Governor Information

The Lady Joanna Thornhill (Endowed) Primary School’s Governing Board is made up of ten governors including the Headteacher Mrs Foster and staff governor.  The Governing Board has three key functions- ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding the Headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils and overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent. 

The Governing Board works on the ‘circle model’ and meets at least six times a year.  In between meetings we carry out monitoring visits and evaluate progress towards the school’s objectives in other ways, such as meeting and asking questions of children and staff, evaluating data, looking at children’s work and more.  Please do take the time to read our termly newsletters for an update as to what the Governing Board have been doing. 

The Co-chairs of the Governing board are James Coumbe and Ellie Brown. They can be contacted by email at chair@ladyj.kent.sch.uk.

Governors 2023-4

Co-Chair of Governors, Finance Monitoring Pair: Eloise Brown (Foundation Governor) 

Co-Chair of Governors, Pupil Premium, Covid Premium, Sports Premium Governor: James Coumbe (Co-opted Governor)

Vice Chair and Finance Monitoring Pair: Steve Lloyd (Local Authority Governor) 

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Curriculum: Stephen Cartwright (Co-opted Governor)

Whole school wellbeing, Equality and inclusion: Maria Olukoya (Co-opted Governor)

Safeguarding Governor, behaviour and attendance : Caroline Hart-Johnson (Parent Governor)

Health and Safety Governor : Leonard Jeffries (Foundation Governor)

Early Years and Phonics, Leadership Governor: Rob Muskett (Parent Governor) 

Staff Governor: Emily Burrell

Headteacher: Rachael Foster 

Governor equality and diversity

The Governing Board is absolutely committed to supporting equality and diversity in our school, including that of the Governing Board itself. Diverse boards promote inclusive school environments and provide diverse role models for the whole school community.

We collect data on the diversity of our Board, including data on age, sex, ethnicity. disability and other characteristics. We use the data to ensure there is always a diverse range of perspectives to support robust decision making and to make sure our governance activities are accessible to all.

Due to our relatively small Governing board we do not publish this diversity data online as individual governors could be identified and we have a legal obligation to protect their personal data.

Our commitment to equality and diversity is embedded throughout the school’s development plan, policies and in the school’s everyday life. For more information please see the school’s Equality objectives and the Equality and diversity policy.