Our Governing Body

What is a Governing Body?

The members of the governing body are the strategic leaders of the school and have a vital role to play in making sure every child gets the best possible education. The purpose of the governing body is to 'conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement'.

The governing body has a strong focus on three core functions:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos, and strategic direction for the school
2. Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils.
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

The governing body members have the experience through their professional capacity to support and monitor the above core functions. Governors are selected and appointed on their skills and experience and training is available to gain new skills as well as to enhance existing ones.  On a regular basis we conduct a skills audit to identify any gaps which are addressed.

For more information on the role of a governor please click HERE.

Meetings generally take place on a Wednesday at 6.30pm and are agreed at the beginning of an academic year for the whole year.

For the latest Governors Newsletter giving a flavour of their recent activities please click below:

Governors Newsletter July 2022

Governors Newsletter July 2020

For more updates and news about our Governing Body please take a look at our regular Fourfields Informer Newsletters. These can be found in our Latest News section on our website.

Members of Fourfields Governing Body

Clerk to Governing Body: Mrs Clare Watchorn.

Governing Body Information 2022-23:

Governing Body Attendance Register 2021-22:

To find out more about each of our governors, please click on the names below. 

• Lou Evans
  Chair of Governors
  Lou Evans

  I am a Co-opted Governor and have been part of the Governing Body since September 2010. I have been voted in for the fifth year as Chair of Governors and am proud to be part of the school in this role. I have swapped roles from SEN Governor to Safeguarding and will be monitoring the school in this area. Since becoming a Governor I have become involved in Education further afield and now sit on the Board of Appeals for School Admissions and School Exclusions. This will help me as a Governor making sure all procedures we adopt are adhered to. I still voluntary run a Parent and Baby group in Yaxley, Mummas & Bubbas Meetup and there are four years of children within Fourfields who I have seen grow from little Bubbas. I love volunteering my time for Fourfields and the school community, this is a great school with such a happy buzz and positive place to be part of. I look forward to working with Mrs Blyth and her staff.

• Leah Wiles
  Vice Chair of Governors & Chair of Resources Committee
  Leah Wiles

  I have been a parent governor here at Fourfields since summer 2014, supporting Louise Evans as the Vice Chair of the governing body and also act as Chair of the Resources Committee. The Resources Committee is responsible for overseeing financial planning within the school to ensure that money being spent is on improving the quality of learning and teaching in line with the school improvement plan. I have over 20 years of experience in finance across different industries after qualifying as an accountant in 2000. I currently work at Silver Spoon within their finance department supporting the commercial decision. I also have experience of financial reporting, controls and processes, GDPR, and supporting procurement decisions and I feel that the skills I have obtained through my finance career and business world allow me to actively participate within the governing body. I have three children, two who are currently at Fourfields who keep me busy outside of work. I enjoy spending my spare time with my family and trying to fit in time to keep myself fit and healthy. I also used to attend Fourfields myself many moons ago and it is great to be able to be involved in shaping it's future.

• Helen Card
  Parent Governor, Chair of Standards Committee & Link Governor for Safeguarding
  Helen Card

  I was elected as Parent Governor in December 2020. I chose to join the Governing Body as I am keen to promote the best interest of children and want to support them to achieve their full potential.
  
  I am looking forward to contributing to the governing body with a parent's perspective and will help to ensure that strategic decisions continue to be based on the best interests of all the children at Fourfields.
  
  I have over 10 years professional experience working within children's safeguarding, promoting positive outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children in society. I am looking forward to sharing my skills and expertise with the Governing Body as we work together.
  

  Outside of work, I love spending time with my son, attending live music events, running and Yoga.

• Jo Woods
  LA Governor, Link Governor for Wellbeing
  Jo Woods

  I joined the Governing Body in January 2020 and form part of the Standards committee. Fourfields was my primary school when it first opened so I'm grateful to be able to give something back. The ethics and culture are also very aligned to what's important to me: happiness, support, empowerment. I have over 25 years commercial experience, including Managing Director and Board member of a Peterborough based publishing company. Having sat on a Board for four years, I believe this experience will serve me well as a school Governor. As MD my responsibilities included budgeting, cash flow, vision and direction, staff development, project management - all skills that I am able to bring to the Governing Body and continue to drive the school forward. I enjoy different types of exercise (Zumba, running, Poundfit, pilates), cooking and trying new foods, reading and learning - particularly around areas of health and wellbeing.

• Luke James
  Co-opted Governor & Link Governor for SEN
  Luke James

  I was elected as a co-opted governor in Autumn of 2021 taking on the role of SEN Governor. It is my core responsibility to ensure that our Fourfields Children are represented no matter their educational needs. My core experience is in transformation and IT; having spent my career working with insurers around the world, assisting them in adopting faster, greener, more ethical practises within their analytics and algorithm platforms. My core competencies are around data; developing strategy, privacy, and gaining meaningful insight. The other governors will regularly hear me chiming in when I want to know how we got to a number or figure and what it is telling us in the bigger picture. I'm a scientist at heart and love to take things apart to understand how to make them work better. I spend my weekends doing this and taking photos.

• Jason Barnes
  Parent Governor, Link Governor for Pupil Premium
  Jason Barnes

• Mark Bowler
  Co-opted Governor, Link Governor for Sports Premium
  Mark Bowler

• Sue Blyth - Headteacher
  Ex-officio Governor
  Sue Blyth - Headteacher

  ,

• Clare Watchorn
  Clerk to Governors
  Clare Watchorn

• Neil Coaten
  Staff Governor
  Neil Coaten

Thinking about becoming a Governor?

Any parent or carer of a child on roll at Fourfields can serve as a governor, and there are no particular qualifications required for the role however, to promote greater diversity and equality on the governing body we welcome nominations from all minority groups to help our governing body to better reflect the needs of our wonderfully diverse school community.

If you would be interested in joining the governing body or wish to contact the governing body for any other matter, please contact the clerk Mrs Clare Watchorn at clerk@fourfields.cambs.sch.uk

Governor Leaflet

Governor Election Guidance

Declaration of Eligibility