Executive
The Executive Committee
The Executive Committee is made up of representatives elected by member Governing Bodies in the three Local Authority areas.
Members serve for a term of three years, with a rolling programme of elections.
Previous executive members who have retired - Elizabeth Klavins, Kathleen Cooper, Janet Hamid, David Bennett, Christopher McConnachie, Roger Sherlock, Ruth Pollock, Christine Storey, Maggi Harris and Vikki Harry. We wish them all the best for the future - they will be much missed! New members are always welcome!!
Who are we? See below!
Consultation Meetings
The LASGB Executive Committee meets twice each term with the LA Governor Services Officers together with any other officer who has asked, or been invited, to consult with the LASGB. This exchange of information and views on documents and initiatives produced by the DfE, the LA and other bodies is valuable both to the Association and the LA. It enables the views of Governors to be made known to the LA and other bodies which are involved in education and provides feedback to the LA from Governors.
Through the Consultative Committee the LASGB has the same consultation rights with the LA as the teachers’ professional associations, trades unions, diocesan authorities and others.
Area North
Lancaster, Wyre and Fylde
Stephen Booth
Treasurer
I joined the Governing Body at Ellel St John’s Primary School in May 2001, and was the Chairman from 2002 to 2009. I am also a member of the Governing Body of St Wilfrid’s Church of England Primary School at Melling in the Lune Valley. I have been a member of the Lancashire Schools Forum since it started in January 2003. In June 2005, I was elected Forum Vice Chairman. I have also been the Chair of a number of the Forum sub-committees. Currently I am a member of the Early Years Group, High Needs Block and the Budget and Finance sub-committee. I have been a member of the LASGB Executive since February 2010. I am presently the Treasurer of the LASGB and I also edit the newsletter.
Sam Ud-din
Joint Website Manager
After many years of avoiding the responsibility and feeling guilty about doing so, I finally joined the Governing Body at Morecambe Community High, where I used to teach Science, in 2009 - though I regularly attended GB meetings as one of the school Health and Safety Reps. I did also become a Link Governor for Governor Training, and then kept an eye on the school website to check compliance and suggest improvements. Though I have left MCHS, I have recently become a governor at Sandylands Primary School, very near to More Music, in Morecambe, where I am Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees.
I am seldom seen without some kind of head-covering, but I try to remember to keep my different 'hats' with me so that when I need to, as I am active in both the Trades’ Council and as local district NEU Secretary (and was also as Lancashire NUT Secretary), I can swiftly swap over to the appropriate headgear! However, as a consequence, I have been into many schools across the whole of Lancashire - primary, secondary and special, and have spoken with many hundreds of the teachers at the white-board-face who are responsible for teaching the thousands of pupils in our schools and I have participated in many of the county groups that have responsibility for managing Education in Lancashire.
I hope that this knowledge and experience is useful to the LASGB Committee, along with my IT skills which have been dragooned into use to help maintain the LASGB website.
Area South
Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire
Bill Hodgson
President
Bill is the Chair of Governors at Hope High School, in Skelmersdale and a Governor at The Rose School in Burnley. Both are B.S.E.D. Schools for Secondary pupils. He is the Special School Governor representative on the School's Forum. He is a retired Lancashire Police Officer who towards the end of his service was a Training Officer, then had responsibility for Community Affairs in the West Lancashire and Chorley areas. He is currently the Chair of the LASGB He is a Trustee of the Crisis Centre in Skelmersdale that provides training and accommodation for 16 to 24 year olds in the West Lancashire Area. He has a particular interest in supporting young people with learning difficulties.
Gill Donohoe
I started my governance journey in 2007 when I was elected as a parent governor at the primary school where my children attended. In 2009, I was appointed as a foundation governor at St Mary’s Catholic High School, Leyland; becoming chair of governors in 2016. I am also the chair of governors at Saint Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic Academy, following my appointment as a foundation governor in January 2022.
I was employed as the Finance Team Leader for an international charity which supports adults with learning disabilities and more recently was a Governing Body Adviser for Lancashire County Council. I am now working for the Archdiocese of Liverpool as the Governance Officer; supporting over 220 schools across 8 local authorities in all aspects of governance including governor training, reviews of governance and supporting with the Archdiocesan strategy for the development of Multi Academy Trusts.
