purpose is to show my son that you never stop having fun nor be afraid to trying something new.
John Phillipson (Vice Chair, 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.
LGB Name | Term Dates | Gov type and Term | Relevant declarations of interest | Attendance at meetings 2017/18 |
Georgina Butac
(Former) |
17/05/2017 - 31/08/2018 | Teaching Governor | 4 out of 4 | |
Claire Chidzey-Carn | 01/01/2018 | Ark Link | 1. Employment: Ark Schools
2. Member: British Psychological Society |
3 out of 3 |
Danish Chaudhary | 01/01/2017 | Ark Nominated | 1. Employment: Currently COO of a Digital Education Recruitment platform called Staffably
2. Appointments: Director of Staffably - Registered as TeachX Ltd |
2 out of 4 |
Rich Davies | 01/09/2017 | Ark Link | 3 out of 4 | |
Caroline Compton-James
(Former) |
05/01/2016 - 31/07/2018 | Ark Nominated |
|
1 out of 4 |
Ann Ewing | 01/09/2011 | Chair |
|
4 out of 4 |
Elmozeene Gordon | 01/12/2016 | Ark Nominated | 1. Employment: Business and Enterprise Coordinator - Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls (NMBEC) Careers Development and Guidance Practitioner - Education Trust |
3 out of 4 |
John Phillipson | 01/09/2011 | Ark Nominated |
|
3 out of 4 |
All appointments are made by the Governance Manager for Ark Schools. The term of a governor is three years, except the Principal, who remains a governor for the duration of her time in post.