Lavant Governing Board

  • Mrs Ann Smith

    Parent Governor

    Ann has been involved in school life at Lavant for many years, as a parent, grandparent, pianist and more recently a Governor for 5 years. She is a qualified teacher with experience in both primary and secondary education, specialising in music. Ann is particularly interested in championing SEND and disadvantaged children. More recently she has become a Trustee of Bishop Luffa Learning Partnership and aims to ensure that pupils attending schools within the partnership have the best education possible to enable them all to have a positive outlook for the future.

    Roles: Chair of Governors, Policy Reviews, Trustee BLLP

    Committee Membership: Teaching and Learning, Staff and Finance, Premises, Health & Safety

  • Ms Sally Steel

    Parent Governor

    Sally is certainly passionate about improving the outcomes of children at Lavant CE Primary. Her background is in Business Analytics, so she has a critical eye for the data and is always asking plenty of challenging questions to the leadership team. She’s keen to listen to what children have to have a better understand challenges they face. Sally is also lead governor for Fire Safety so is regularly surprising staff & pupils with fire drills.

    Roles: Vice Chair of Governors, Lead Governor for Training, Fire Safety Drills

    Committee Membership: Staff and Finance, Premises, Health and Safety

  • Mr Chris Hawker

    Local Governor

    Chris has over 20 years of governor experience as well as an established career in IT. He sits on the governing body of a few other local schools including those in academies, which gives us a good insight into what others do. He is also co-chair of West Sussex Governor Association, which looks to support and represent Governing Bodies across the county. Chris brings a wealth of knowledge on our statutory and compliance obligations.

    Roles: Safeguarding

    Committee Membership: Staff and Finance, Premises, and Health & Safety

  • Ms Caroline Rickard

    Local Governor

    Caroline is a qualified teacher with a passion for maths. As well as tutoring, Caroline spends lots of her time mentoring and assessing trainee teachers. She brings with her many years of governor experience and has a strong focus on ensuring pupils’ progress and professional development of school staff. Caroline is also our representative Governor on recruitment panels to ensure we find the very best staff!

    Roles: Lead Governor for SEND, Pupil Premium and Disadvantage Children, Recruitment

    Committee Membership: Teaching and Learning

  • Mrs Lorraine Whitaker

    Local Governor

    Lorraine is a retired primary school teacher who started her teaching career in her home county of Cornwall within a mainstream school, before moving to Hampshire and teaching children with Social , Emotional and Behavioral difficulties. She then made the move to West Sussex and became Teacher in Charge of a Primary PRU. She says "I am particularly drawn to supporting children who need a little more guidance".

    Lorraine brings a wealth of knowledge and experience which has been recognised having been awarded BEM in 2020 for Services to education in West Sussex.

    Roles: Lead Governor for EYFS

    Committee Membership: Teaching and Learning

  • Mrs Georgina Blair

    Local Governor

    On Georgina's first visit she knew it was a special place when the first thing she saw was the year two leaving assembly still singing songs. She has spent twenty-five years working in secondary so is looking forward to learning about the primary sector. Throughout this time, she was a teaching mentor, developing and delivering training to spread good practice and improve student outcomes.

    Georgina also trained student teachers and supported those new to the profession. She has learnt a great deal from these experiences, although she says, there was nothing better than being in the classroom teaching history.

    In 2015, Georgina branched out into writing history textbooks for Pearson Edexcel GCSE. IGCSE and A level as well as designing hundreds of learning activities for them and on-line learning platforms such as Seneca. She also worked for Peak publishing writing social studies books for years 4 and 5 and history books for years 6 and 7 and now writes full time.

    Her favourite way of spending her free time is with her great nephews and nieces. Otherwise, she loves drawing and watercolor painting alongside learning to write middle grade fiction with the Golden Egg Academy.

    Role: Chair of Teaching and Learning Committee, Pupil progress, Curriculum

    Committee Membership: Teaching and Learning

  • Mr David Peart

    Parent Governor

    With three children in Lavant, he’s not short on being given plenty of advice on how to improve school! Using this first-hand experience, he’s able to consider the impact of our decisions across the wider school community. David’s corporate business background is a great asset to the governing body as we continue to strengthen our strategic vision. Since joining as a Governor, David has also been analysing our existing contracts and spend, as well as championing safer routes to school.

    Roles: Chair of Premises, Health & Safety Committee, Website Compliance

    Committee Membership: Premises, Health and Safety, Staff & Finance

  • Rev Michael Semple

    Foundation Governor

    Michael, who is a retired minister, will look to ensure that Lavant CE Primary maintains its distinctive Christian ethos. He will also take the lead on ensuring pupils receive a robust religious education and have regular opportunities to participate in collective worship. Michael comes with a formidable background in teaching as well as being a retired Ofsted Inspector.

    Roles: Faith and Worship, RE Curriculum

    Committee Membership: Teaching and Learning

  • Mr Jacob Worne

    Teacher Governor

    Jacob is a dedicated member of our teaching team here at Lavant, with a passion for excellence in all aspects of school life. Chosen to represent the staff team, Jacob will bring the 'teacher' point of view to our discussions with a particular focus on staff wellbeing, and pupil development. Within our discussions as a Governing Body, Jacob will contribute in any way he can to drive school improvement and enhance the lives of Lavant's teaching staff. 

  • Mr Tom Baron

    Parent Governor

    Tom is a new parent to Lavant CE Primary with his son just joining our reception class in September. Tom is a project manager in the civil engineering industry, he hopes to draw on his professional experience managing budgets, schedules, quality and health and safety, to bring positive change at Lavant C of E Primary. Tom is particularly keen to collaborate with the Bishop Luffa Partnership to pool resources, share knowledge, and develop best practice. 

  • Mrs Carol Skeens

    Clerk to the Governing Body

    As well as a valuable Teaching Assistant at Lavant CE Primary, Carol is also Clerk to the Governing Body.

    Carol’s role is to provide the Governing Body with professional advice on governance, constitutional and procedural matters. She is also meticulous at recording everything we say in meetings (and it’s a lot), as well as ensuring all our documentation and correspondence are up to date and distributed. We couldn’t do without her!

  • Mr Dan Taylor

    Observer

    Whilst not a member of the Governing Body, Dan attends our meetings as an observer and provides us with lots of detail on what the senior leadership team are busy improving in school.