Our School’s Governing Body

 

Introduction 

 

The St Martin’s School governing body sets the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school, working particularly closely with the headteachers and staff, members of our local church community and parents.

 

We follow government guidelines in our work and always strive to achieve best practice. We ensure the financial stability of the school, encourage educational excellence and maintain a distinctive and inclusive Christian ethos to serve the Dorking community.

 

Above all, we endeavour to ensure that St Martin’s provides a safe and enjoyable environment for all our staff and pupils. Their wellbeing is at the heart of all our decisions.

 

This section of the website provides a summary of our structure and introduces you to each of our Governors. 

 

Constitution

St Martin's governing body is constituted in accordance with the school's Instrument of Governance, which requires 15 governors to be appointed in certain specific ways. We also comply with the statutory guidance related to governing bodies in maintained schools (May 2014). 

 

The governing body comprises:

• five elected parent governors, 

• one elected staff governor, 

• one member appointed by Surrey County Council, 

• the Headteacher, 

• three Church of England foundation governors

• four appointed (co-opted) governors. 

 

We endeavour to ensure that we have a diversity of views and balance of skills. We regularly review our composition and recruit and refresh appointments to ensure we achieve this objective.

 

Our three Church of England foundation governors include: the officiating minister of St Martin’s church in Dorking; a governor appointed by the Guildford Diocese Board of Education and a governor appointed by the local St Martin’s Church Council. 

 

The co-opted governors are appointed directly by the governing body and have specific skills that are required to contribute to the effective governance and success of our school.

 

Meetings and monitoring

 

Governors attend full governing body meetings twice a term and are active in all or some of our four sub-committees:

 

• Resources, considering buildings, budgets, staffing, health and safety.

• Teaching and Learning, focuses on children’s progress and attainment, the quality of teaching and the curriculum.

• Wellbeing and Community, considering safeguarding, behaviour and relationships with the Church, the wider community and other schools. 

• Academisation (working group), looking at the way in which we respond to the Government’s White Paper - Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child.

 

Each sub-committee provides regular feed-back to the full governing body meetings. 

 

Governors have a monitoring role, visit our school and talk to members of staff. They visit classrooms, meet children and look at pupil’s work. They also attend assemblies, school events and fund-raisers. Governors play an important part in staff recruitment. 

 

There is a statutory obligation for governors’ attendance at meetings to be recorded and published. This information, together with a short biography of each governor, can be found on the website.

 

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Governors’ biographies 2022/23

 

This section provides a short biography of each of our current governors and lists previous members who held office in the previous academic year. 

 

​​Andrew Nicholas Boagey - Chair of Governors (Co-opted)

Andrew is Chair of the governing body and was previously our Vice Chair. He has been a governor since 2008, initially as a parent governor, then a Local Authority governor and now a co-opted member.  He also leads our working party on Academisation.

 

Andrew has lived in Dorking since 2006 and his three children all attended St Martin’s before moving to the Ashcombe School and tertiary education. Andrew is a chartered civil engineer. He keeps bees and enjoys gardening. He is married to Dr Susan Boagey who was a teacher at St Martin’s.

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Andrew Chairs the Dorking, Ashtead and Leatherhead Joint Governance Collaboration Group. He is also a Director of the Dorking, Ashtead and Leatherhead Schools Company (DALSCo).

 

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​Nicholas Bonomini - Vice-Chair (Co-opted)

​Nick is the Vice-Chair of the governing body and co-opted member. He is a serving officer with the Metropolitan Police and has worked as a detective in both Specialist Crime and Counterterrorism for over 22 years during which he served for several years in north and west Africa. He spent six months as a Fulbright Scholar in the US with the FBI and Chicago Police Department’s Gang Enforcement Unit. Nick has worked in a number of Inner-London boroughs and has a particular interest in safeguarding. He is a student of French and Italian. His gardening is improving.  Nick has been a governor since July 2019.

 

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Headteachers

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Jane Elizabeth Gorecka and Mandy Parsonson

 

Jane Gorecka and Mandy Parsonson are our joint Headteachers and ex-officio members of the governing body. They share the participation in the school governance arrangements. Jane was appointed as Headteacher of St Martin's in September 2006, having previously been a headteacher in a Leatherhead School and a Deputy Headteacher in 3 different schools. Jane has acted as an Executive Headteacher and spent the first 10 years of her career teaching in Inner London. 

 

Jane’s passion is to find success in every child and to utilise the confidence that brings, to motivate them to tackle areas where they may struggle. Jane is married to a teacher and has three children who have gained tremendous benefit from their time at local state schools. 

 

Mandy was appointed as Deputy Headteacher of St Martin's in 2013 and became the joint Headteacher in January 2021, having previously worked as the Deputy Headteacher since 2013. Mandy’s passion is for teaching, and she has developed the St Martin’s curriculum over the past 9 years to ensure that it is broad, balanced, relevant, exciting, engaging and accessible for all children. 

