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Governors
Rillington are proud to be part of the educational vision of Elevate Multi Academy Trust whilst retaining our own strong identity. The Trustees have allowed its Academies to retain the same composition for their local governing bodies, which is set out below.
The three core functions of the local governing board are:
- To ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
- To hold the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the Academy and its children.
- To oversee the financial performance of the Academy and make sure its money is well spent.
Chair of Governors:
Contact: Rillington Primary School, High Street, Rillington, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 8LA
Further information about Governance is available on Elevate MAT website: Elevate Multi Academy Trust - Home (elevatemat.org)
Responsibilities
Together, the Governors are responsible for:
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Setting aims and targets for the Academy and checking the Academy’s progress towards attaining these.
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Monitoring how well the Academy’s policies and plans are working.
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Accounting for the performance of the Academy and the Governing Body.
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Working with the Head teacher to make sure that teaching at the Academy is effective and good quality and the children are making the best possible progress
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Challenging and supporting the senior management team and taking opportunities to show interest in and appreciation of staff and children.
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Promoting the interests of the Academy and its children in the wider community.
Types of Governors
There are several different types of Governor:
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Parent Governor - Elected from parents at the school by parents at the Academy.
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Staff Governor - Elected from staff at the school by staff at the Academy
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Co-opted Governors - Appointed by members of the Local Governing Body. They are intended to be representative of the local community and may add particular kinds of expertise.
- Associate member - Associate members may be appointed by the governing body as members, they are people who the governing body feel could contribute to its work.
Elevate Governance:
As a multi-academy trust, Elevate is a charitable company limited by guarantee. This means that Elevate is a single legal entity, but it has several Academies within its family. Currently, Elevate has 14 Primary Academies. These are mainly situated across North Yorkshire with 1 Academy in West Yorkshire.
Elevate and their Academies work in collaboration with a single shared vision. The governance structure is designed to reflect the overall responsibility of the Board of Trustees, the (operational) leadership of the CEO supported by the School Improvement Team for education and the Operational Team; for the day to day running of the Academies by the Executive Head Teachers (EHT) and Head teachers coupled with the value of local experience and understanding of the LGBs in assessing the performance of our Academy and their interaction with the local community.
Elevate has established 3 key layers of governance:
- Members
- Trustees
- Local Governors
Although Elevate’s Trustees are accountable for all of the Academies within the Trust, it highly values the work undertaken by local governors in supporting, and challenging, our Academies and senior leadership teams to deliver high quality and inclusive education.
Elevate LGBs have a pivotal role in the overall framework of the Trust by having:
- An in-depth knowledge and understanding of their Academies;
- Sustaining uniqueness of their Academy whilst aligning with Elevate’s educational vision;
- Forging and maintaining links with their community;
- Providing the vital governance link between themselves and Trustees to enable the Trustees to carry out their responsibilities as leaders of the Trust.
The different responsibilities overseen by Trustees and Local Governors are set out in the Scheme of Delegation, which is reviewed on an annual basis.
Link to Articles of Association
Rillington's Local Governing Body:
- 1 Headteacher
- 1 member of staff – elected
- 2 parent governors – elected
- 4 co-opted governors – these may be people who live or work in the community served by our Academy, who are committed to the good governance and success of the Academy, but do not work or live close to it or, who in the opinion of the governors have the necessary skills set.
- 1 associate governor
Meet the Governors:
Vanessa has been employed as an Access and Outreach Manager at the University of York since May 2015, supporting people from under-represented backgrounds and promoting progression to higher education. She manages a range of programmes, focusing primarily on the University’s work to support young people in care, care leavers and young carers. She has built strong partnerships with local authorities, community organizations, and schools across the country. As part of this role, she has also run the University’s flagship schools project for 10-16 year olds, working with over 2,000 children each year in 22 schools. Vanessa is one of the University of York’s Designated Safeguarding Officers, so is one of the first points of contact for staff and volunteers to go to for advice if they are concerned about a child or young person.
