Governance
The Trust believes that schools need to be autonomous if they are to be truly effective in serving their community. This means headteachers have the authority to lead and run their school, working with local governing boards, explicitly aligned with and committed to the Trust’s aims, values and practices. There is a clear scheme of delegation. The Trust’s key role is to provide the support and challenge required for the school to deliver and maintain excellence.
The Trust offers value to the school by providing expert support from the centre for: the leadership and delivery of teaching and learning; finance; HR; ICT; estates. It also provides a range of central services, such as financial and management information systems, payroll, IT and larger procurement where it is evident that such services will provide better value in terms of time and cost.
Governance Structure
Effective governance within the DET is achieved through a shared vision and a connected thread of delegated responsibility and accountability. Whilst the Trust Board cannot ever delegate its accountability, it can delegate some of the detailed scrutiny, oversight and decision making. The Governance structure is composed of:
Members: the Members ensure the Trust meets its charitable objectives by appointing the Trustees, agreeing to the articles of association and appointing the auditors.
Trustees: the Trustees are the employer and are accountable to the Members. The Trust Board carries out the core governance functions, ensures compliance and appoints the CEO. They hold the executive leaders to account and are responsible for the development of the Trust, the strategic direction and strategic priorities.
Local Governing Board (LGB) Governors: the LGBs are the link between the Trust, schools, families, students and the local communities. They provide scrutiny of the delivery of the Trust's objectives and monitor expenditure against the school's budget, holding the school's leadership to account. For further details about each school's LGB, please visit: Dunraven School, Goldfinch Primary, Van Gogh Primary, The Elmgreen School, Rosendale Primary
Meeting minutes are available by request. If you wish to request minutes or find out more about our Trust, please contact Kylie Burgess, Governance & Compliance Manager via governance@det.org.uk
Members
David Bryan CBE
Member of the National Council for Arts Council England and the chair of Working with Men, David has previously been a successful small business owner, director of Brixton Village Community Arts Centre, board member of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and director of Community Foundation Network. He has worked with several charitable trusts such as Comic Relief, Barings Foundation, the City Bridge Trust and Trust for London in a variety of roles including grant panel member and grant assessor. At Camelot Foundation he was vice-chair of the board. David designed and delivered the Arts Council England's training on Equality and Diversity for many years and has also held a number of lecturing posts at Birkbeck College, London South Bank University, Goldsmiths College and City Lit Institute.
Appointed - July 2011 (Founding Member)
Anne Hudson
Anne taught mostly history in various London schools for 34 years. She is an experienced senior leader and worked at Dunraven School during 2003 -5. She went on to be head of two large secondary schools for 6 and 7 years respectively. She worked with colleagues during her second headship to set up a primary school and a multi-academy trust. She holds the National Professional Qualification in Headship as well as a PhD in Education. Her expertise includes teacher training, school improvement and school inspection. She enjoys educational research and has developed insight into evidence informed practice in FE and schools. Before teaching, she spent 7 years working to support Namibia's struggle for independence from racist South Africa during the time of apartheid.
Appointed - April 2020
Phyllis Dunipace
Appointed - September 2021
Helen George
Helen is Chair of Trustees at the Dunraven Educational Trust and a Governor Representative on the Lambeth Virtual School Management Board. She has been involved in school governance in Lambeth for over 20 years, having been first elected as a parent governor at Dunraven School in 1998.
Helen retired from London South Bank University in 2013, having taught Organisational Behaviour on undergraduate and postgraduate Business and Management programmes as well as holding a variety of management roles at the University. These included leading on learning and teaching enhancement and the strategic development of both e-learning and student services. Helen served on the University's Governing Board for six years.
Helen joined the board of the Walcot Foundation, a charitable funder in 2016 whose purpose is the relief of poverty in Lambeth and she is currently the Chair of their Grants Committee.
Helen is particularly interested in issues of social justice and the impact of educational opportunity on an individual's life chances, hence her involvement in both school governance and the Walcot Foundation.
Appointed - September 2018
Cathy Harvey
Formerly a technical sales specialist with IBM and then a local political organiser, Cathy is now a Citizens Advice adviser. She has been a school governor for 19 years, during which time she has been secretary of Lambeth Governors’ Forum, chair of governors at an outstanding local primary school as well as chair of Dunraven Educational Trust, where she is part of the team that steered the school through academy conversion.
Appointed - July 2011 (Founding Member)
Trustees
Jennese Alozie
SEND / Pupil Premium Link Trustee
Jennese has over 25 years of Education sector experience. Until recently she was the Director of Effectiveness and Performance for STEP Academy Trust. As part of this MAT Executive team for the past 6 years, Jennese contributed to its successes and growth from 6 schools when she joined to 20 schools across London and East Sussex. Jennese is a Lead Ofsted Inspector and has held senior and Executive leadership positions in Secondary and Primary schools. Trustee for two MAT Boards and a Teaching School Hub Strategic Board member. Recently, she was appointed as CEO of University of Chichester Academy Trust. She is also an amateur ceramist.
