How Ark's governance works
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 our Academy's governors are able to concentrate on the things that really matter – educational strategy, school outcomes and aspiration.
The Ark Schools Decision Making Framework outlines where responsibility and accountability sits for the key functional areas within Ark Schools between the ‘tiers’ of governance.
Our Local Governing Body
Our Local Governing Body (LGB) is made up of 6-10 members – usually people with a local connection or interest who are committed to supporting educational opportunity in the area. The board generally includes:
- Academy Principal
- Up to two Parent Governors
- One Teaching Staff Governor
- One Non-teaching Staff Governor
- One Local Authority representative
We aim 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. Attributes we look for include:
- 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 Schools
All appointments are made by the Director of Governance for Ark Schools. The term of a governor is three years, except for the Principal, who remains a governor for the duration of his or her time in post. Governors may be reappointed for further terms.
The LGB meets four times a year.
Becoming a governor
If you have an interest and commitment to improving education, and would like to make a difference within your community, please register your interest in becoming a governor by completing our online Governor Application Form. If you have any questions about a governor’s role or responsibilities please contact us at governance.team@arkonline.org
A full programme of induction, training and support is provided. You can see more information, including role specifications here.
Contacting the governors
The current Clerk to Governors is Titilola Kehinde (titilola.kehinde@arkonline.org). Please contact them if you have any governance-related queries, or would like to contact one of the governors.
Our Governors
Nayeem Syed
Nayeem Syed is a senior lawyer at London Stock Exchange Group, and his work focuses on financial technology, complex outsourcing and global transformation. He is married with two children, 15 and 10, and lives in Wimbledon.
Genevieve Field
Genevieve has been teaching in London secondary schools since 2009. She was the Professional Mentor for trainee teachers (Teach First and Schools Direct) across multiple schools in the Harris Federation and was also responsible for improving the quality of Teaching and Learning in the school. She currently works for Ark Schools in the Ark Teacher Training Team as a Professional Tutor, School Partnership Lead and Subject Lead for Design & Technology. She gained a Masters Degree in 2007, and completed an NPQML (National Professional Qualification for Middle Leaders) in 2014. Genevieve believes that all children deserve a great education – to allow them to achieve their potential and follow their dreams and is excited about helping Putney make that a reality.
Fiona Forbes
Fiona Forbes is a marketing consultant at Off The Fence Marketing. After graduating from Durham University, Fiona spent a decade working at Unilever before setting up Off the Fence Marketing in 2012. She shares Ark’s aim of giving every Ark pupil an outstanding education and the best possible opportunities.
Christopher Forsyth
Chris enjoyed a 30 year professional career as a business lawyer, including as a partner at international firm, Freshfields (2000-2015), where served 4 years as co head of the firm's graduate recruitment function. In 2017, Chris joined the pathfinder cohort of the retraining initiative, NowTeach, successfully completing his QTS and PGCE with Ark/Goldsmiths, working as a trainee history teacher at Ark Putney Academy. As an Ark Putney Academy Governor, he will leverage his legal, coaching and teaching experiences to support the school during its current growth phase.
Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes works for RTI International and has 20 years of experience as a researcher in international education and child development. His work in low- and middle-income countries looks at social and emotional learning in the classroom, adapting pedagogy to cultural context, evidence-based decision-making in education, and the elements of effectiveness in national literacy programmes. Matthew has taught secondary school students in the Gambia and teachers and graduate students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Institute of Education in London. With the focus of Matthew's work so far from home, he is looking to contribute to his own community through an Ark governor role. He has been a fan of Ark's for some time and is looking forward to learning from the work of one of its schools and contributing time and enthusiasm to the mission.
Laura Watts
Laura Watts is Vice Principal at Ark Putney Academy with responsibility for curriculum, teaching and learning. Since training on a Graduate Teaching Programme in the subject of English, she has been committed to a long-standing and meaningful career in education. She has gained a range of experiences, having fulfilled both pastoral and academic middle leadership roles as a Head of Year and Head of English, but found her passion for teaching and learning on a Lead Practitioner course with The Harris Federation. In pursuit of CPD within leadership, Laura has gained an MA in Education as well as the NPQSL certification; it is the CPD offer within the Ark Network that she is most proud of. She is passionate about her work, and the work of her colleagues, and is keen to ensure her role as governor supports the school further on their journey.
Ben Williams
Ben is very proud to be a governor of Ark Academy Putney. He is a former secondary school Maths teacher who believes passionately in giving students access to the best opportunities regardless of background. Ben is a qualified chartered accountant with experience in auditing academies, charities and not for profit entities and currently works in finance. Ben is also a founding trustee of a widening participation in higher education social enterprise and a former governor at an inner city London Further Education college.