Vanessa previously worked at York St John University in a similar role in the Widening Participation team, and prior to that ran the Young Adult Carers Project in York for 4 years. She has also managed an after-school club at a York primary school, run various youth clubs, and volunteered with the Youth Offending Team in York.
Vanessa grew up between York and Leeds and went to the University of Exeter to study Drama in 2005. She moved to Wintringham in 2018 and lives there with her husband and her children, who started at Rillington Primary School in 2022. She enjoys open water swimming, playing netball and going to see live music.
Sarah is a qualified Actuary and is currently employed as a Senior Deal Manager in Bulk Purchase Annuities for Aviva. Her role is to bid on tenders to take on the liabilities of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, which involves actuarial calculations, negotiating contracts and pitching to trustee boards. She has been responsible for deals of all sizes, from a few million pounds up to £1.5bn.
Prior to working at Aviva, Sarah worked for a global actuarial consultancy firm, advising trustee boards on their DB pension schemes and also advising corporates on the DB pension elements of mergers and acquisitions.
Sarah has a degree in Mathematics and Music, which are her two main passions. In her spare time, she loves playing the violin and is a member of Scarborough Symphony Orchestra, as well as several other local ensembles.
Michelle Carter: Parent Governor - wellbeing and learning (to include behaviour and attitudes) Governor
As a busy mum of 5, Michelle is an experienced Primary School Teacher of 14 years. Her passions lie with the arts, and she holds an Honours degree in performing arts with a dance specialism. She has experience in many dance styles, choreography and taking dance performances on tour, as well as playing many lead roles in theatrical productions and pantomime!
Prior to primary teaching, Michelle enjoyed taking dance into the community through workshops which involved working with many schools and youth groups. She continues to be passionate about opportunities for creativity within the curriculum and takes great pride in her creative approach when delivering it herself; the arts can truly help to bring the curriculum to life.
Michelle believes it is incredibly important to open up the wider world to children and, being forest school trained, she believes that providing outdoor learning opportunities is an essential part of education for children.
Michelle also has a keen interest in sports and fitness, is a keen rock climber, a trained fitness instructor and loves the more extreme sporting events such as ‘Tough Mudder’ and ‘Go Below Extreme’ in Wales, and is always searching for the next challenge! She enjoys amateur dramatics/performing for local theatres, watching musicals at the theatre as well as experiencing other cultures through travel.
Rob Dempsey: Co-opted Governor - health and safety Governor
Term of Office:
|
Name |
Term of Office |
Link Role |
Name of Business |
Nature of Business |
Nature of Interest |
|
Carrie Stabler Head teacher |
N/A |
N/A |
Rillington Primary School |
Education |
Head teacher |
|
Rosie Dale Staff |
01.09.2023 - 01.09.2027 |
SEND/inclusion |
Rillington Primary School |
Education |
Teacher |
|
Co opted |
|
Quality of education and leadership |
|
|
|
|
Rob Dempsey Co opted |
02.12.2024 - 02.12.2028 |
Health and safety |
Dempsey tree works |
Tree surgeon |
|
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Vanessa Conman Co opted |
01.09.2023 - 01.09.2027 |
Safeguarding including attendance |
York University |
Education |
|
|
Vacancy Co opted |
|
|
|
||
|
Michelle Carter Parent |
02.03.2023 to 02.03.2027 |
Wellbeing and learning (to include behaviour and attitudes) |
|
Parent |
|
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Sarah Craggs Parent |
01.09.2025 - 01.09.2029 |
Finance |
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Parent |
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|
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Clerk to the Local Governing Body: Dianne Mousley
Resignations:
June Goodson-Moore resigned 19.03.2024 as co opted governor
Diana Weatherell-Terry resigned 10.07.2024 as Chair of Governors
Elliott Heward resigned 27.03.2025 as parent governor
Elevate's policies are circulated to all Head teachers and Academy staff.
Copies of the minutes from local Governing body meetings are available upon request.
Should you need a copy, please do not hesitate to contact the office 01944 758402 or admin@rillingtonprimaryschool.org
Governor Attendance:
