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 Titilola Kehinde (titilola.kehinde@arkonline.org). Please contact her if you have any governance-related queries, or would like to contact one of the governors.
Our Governors
Lizzie Gaisman
Lizzie works for JPMorgan Chase & Company, and her career to date spans the private, public and social sectors. She has been passionate about education ever since she was the youngest member of her senior school council at the age of 11. She is a lifelong south-west Londoner, having grown up in Richmond and lived in SW12 for nearly a decade. She and her husband and young children rotate around the area's excellent playgrounds on repeat. Lizzie holds an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor's Degree in History from Oxford.
Katharine Jackson
A commercial executive with a professional financial background who has worked for over 20 years in digital publishing for both secondary and higher education sectors. A track record of executive and non-executive experience providing strong oversight and governance with a deep commitment to inclusion and equality of access to education as the foundation for a healthy, flourishing society. A mother of five children who have attended different state secondary schools in the South London area, (two at Bolingbroke Academy) using my knowledge of a variety of educational settings and my collaborative and mentoring skills for positive impact.
Sameer Mahomed
Sameer is a qualified chartered accountant and entrepreneur with over 20 years of commercial, financial and business experience. Sameer has served on the boards of a number of SME companies, advised blue chip organisations , and local governments on finance, strategy and innovation. In the last decade, Sameer has worked with NGO’s, start-ups & community forums shaping and influencing their strategy and growth. Sameer has two children at Ark Bolingbroke Academy.
Aled Richards-Jones
Aled is a councillor on Wandsworth Borough Council, representing Northcote ward which takes in Ark Bolingbroke Academy. As a local councillor, he has seen Ark Bolingbroke Academy grow into an outstanding local state school and, having been educated in state primary and secondary schools himself, joined the Governing Board to support the school's continued growth and success. Prior to becoming a governor, Aled lead Oxbridge mock interviews for the school. He has previous experience as a governor of a local Wandsworth primary school for 7 years.
Aled studied Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and postgraduate law at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford. He qualified as a barrister in 2016 and has since practised in intellectual property and commercial law.
Emel Rizwani
Emel Rizwani is a self-employed marketing consultant, working with growing businesses in the tech space. She is particularly interested in the changing demands of education to better reflect the future world of work. Emel is also personally invested in the support and understanding of, and provision for neurodiverse students, especially in empowering them to advocate for themselves in the workplace of the future.
Karen Robinson
Karen Robinson is the Career and Development Leader at Bolingbroke Academy, responsible for the careers provision and library . She started her career in public libraries and has worked in a number of schools supporting literacy development with parents and toddlers to sixth formers. She is a founding member of the staff team at Bolingbroke and has been a staff governor since the academy opened.
Ms Robinson can be contacted via email: k.robinson@arkbolingbrokeacademy.org
Madeleine Withinshaw
Madeleine has nearly a decade of teaching experience in state, private, mainstream, and special needs schools. She is committed to setting an excellent example of professional standards and encourages others to share their practices to create an engaging and infectious learning environment. She is currently the head of Mathematics at Queen’s College Preparatory School where she prepares her pupils to sit the 11+ examinations, and achieve places within the top academic schools in London. Madeleine was diagnosed with learning difficulties as a child and therefore has first hand experience with the struggles that it can cause at school. She is passionate about supporting both teachers, parents and pupils to embrace these qualities to overcome the challenges that they face on a daily basis.
