Hoe Valley School is a Single Academy Trust. Academy trusts have different governance arrangements to local authority maintained schools and as a Single Academy Trust, our governors have a wider range of duties than governors of maintained schools. Academy trusts have an additional layer of governance compared to maintained schools, known as the members. The governing body is responsible for making strategic decisions about the day to day running of the academy. As an academy is also a charitable company limited by guarantee, the governors have duties as directors under company law and trustees under charity law. These duties are similar to those they have as governors of the school.
The Board of Governors meets formally three times each term. Once each term is a Full Governing Body (FGB) meeting at which the Board focuses on strategic matters and those matters requiring the formal consideration / approval of the FGB. Once each half term there is a committee meeting to which all governors are invited. Committee meetings are where the Board discharges its duties to hold the Head Teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its students (The Education Committee), and to oversee the financial performance of the school (The Resources Committee). Each of the committee meetings considers all aspects, allowing issues to be dealt with holistically.
In addition, the Board of Governors operates a Pay Review Committee to consider changes to pay policy, to review and approve changes in staffing structure and recruitment plans, and to conduct the annual pay review.
Education Committee Responsibilities
The Education Committee is responsible for reviewing the curriculum at the school to ensure that it provides the best opportunity for learning for the children and supports the school’s vision, values and ethos, as well as holding the Head Teacher to account for delivering the curriculum with the focus on student development, achievement and success. The Education Committee is accountable for:
⮚ Strategic oversight of the school curriculum, ensuring fitness for purpose.
⮚ Strategic oversight of the governor visits/monitoring programme; strategic oversight of student achievement and teacher performance.
⮚ Strategic oversight of the provision of SEN in the school.
⮚ Strategic oversight of safeguarding in the school.
The Education Committee has full authority to undertake the above on behalf of the FGB. Notwithstanding this, the Committee may, if it feels it appropriate, refer items to the FGB for ratification.
Resources Committee Responsibilities
The Resources Committee is responsible for the strategic management of the financial and physical resources at the school, ensuring they are being used to best effect, monitoring efficiency and usage, and challenging and supporting the school in ensuring value for money. They report any issues of concern to the Full Governing Board (FGB). The Resources Committee is accountable for:
⮚ Strategic oversight of the school’s finances, including financial management, cost effectiveness and value for money.
⮚ Strategic oversight of the school’s premises.
⮚ Strategic oversight of the staffing structure of the school, ensuring it is maintained in line with the requirements of the School Development Plan and within the available budget.
⮚ Strategic oversight of Safeguarding in the school
⮚ Undertake the role of audit committee
The Resources Committee has full authority to undertake the above on behalf of the FGB, with the exception of the approval of the final budget and sign off of the annual accounts, authority for both of which rests with the FGB
The Governing Body of Hoe Valley School
Liz Perkins
Chair of Governors
Date of Appointment: 12th October 2023
Liz has spent the majority of her working life in Education although she has been involved in retail and charity work as well. She trained as a Primary school teacher and worked in Primary Education in Inner city Birmingham and in several Surrey schools before becoming an Advisory Teacher for Science for the County, supporting both primary and secondary schools. She has worked for both Kingston and Roehampton Universities, becoming Head of Science Education at the later whilst obtaining an MA in Early Years Education. She then became Programme Convenor for CPD and moved into Quality Assurance and CPD provision on a local, national and international stage and presented research papers at national and international conferences. Retiring early, Liz became a home visiting volunteer for a local Family Support Charity in Woking and Runnymede, becoming a trustee and then Joint Chair of Trustees for several years. She has lived in Woking for over 30 years, with her husband who also works locally, and has brought up two children who are now adults working in the area. She brings extensive knowledge and understanding of Education, Quality Assurance and Chairing experience to the role of Chair of Governors. Liz is passionate about supporting families and helping to support children and youngsters to achieve their potential and to become the best people that they can be.
Alexandra Arnold
Co-opted Governor
Date of Appointment: 16th March 2023
Alexandra is a secondary-trained English teacher and an Assistant Headteacher at Hoe Bridge School. She has worked in education for over a decade and has an in-depth knowledge of the independent sector. She has an MEd in Senior Leadership, is a member of Women’s Ed and is a Chartered Member of CMI. Alexandra lives in Guildford with her husband and daughter and is keen to bring her knowledge of the classroom and schools-based leadership to the Hoe Valley team.
Zane Carrazedo
Co-opted Governor
Date of Appointment: 24th November 2022
Zane is an MBA-qualified Chartered Accountant who is comfortable operating strategically to drive a consistent vision but also adept at providing functional direction to meet day-to-day tactical needs. Wide-ranging experience across financial disciplines and strong experience of private equity-owned businesses who undergo constant change and operate at pace to deliver value over an investment cycle. Married with two young children entering education, Zane has a keen interest in learning, growing and providing value back to the community through this governorship role.
Claerwyn Hamilton-Wilkes
Member-Appointed Governor
Date of Appointment: 6th January 2014
Claerwyn is a senior policy advisor in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities working on electoral legislation. She is one of the founding governors of the school and has over 10 years of school governance experience in primary and secondary schools.
Ken Henderson
Vice-Chair (Resources), Member-Appointed Governor
Date of Appointment: 6th January 2014
Ken has been a management consultant for over 20 years and is currently a Director at AlixPartners, a global turnaround and restructuring advisory firm. The expertise he brings to the school includes strategy, financial management and HR. He is one of the founding governors of Hoe Valley School, having helped to establish the school in 2015. Prior to being a governor, he supported local schools with business education programmes and was Chairman of Surrey Young Enterprise until 2013. Ken is married with two children and lives in Woking.
Adrian Kingsford
Parent Governor
Date of Appointment: 15th March 2022
Adrian is a father, husband, business owner, executive/leadership coach, board advisor, business mentor and c-level technologist (including experience with information security governance). Having lived in Mayford since 2008, he’s seen the school be built and thrive, and with a child attending the school, he has a vested interest in its’ continued success. Adrian feels a responsibility to give back, to give guidance, to ask the difficult questions, to provoke thoughts, to respectfully challenge the leadership and hold them to account, and ultimately to enable the best outcomes for each and every child.
Claire McDonnell
Member-Appointed Governor
Date of Appointment: 16th September 2016
Claire, a mother of 3, is one of the original founders of Hoe Valley School and has served as Chair of the Education Committee and Safeguarding Governor. She currently works as link governor to PE and has a particular interest in how the school partners with the local community.
Claire has a finance background, and has worked as a Paraplanner in the City, specialising in pensions, protection and investments. She currently works as Home School Link Worker at Kings College in Guildford, supporting children and their families with mental health and wellbeing, attendance issues and financial / social issues. Previously, Claire worked in an alternative provision secondary school specialising in Social, Emotional and Mental Health.
Rob Money
Co-opted Governor
Date of Appointment: 16 March 2023
Rob is a serving Army officer, currently working in the Ministry of Defence. Having graduated from RMA Sandhurst, Rob spent the last twenty years planning and leading operations all around the world. He holds a BA (African Studies) from SOAS and PG Diplomas in International Relations and Strategic Leadership from KCL and the Chartered Management Institute respectively. Rob is passionate about the transformative power of education, specifically in helping institutions and individuals fulfil their potential.
Ian Stone
Parent Governor
Date of Appointment: 16 February 2024
Ian lives locally in Woking and is a father of two- one at Hoe Valley and the other currently at Barnsbury Primary. The school will therefore be an important part of his family’s life for the next decade and he is keen to use the opportunity as a parent governor to play a part in helping the school to be the best it can be for students, parents, staff and the wider community. Ian is a senior civil servant working at the Department of Health and Social Care with a long career in national Government.
Kerry Symeonidis
Co-opted Governor
Date of Appointment: 14 September 2023
Kerry has an MA in Education & Social Justice and an interest in reducing the disparity in pupil outcomes that result from differences in school and family resources. She works at an independent school in Berkshire as Head of Social Impact, promoting efforts by the school to reduce its environmental impact and to help tackle some of the challenges facing the local community. For example, Kerry has established a fund with a local education authority to better enable refugee pupils to attend their schools; initiated a pilot project to improve the educational outcomes of the children of armed forces personnel; and runs a grant scheme for local state schools to upgrade their teaching equipment and facilities according to their own priorities. Prior to this, Kerry managed UK government-funded projects to improve socio-economic conditions in low-income countries. Kerry is also a mentor with the Social Mobility Foundation; and a Beaver leader for 6-8 year olds in Old Woking.
Lynette Van der Merwe
Co-Opted Governor
Date of Appointment: 24th November 2022
Lynette is a Managing Director at Accenture, a global professional services company. Her career has been focused on helping organisations, particularly in the financial services industry, transform by focusing on people change management, enterprise agility, human capital management, organisational development, learning and leadership development. Passionate about learning and people development, she has taught psychology at under- and postgraduate level and often contributes as faculty in her corporate setting. She holds a Ph.D in Psychology, lives in Woking and is married with two daughters.
Eti Vyas
Member-Appointed Governor
Date of Appointment: 13th July 2021
Eti lives in Woking and is married with a young daughter. She is the Vice President at Morgan Stanley Bank in the Risk department and has vast experience in working with Banks and Consulting firms in the Financial Risk domain.
All governors have a Term of Office of 4 years from appointment unless otherwise stated.
Contacting the Governing Body
You can contact the Chair of Governors by email at chair@hoevalleyschool.org.
Paper correspondence can sent to The Chair of Governors, c/o Hoe Valley School, Egley Road, Woking. GU22 0NH. Additionally, you can contact the Clerk to Governors by email at clerk@hoevalleyschool.org.
Records of Attendance
Governor Attendance Record 2022-23
Declaration of Business Interests
Declarations of Interest 2023-24
Alex Holmes
Claire McDonnell
Lynne O’Reilly