Governance
The Trust believes that schools need to have a high degree of autonomy 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.
TRUSTEE AND GOVERNOR RECRUITMENT
Further information and how to apply: to receive an information pack or to arrange an informal conversation about governance with us, please contact Kylie Burgess, Governance & Compliance Manager at governance@det.org.uk
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
The Governance Structure diagram is provided in the documents section on this page. Details of the individual Members and Trustees, as well as the names of the Committee Chairs are provided in the drop down menus below. For details of the members of the Local Governing Boards, please see the Governance page on each school's website.
Meeting minutes and agendas 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
Register of Interests: the register of interests for the Members, Trustees and DET senior leaders is available in the documents section below. The register for the governors and senior leaders in each of the Trust Schools are available on the school's website on their governance pages linked in the LGB section above.
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
Phyllis initially joined DET in 2018, taking on the role of Chair of Van Gogh Primary School's LGB when the school joined the Trut. She saw the school through a significant period of change and transition, before standing down from the board in June 2021. Phyllis was subsequently appointed as a Member in September 2021. Prior to her retirement, Phyllis was the Director of Children's Services and previously Director of Education in Lambeth and she was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to children and families. Phyllis remains active in the local community in a number of roles including Director of the Woodlawns Centre and Darby & Joan Club in Streatham and co-opted governor on the board of a local primary school.
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 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 2024 - July 2028*
David Boyle CBE
CEO
Formerly the Principal of Dunraven School, David is designated as a National Leader of Education. He is an experienced senior leader and English teacher. He was a member of the now London Regional School Commissioner's Advisory Board and served two terms as the chair of the Department for Education's Secondary Heads Reference Group. He is currently a member of the Association of School and College Leaders' National Council. He is a lead inspector for Ofsted and a lead reviewer for Challenge Partners. He is a fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, a member of the Institute of Directors and a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was awarded a CBE for services to education in 2021.
Ex-officio
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 and a trustee on the Lambeth e-Learning Foundation.
Malcolm has over 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 2024 - December 2027*
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 - January 2024 - December 2027*
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 over 20 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. Cathy is also a trustee on the Flourish Learning Trust in East London.
Term of office - November 2020 to November 2024
Sandy Smith
Health & Safety Link 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 is Vice Principal at a secondary school in Greenwich. Prior to this he has held several school leadership roles in Lambeth, Lewisham and Hackney. Nicholas has also worked 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
Committee Chairs
Education & Standards Commmittee - Malcolm Forbes, Trustee
Finance & Assurance Committee - Cathy Harvey, Trustee
Performance & Remuneration Committee - Helen George, Trustee
Local Governing Boards
Dunraven School - Mark Riddaway, Governor
The Elmgreen School - Wil Thursfield, Governor
Goldfinch Primary School - Kate Bower, Governor
Rosendale Primary School - Shola Salako, Governor
Van Gogh Primary School - Kirsty Pearce, Governor
