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 Cathi Hughes (Catherine.Hughes@arkonline.org). Please contact them if you have any governance-related queries, or would like to contact one of the governors.
Our Governors
Elizabeth Dawson
Liz is the Director of Governance for Ark and Ark Schools and leads on governance, legal and compliance activities. She has worked in governance in education, charities and professional bodies and as well as being a company secretary has a law degree which she studied for part-time as a mature student. Liz has also trained in arbitration, as an adviser for Citizen's Advice Bureau and is a mentor with The Girls Network.
Siobhan Ali
Siobhan Ali has been a parent at Ark Brunel for 7 years and has two children who attend the school. Siobhan has worked in Education for over 16 years and held a number of positions within both primary and secondary schools. Siobhan is currently a Deputy Headteacher at a school in Brent.
Siobhan holds a BA (Hons) in English, Education and Employment from the University of Surrey and a PGCE in Secondary English from King’s College London. As well as two senior leadership qualifications, National Professional Qualification for Headship and National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders.
George Alvares-Correa
George works at Apple, where he manages commercial relationships with music publishers outside of the United States. He joined Apple from BMG, where he worked on strategy and investments. Before his career in entertainment, George worked in finance. He holds a BA in Philosophy, Economics and Slavic Literature from Northwestern University and an MSc Finance from the London School of Economics. George is from New York.
Farzana Bari
Farzana is a mother of two children, a 6 year and 3 year old. Farzana is currently working as a Civil Servant as a Higher Statistical Officer. Farzana is a Statistician by profession and has worked in this field for over 15 years. She has in the past also worked on outreach work involving Sure Start, worked in providing homework help and youth work in voluntary organizations in her local area.
Farzana believes her profession and her work in the local community gives her a great range of skills to make a contribution to pupils at the school, teachers and the community.
Stephen Hermer
Stephen has been a solicitor in private practice for many years, and is currently general counsel at a leading international law firm with a focus on the technology, media and telecoms sector. Stephen has also sat on the board of a large global listed corporation, as well as being an elected (non-executive) member of the board of two law firms. He believes passionately in the importance of education and in helping young people to achieve their full potential, and has for many years been involved in the "Lawyers in Schools" initiative, a programme run by the Citizenship Foundation that is designed to give school-children the opportunity to engage in interactive discussions about their rights and responsibilities.
Guy Holloway
Guy comes from an international development background and specialises in programme delivery, policy analysis and development, and strategy and has worked for intergovernmental agencies and NGOs across the globe. Guy is currently Deputy CEO of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Formerly, he managed Arks international Health and Child Protection Programmes globally with a main focus on supporting Arks Zimbabwe office to spin off into an independent entity. Prior to this Guy worked for the Commonwealth Foundation as part of the capacity development and governance teams where he delivered the pan-Commonwealth civil society Post-2015 Development Agenda involving over 350 national CSOs across 14 southern countries. Guy has also worked with BRAC and CIVICUS, two leading international development organisations working on governance, health, education, livelihoods and human rights.
Kavneet Jolly
Kavneet joined the Civil Service following graduation from Durham University with a degree in Economics. Her career has largely been focussed on policy work but also includes operational delivery, procurement, financial strategy and project management. She is also a volunteer counsellor with Childline and loves working with young people to see them develop and thrive through a range of different projects and programmes.
Edward Stratton
Edward is a driven and committed individual with a background in finance, investing and real estate. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Modern Languages and subsequently spent time working in London and New York. He has a family of 3 kids and lives between London & Portugal. Outside of work and family he enjoys all aspects of sport.
Sean Scott
Charlotte Stephenson
Charlotte has had a wide and varied teaching career, including spending 12 years as a Costume Designer in the Film Industry and a Supply Teacher in a variety of Primary Schools in Westminster. After she departed from Costume Designing, she spent six years teaching in a Primary PRU in Islington. Her role included being a class teacher, Deputy Head, part of the Behaviour Outreach Team, and Team Teach Trainer. From July 2003 to the present day, she has been a teacher and Year Group leader in mainstream Infant Schools in London and Hampshire. Charlotte led Petersfield Infant School to win the Gold Award for EAL, the first Infant School in Hampshire to win the award. She has also led whole school choirs and performance clubs, watching children perform with confidence is one of her passions. Since Charlotte has been at Brunel, she has led the Playground Improvement as part of the school's improvement plan and is part of the Behaviour Party working closely with staff members to update the Behaviour Policy. She was appointed SENDco at Ark Brunel in September 2021 and has worked closely with the Inclusion Lead in supporting children with SEN. She has built relationships with all staff ensuring they have the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to provide high quality teaching and learning opportunities for all pupils.