Term of office - July 2020 to July 2024
David Boyle CBE
CEO
Formerly the Principal of Dunraven School for 15 years, David is designated as a National Leader of Education. He is an experienced senior leader and English teacher. He has been a member of the South East and South London Regional School Commissioner's Advisory Board, is currently on the Association of School and College Leaders' Council and served two terms as the chair of the Department for Education's Secondary Heads Reference Group. He is an Ofsted Inspector and a lead reviewer for Challenge Partners. He is a fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was awarded a CBE for services to education in 2021.
Ex-officio
Anthony Blaiklock
After becoming a chartered accountant, Anthony spent the next 25 years working in corporate finance for HSBC, Deloitte and his own business. He then became Finance Director of an early stage renewable energy company, before spells in a similar role for an energy efficiency business, a manufacturer of a water saving device and, most recently, a robotics company involved in reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. Anthony was a Trustee of Trinity Academy when it became part of Future Academies Trust in December 2020. After a short period as a member, Anthony became a Trustee of Dunraven in June 2021.
Term of office - June 2021 to June 2025
Malcolm Forbes
Chair of the Education & Standards Committee
Formerly founder owner of an IT services company Malcolm had over 35 years experience working in Information Systems. He has also worked in the public sector, specialising in planning, property, land and regeneration systems and was deputy CEO of a regeneration agency in South London. Until his retirement several years ago he ran a successful web applications development agency. He was also CEO of Brixton Online, a local social enterprise providing IT training, support and web applications to the local community.
Malcolm has nearly 30 years experience in school governance at primary and secondary level as well as 8 years experience as a trustee of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) Academies and as a member of the Central Academies Trust, a medium sized Multi Academies Trust based in Birmingham.
Term of office - January 2020 to December 2023
Helen George
Chair of Trust
Helen is Chair of Trustees at the Dunraven Educational Trust and a Governor Representative on the Lambeth Virtual School Management Board. She has been involved in school governance in Lambeth for over 20 years, having been first elected as a parent governor at Dunraven School in 1998.
Helen retired from London South Bank University in 2013, having taught Organisational Behaviour on undergraduate and postgraduate Business and Management programmes as well as holding a variety of management roles at the University. These included leading on learning and teaching enhancement and the strategic development of both e-learning and student services. Helen served on the University's Governing Board for six years.
Helen joined the board of the Walcot Foundation, a charitable funder in 2016 whose purpose is the relief of poverty in Lambeth and she is currently the Chair of their Grants Committee.
Helen is particularly interested in issues of social justice and the impact of educational opportunity on an individual's life chances, hence her involvement in both school governance and the Walcot Foundation.
Term of office - October 2019 to December 2023
Also a Member appointed September 2018
Cathy Harvey
Vice Chair of Trust and Chair of the Finance & Assurance Committee
Formerly a technical sales specialist with IBM and then a local political organiser, Cathy is now a Citizens Advice adviser. She has been a school governor for 19 years, during which time she has been secretary of Lambeth Governors’ Forum, chair of governors at an outstanding local primary school as well as chair of Dunraven Educational Trust, where she is part of the team that steered the school through academy conversion.
Term of office - November 2020 to November 2024
Sandy Smith
Co-opted Trustee
Sandy is the Vice President for Efficacy Strategy & Delivery at 'the world's largest education company' Pearson PLC. He has been at Pearson since 2014 having initially joined Sir Michael Barber's Office of the Chief Education Advisor. His roles at Pearson have always focused on driving the company to improve educational outcomes through its digital products. Prior to Pearson, Sandy worked for the Boston Consulting Group as a strategy consultant.
Term of office - January 2023 - January 2027
Nicholas Taylor-Mullings
Trustee
Nicholas Taylor-Mullings is Vice Principal at a secondary school in south London Prior to this he was a Senior Assistant Headteacher in a community school in Hackney. He has also held several roles in local government. His most recent post was Head of Extended Schools & Early Years at the London Borough of Sutton. Nicholas has been a resident in Lambeth since 2005. He is an independent advisor to the Metropolitan Police in the borough and has previously been a governor at a local primary and secondary school.
Term of office - June 2022 to June 2026
Sarah Tillotson
Safeguarding Link Trustee
Sarah works at the Education Endowment Foundation, a grant-making charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. Sarah leads the EEF’s work on two themes: early years, and language and literacy. Her work on these themes includes identifying research gaps and promising interventions, managing research trials, and developing publications to communicate the findings of research to schools and early years settings. Prior to this, she worked in schools for eight years, the majority of this time in early years leadership positions, alongside teaching in reception or nursery. She taught in Hackney, East London and also taught in Hong Kong, supporting the establishment of two new kindergartens. She became a trustee of the GNWET in 2020 and then DET in 2021.
Term of office - October 2021 to September 2025
Trustees who have stepped down in the last 12 months:
Ali Malsher - stepped down as Trustee 5 October 2023
Sarah Totham - stepped down as Trustee 6 February 2023
Kate Edwards - stepped down as Trustee 31 December 2022
