Governance
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Each member of our board has a wide range of business and community interest as befits a large student body drawn from across the Middlesbrough area.
The Local Governing Body
Within a Multi-Academy Trust, each school has governors who form the ‘Local Governing Body’, and they play an essential role in the successful running of a school and have three distinct roles in the governance of the school:
- Governors are the academy’s ambassadors in the local community and indeed hold deep knowledge of the school community and its specific needs
- Governors can play a very important role in relation to safeguarding and safety as they know the schools intimately, and in many cases have extensive involvement in the school
- The governors can also play a very important role in the scrutiny of education quality and performance. Their ability to balance challenge and support helps to raise standards.
The Department for Education’s guidance makes clear the significance of the role a school governor can play.
“Governors should be ambitious for all children and young people and infused with passion for education and a commitment to continuous school improvement that enables the best possible outcomes. Governance must be grounded in reality as defined by both high-quality objective data and a full understanding of the views and needs of pupils, staff, parents, carers and local communities.”
The importance of Link Governors
Knowing the school well, its strengths and weaknesses, is a key element of effective governance and informs the quality of the professional challenge and support for school leaders. In order to serve this purpose the local governing bodies at Endeavour Academies have governors who take responsibilities for the following areas:
- Teaching, learning and assessment
- Curriculum
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Safeguarding
- Attendance
- ‘People’ (recruitment and retention, staff development, wellbeing, performance management)
- SEND and LAC
- Post 16.
To improve the quality of governance, the academy has been involved in a collaborative CPD project with other MATs across the Tees Valley. This project has resulted in the production of the Governance Handbook, which the academy governors use to guide their work. This handbook also forms the basis of an induction for new governors.
As well as formal half termly meetings regularly reporting on established practice, governors spend time in the academy engaging with students and staff. The Local Governing Body meetings follow a full agenda which allows us to ensure the above takes place and to focus on specific areas such as progress in teaching, learning and assessment, whole education, safeguarding, finance and staffing matters.
If you are interested in knowing more about the role of an academy governor, please contact:
Mr A Bennett
Chair of Governors
c/o Macmillan Academy
Stockton Road
TS5 4AG
GOVERNOR'S BIOGRAPHIES
Adam is a qualified engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He has worked in a number of local manufacturing companies including as Engineering Director for the Teesside Steelworks.
Adam has supported the governing body with project management as well as Health & Safety experience. He became Chair to the Board in January 2021.
Having joined Macmillan Academy as a Teacher of History in 2002, Rachel became an Advanced Skills Teacher and was Head of Post 16 Education from 2010-2019. Rachel has been Headteacher of the academy since May 2019 and holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).
After leaving university Mark worked for 10 years in the insurance industry before returning to education and completing a PGCE in Geography and PE. His early teaching career was at Macmillan Academy teaching Geography, History, RE and PE. He developed his role into student pastoral care by becoming a Head of Year and with the emergence of computing in schools he took a teaching role within the newly established ICT department. He later specialised in ICT and went on to become the head of the department. For the final 10 years of his teaching career he changed the emphasis of his role within Macmillan Academy to direct the development of the ICT network whilst retaining a reduced teaching role.
After taking early retirement from an extremely rewarding career at Macmillan he was honoured to become a school governor and be given the chance to continue to guide the academy in its development of young people within Middlesbrough.
Martin began his career in Education at Macmillan Academy in 2007 after completing his PGCE from Durham University. After 12 years at the school as a PE teacher he left to take the position of Improvement Officer at Redcar and Cleveland Council. Martin now works as a Secondary School Improvement Leader at BHCAT.
Martin has a strong interest in teaching and learning, and as such works closely with leaders in education, such as the The Sutton Trust, to improve standards of teaching for young people.
After leaving university Sam started her career in the Criminal Justice Sector, supporting people when inside prison and upon their release. Sam later worked within Early Help supporting families that needed additional resources. Through working in both the Criminal Justice and Social Care sectors Sam realised that mental health had a huge impact on people's lives.
For the last 13 years Sam has worked at Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind, as the Manager for the Children and Young People's Team, helping to expand the service from being the sole Practitioner supporting Children and Young People in the organisation to large team of Practitioners with various skills and backgrounds, overseeing a number of different projects. Sam is also now a Service Manager for the South Tees Mental Health Support Team, InsideOut MHST.
Sam has a strong interest in Children and Young People's Mental Health, wanting to ensure that all pupils have access to the right support at the right time and reducing the stigma for mental health.
In attendance:
Phil has worked in education as a teacher for 25 years. He was Principal of Macmillan Academy for 10 years and is currently the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of Endeavour Academies. Phil holds a National Professional Qualification for both headship (NPQH) and executive leadership (NPQEL).
He is a National Leader of Education (NLE) and is currently sits on the Strategic School Improvement Board for Middlesbrough and on the advisory board for Schools North East. Phil is also a governor of a Free School, XP Gateshead.
Having started his career at Consett Technical College lecturing in physical education and a variety of skills for life courses, Ian has continued to work in the field of SEN for the past 40 years.
He has worked in a variety of SEBD schools in Glasgow, Hereford, Newcastle and Sunderland. Ian has had 10 year's experience as a Deputy Headteacher and 19 year's experience as a Headteacher. During this time, he has been seconded to Price Waterhouse and Coopers to support the implementation of the Excellence in Cities Programme and to Durham University to lecture in SEN. He was also associate vice-principal at City of Sunderland College for 14 years.
Ian is passionate about improving the life chances of disadvantaged young people and the psychology of behaviour modification. Ian's other ambition is to land at least a 30lb salmon from the River Tweed!
