Governors

Our Governors:

Mrs Nellie Crouch (Headteacher)
I have thirty years of teaching experience having taught in London and Kent before moving to the Cotswolds. I have taught across all three key stages of the primary phase: Foundation Stage and Key Stages One and Two. I am Headteacher at Hook Norton, and know the  school well having been Deputy Headteacher for twenty years. I have been actively involved in voluntary work including leading children and family activities at large conventions and charitable trips abroad. I enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, entertaining friends and being actively involved in a church. I particularly enjoy spending time with my husband, son, daughter and son-in-law.

Joe Williams (Chair – Co-opted)

I am currently Chair of governors having rejoined the governing body at Hook Norton in 2017, previously a governor for over 10 years including 3 of those as Chair of governors. I am currently managing partner in the Village Shop and the postmaster for Hook Norton Post Office, a director of the independents board of the Association of Convenience Stores which includes lobbying and advising government on issues affecting the convenience and retail store sectors, I am also an elected member of the meridian & welsh Guild of Spar UK. I have also previously spent 16 years as an operational firefighter at the village fire station and a former parish councillor. Outside of these work activities The rest of my time is mainly taken up walking and looking after my 2 lively & loveable Jug dogs.

Mr Richard Thomson (Vice chair - Co-opted)

I arrived in Hook Norton is 2015 whilst still working in London as the Managing Director of a large TV Production company, which I continued to do until 2019. Since then, I have been a Non-Exec Director and Consultant to various TV production and related companies both in the UK and abroad, and am currently Executive Chair for a Natural History company based in Bristol. I love being in Hooky and along with being a Governor of the school, I distribute the bi-monthly village newsletter and am involved in the organisation of both the Hooky Beer Festival and the annual Apple Day. Most days I can be seen out and about with my faithful companion Dylan the Vizsla dog.

Janet Faull (Foundation Governor)

Mr Nick Harrison (Co-opted)

I am a Chartered Surveyor who moved to Hooky 10 years ago and have two children at the school. In my day job I travel the country looking at commercial buildings and can often be found jogging on the lanes around the village and up at the Sports and Social Club.

Helen Lewis (Parent Governor)
I am one of the parent governors of Hook Norton Primary School. I am married with 3 children - all of whom attend Hook Norton Primary School. I have been involved in education for twenty years - having taught History in Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and Sussex. Since moving to the Cotswolds, I have taught trainee teachers at Sussex and Worcester Universities on their PGCE courses. I am currently back in the classroom teaching History in a secondary school in Oxfordshire.

Jonathan Muller (Foundation Governor)

As Foundation Governor, my role is to represent the church on the governing body, and to support the school in embedding Christian values and ethos in the way our children are looked after and educated. I have lived in Hook Norton for fourteen years, and have two children at the school. My day job is Training and Activation Manager for a small international market data business. 

Sally Newman (Co-opted)

My family and I have loved living in Hook Norton for the last 23 years. Until retirement my husband taught at the village school, and both our daughters attended. For 35 years I taught in primary schools in East London, Essex and Oxfordshire, spending the last 14 years of my career as headteacher of a school in Banbury. Despite being retired, I have retained my interest in, and passion for, education so I feel that becoming a school governor will be an exciting and, hopefully, useful role that I can undertake. I enjoy a variety of hobbies; keeping active through dance, gardening and playing netball, as well as watching sport, reading and spending time with my friends and family. 

Mrs Rachel O'Callaghan (Associate Member, School Business Manager)

Mrs Sara Peters (Staff Governor – Teaching)

Elise Reid (Parent Governor)

I am one of the parent governors at Hook Norton Primary School. I have 3 children who all attend the school, 2 in Key Stage 2 and 1 in Key stage 1, which gives me a good understanding of what happens throughout the school as a parent and from my children’s point of view. I am also on the FOHNS committee.

I am currently a full time mum but have a background in Theatre Management, having worked at Chipping Norton Theatre for 14 years prior to having my first child.

Alex Walsh (Co-opted)

Sally Griffiths (Clerk to Governing body)
 

Contact the Governors

You can email the Governors at governors@hook-norton.oxon.sch.uk.

Alternatively email office.3044@hook-norton.oxon.sch.uk making the email for the attention of the Chair and the school will forward the email on.  Letters and emails addressed to the Chair of Governors C/O the School will be forwarded.

The Governing Body:

• Sets the strategic direction of the school by:
  • Setting the values, aims and objectives for the school
  • Agreeing the policy framework for achieving those aims and objectives
  • Setting statutory targets
  • Agreeing the school improvement strategy which includes approving the budget and agreeing the staffing structure.

• Challenges and supports the school by monitoring, reviewing and evaluating:
  • The implementation and effectiveness of the policy framework
  • Progress towards targets
  • The implementation and effectiveness of the school improvement strategy
  • The budget and the staffing structure.

• Ensures accountability by:
  • signing off the school’s own self-evaluation report
  • responding to Ofsted reports when necessary
  • holding the headteacher to account for the performance of the school
  • ensuring parents and pupils are involved, consulted and informed as appropriate
  • making available information to the community.

• Appoints and performance manages the headteacher who will deliver the aims (through the day to day management of the school, implementation of the agreed policy framework and school improvement strategy, and delivery of the curriculum) and report appropriately to the governing body.

For governing bodies to carry out their role effectively, governors must be:

• Prepared and equipped to take their responsibilities seriously;
• Acknowledged as the accountable body by the lead professionals;
• Supported by the appropriate authorities in that task; and
• Willing and able to monitor and review their own performance.

The role of a governor

In law the governing body is a corporate body, which means:

• no governor can act on her/his own without proper authority from the full governing body;
• all governors carry equal responsibility for decisions made, and
• although appointed through different routes (i.e. parents, staff, Local Authority community, foundation), the overriding concern of all governors has to be the welfare of the school as a whole.

Governors of Hook Norton CE Primary School have adopted the following procedure to deal with formal complaints from members of the school community or general public.

If parents, pupils or members of the public have concerns they should:

1. Discuss their concerns with the member of staff most directly involved and, if not satisfied;
2. Discuss their concerns with a senior member of staff and, if not satisfied; (this stage will not apply in small schools)
3. Discuss their concerns with the headteacher.

Only where all these avenues have been tried and found unsatisfactory should the complainant take a complaint to the Chair of Governors or Clerk to the Governing Body.

Further information detailing the schools complaint policy can be found here