Admiral Long CE Primary School

I was born and brought up near Leeds in a Christian home, was educated in Christian schools, and have very fond memories of all my schools, but particularly my first, in the village hall attached to the Church for which my father was a Church warden and a Patron. 

I have lived in or near Bishop Thornton since 1988. I joined the Board of Governors of the School as a co-opted Governor in February 2017.

The skills I bring to the team were gained through my career as an in-house lawyer for companies operating in competitive conditions. Providing a wide range of legal support and working with multi-skilled teams and services, gave me experience of building relationships, customer focus, commercial awareness, finding practical solutions, and being able to focus on detail without losing the bigger picture.

It has been very special to be part of the team which moved the school to its new premises in Burnt Yates in 2019. These offer spacious and inspiring facilities for our children, present and future.

I am honoured to be part of a team of Governors and Staff who are dedicated to providing great education to the children in our locality.

I was born in Germany and spent my primary years both there, attending a large international school, and in the south of England at a small C of E school. I was also fortunate to spend a few months in Singapore at another international school before we finally settled back in the UK and I joined the local grammar school where I completed my education, then headed off to Vancouver with my family when they emigrated.

Not surprisingly, having had the privilege of growing up as part of so many wonderful school communities, I decided to become a teacher! I have a degree in Psychology and German and a PGCE in Primary education and have been teaching for over 20 years, initially in West Yorkshire, and moving to North Yorkshire in 2013.

When not at school, I enjoy spending time at the coast with my family, playing tennis, walking, learning (albeit badly!) to play the ukulele and I am one of the leaders of the local Beaver Scout Colony, which I absolutely love.

I joined the Governing Body in October 2019 as a parent governor. I have been on the governing body of 3 different schools as a teacher governor for the majority of my career which I hope will serve me well as I work to support Admiral Long in the provision of high quality education for the community. We have one son who has attended the school since he started in reception in 2015.

I live in Bishop Thornton with my wife and 3 children. Our youngest child currently attends the school, our 2 eldest previously attended and are now at Nidderdale High School.

I spent 25 years working for the Ministry of Defence, alongside working for our successful family business a children’s day nursery located in Harrogate as Financial Director.  We sold our business in 2019 to enable us to spend more time with our children.  This has also meant I have time to contribute to our school as a Governor, which I joined in September 2020.

I have worked as a teacher in Class 1 at Admiral Long (Bishop Thornton) for 14 years. I love the family feel of the school and the close relationships that develop between the staff and children here. It is a school like no other!

I am a teacher governor in school and have held this role for several years. I enjoy providing a link between the governors and the children and having the opportunity to talk about and show what is happening in our classrooms every day.

My time outside of school involves being a busy Mum to two sporty boys, a member of a choir and a thriving book group. I try to pass on my passion for singing and books to the children as I feel they are both wonderfully creative and life enhancing hobbies.

I hope in my role as teacher governor that I can help put faces and stories to data and continue to support links between governors, children, parents and staff within the school.

Mrs Karen Heath

I was born in Lancashire but spent much of my childhood in different parts of Africa. I recently returned to Kenya working for a Christian based charity helping local people to  support themselves through various enterprises. I enjoy travelling as it provides an insight into different cultures. However, to be near my family I have now put my roots firmly down in Yorkshire. I love living in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales where I spend much of my free time walking with the dog and riding my horse.

  In my professional life I was a headteacher of two large primary schools in Essex and Suffolk, both had nurseries; the early years is a particular interest of mine. I was also an OFSTED inspector from 2010 until the pandemic. I have inspected schools in East Anglia and here in Yorkshire, including inner city schools and small rural ones such as Admiral Long. This experience has been invaluable in helping me understand the challenges and value of a range of different schools and I hope I can bring some of that knowledge to my  governor role at Admiral Long.

Appointed Ex-officio

Admiral Long School is a maintained school and this means that it is funded and controlled by the Local Education Authority (LEA). The LEA funds the school, employs the staff and provides support services and controls the admissions process.  The school is also designated as a Voluntary Controlled (VC) school by being a Church of England Primary School, and the Diocese of Leeds appoints two members as Foundation Governors who have links to the benefice and the vicar.

Admiral Long generally has 8 members of the Governing Body and they represent different parts of our school and wider community.

These are:

• Two Parent Governors
• One Local Authority Governor
• Two  Foundation Governors, appointed by the Leeds Diocese
• One Co-opted Governor, appointed for their specific skills
• Two Staff Governors, one of whom is the Headteacher.

Governance reflects the following three key areas:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school
• Holding the Executive Head Teacher to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff
• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

There are no interests declared by the current Governing Body.