 

Prior to joining St Martin’s, Mandy worked as a Literacy Lead Teacher for Surrey and worked with a range of schools supporting the development of writing. 

 

 

Foundation governors 

 

Our three Church of England Foundation Governors include: 

• the Officiating Minister of St Martin’s church in Dorking; 

• a governor appointed by the Guildford Diocese Board of Education and 

• a governor appointed by the local St Martin’s Church Council. 

 

Reverend David Williams 

 

The Reverend David Williams is a retired priest with Permission to Officiate in the Dioceses of Guildford, Southwark and Oxford. He has held senior management positions in the National Church of England Institutions for 17 years and was latterly Clerk to the General Synod and Head of the Central Secretariat of the Archbishops' Council.  David was for several years a part-time tutor in Anglican and Ecumenical Studies in the Department of External Studies at St. John's College Nottingham.

 

David was ordained in 2009 and became the incumbent of four village churches in Oxfordshire for eight years. He was also Area Dean of the Vale of the White Horse for part of this time. He is a Justice of the Peace, a community mediator with Surrey Mediation, and has a national advisory role in relation to clergy discipline. His interests are art, architectural and garden history, historical bibliography, and numismatics - as well as walking, cycling and horse-riding. He has a degree in history from Exeter University, a postgraduate diploma in library and information studies and a master’s degree in library history from London University. 

 

David leads on preparation for the SIAMS Inspection and hosts termly school services in St. Martin's Church.
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We are currently seeking to make appointments to the two vacant foundation governor posts.  One will be appointed by the Parochial Church Council and the other by the Guildford Diocese Board of Education. 

(The position of Minister (Vicar) of St. Martin's Church is currently in vacancy)

 

Co-opted governor

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Kat Stanger 

And in her own words: I'm Kat Stanger, mum of Cara (Y6) and Euan (Y3). We've loved being part of the St Martin's community and I am keen to give something back as part of the Governing Body. I am an Environmental Consultant and Chartered Geographer, specialising in air quality and climate change. I currently work for Atkins, a large engineering consultancy. My role includes project management, data interpretation, policy and strategy development and communication with a range of stakeholders. Outside of work (when not ferrying children!), I enjoy biking and walking, and generally being outdoors. I am really looking forward to meeting the other members of the governing body and working with you all. Thank you for the opportunity.

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Parent governors

 

Parent Governors, each elected to serve for four years. 

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Elen Shepard

 

​Elen is a senior civil servant with a background in developing and delivering strategies and policies on a range of environmental and agricultural issues.  Her core skills are considering a broad range of evidence and information to inform decisions and act, using programme and project management tools to deliver change, and in providing strong leadership through periods of change and ambiguity. Elen chairs the Teaching and Learning Committee and sits on the Wellbeing and Community Committee.

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Dave Damon

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Dave is a dad of two girls, the eldest having just started (and very much enjoying) her St Martin's journey in Reception. He is a former Secondary maths teacher, now a Child and Educational Psychologist working for Surrey's 'Mindworks' Child mental health alliance. He is particularly interested in child development; social, emotional and mental health; and whole school approaches to emotional wellbeing. On the weekend you'll most likely find him and his family taking a walk around Wisley, Box Hill, Polesden Lacey, or similar.

 

Richard Bailey 

 

Working on public and private sector transformation programmes over the last 25 years has helped Rick develop strong strategic planning, project management and problem-solving skills as well as a good understanding of finance and staffing. He is passionate about the use of technology in education and enjoys supporting the school's digital learning and online safety initiatives. Rick has been a governor since 2012. He sits on the Resources and the Wellbeing and Community Committees. He is the link governor for ICT/Computing and Maths.

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Katie Potter-Smith - details to follow

 

Jonny Lloyd - details to follow

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​​Staff governor

 

We have one staff governor, elected by the teaching and support staff.

 

Kerry Peregrine is a Higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) at St Martin's school. 

 

Local Authority governor 

 

We have one Local Authority governor, nominated by Surrey County Council and appointed by the governing body.

 

Clare Mary Mansfield

Clare has been a governor since 2004, originally as a parent governor with 3 children at St Martin’s school. She is a passionate supporter of high-quality state education and has previously chaired both the Curriculum and Finance Committees for substantial periods of time, led many working parties and been a member of the governing body of St. John’s Community School. As a Chartered Accountant, Clare has a strong background in finance, enjoys strategic problem-solving and analytics. She has a degree in Geography from Cambridge University and a master’s degree in psychology. 

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Clerk to the governors

 

Vacant

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Becoming a governor

 

There are opportunities for parents and carers to become parent governors through the regular election process and for members of the community to be appointed to co-opted or Church of England appointments. If you are interested in becoming a member of the governing body, please contact the Headteachers or the Chair of Governors. Terms of office for governors vary, but are normally four years.

 

​Contact details

 

If you wish to contact a member of the governing body about a matter of governance, please call the school office.

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Past members of the Governing Body (2022/23)

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Sarah Billard

Ellen Randle-Milne

Peter Field

Sinead Tobin (Clerk)