Amanda Howarth
During my teaching career I taught in several schools across Lancashire and held governor responsibilities both as teacher governor and as a senior member of staff.
On retirement I decided I would like to maintain my contact with schools and young people and hope to offer my experience to ensure they get the best that is possible from their educational experience.
I joined the governing body of Acorns Primary School in Preston as an LEA governor in 2014. As my teaching experience had been in the secondary mainstream sector – I had a lot to learn as Acorns is a GLD Primary Special School! I was delighted to elected Chair of Governors in 2016.
Dianne Hodgson
LASGB Bookings Manager
Dianne is Chair of Governors at Moorbrook High School, Fulwood, and Elm Tree Community Primary School at Skelmersdale. All are schools which cater for children and young people who are statemented with B.S.E.D. She represents Preston on the LASGB.
Dianne is a retired lecturer in F.E., sits as chair of the Board of Trustees for a Charity which provides supported accommodation for homeless young people, and also represents LASGB on the Safeguarding Board (locality) for south Lancashire. Having spent her entire professional life working in the area of abused, disaffected and vulnerable children and young people she has an abiding interest in working towards ensuring all children and young people can feel safe, secure, and enabled.
Lorimer Russell-Hayes
Vice Chair
Lorimer taught languages to secondary phase students in Skelmersdale and Chorley for 20 years before joining the LCC advisory service as Behaviour & Attendance Consultant. During her working career, she has managed to combine her love of languages with pastoral support roles, governance roles and assessment roles. She has also worked for AQA as assessor, moderator and senior examiner for over 30 years.
She first became a parent governor in 2003 and has since been an active member of 8 governing boards – 4 primary schools, 1 PRU, 1 secondary school and 2 Special Schools. She became National Leader of Governance in 2014 which led her to develop many governing boards across the northwest and carry out at least 30 External Reviews of Governance in a variety of settings. She is currently Chair of the Governing Board at Penwortham Girls’ High School and Chair at Kingsfold Primary School as well as leading on training and development as co-opted governor at Hope High in Skelmersdale and The Rose School in Burnley.
She took (partial!) early retirement in June 2019 and now delivers governor training for LCC Governor Services as well as primary phase Modern Foreign Languages networks and consultancies. She still works for AQA which takes up her summer months each year. Since retiring she has volunteered at St Catherine’s Hospice and at the local food bank and is learning Spanish to add to her other languages!
Margaret Scrivens
Representative at Schools' Forum
It is an honour to be an Executive Member of LASGB.
Although I am now retired, I bring to the Executive over 43 years of Education experience from my employment at Lancashire County Council. For most part this experience has been at a senior level and the last five years as the lead officer for Governor Services Training and Development following a successful career as a School Policy and Operations Officer.
In addition, I am an experienced Chair of the Trust Board at a Lancashire Secondary Academy, plus being a Member on another Lancashire Secondary Academy and I have also been a foundation governor at a primary voluntary aided school. I now serve on behalf of LASGB on the Lancashire Schools’ Forum. These links help to keep up to date with the latest national thinking and provide support to Lancashire Trustees/Governors.
I look forward to meeting Lancashire governors/trustees at future LASGB events.
Christine Wilson
Currently a Foundation & nominated Link Governor at St Maria Goretti’s RC Primary School in Preston.
I became a governor after joining SGOSS in 2012 & joined the Governing body of Eldon primary school where I held the posts of Vice Chair for a few years as well as sharing the Link Governor role serving two terms of office as a governor . I was part of 'Team Eldon' who achieved Outstanding from OFSTED, amongst many other awards. I have worked for BT since leaving college in 1978 - my current role for the last 15 years as a Senior International Commercial manager involved in global IT Sales Propositions, working with both BT’s internal & external stakeholders, managing a customer base of 800 companies. Regularly involved in production & delivering of bespoke training packages internally to BT people on systems & process. I decided to become a Governor for personal development & wanted to be involved in education as my grandchildren are now at school.
Recently joined the LASGB Executive Committee to continue in my personal development of the varying aspects of Governorship & hopefully can apply the skills gained from my varying aspects of Governorship & hopefully can apply the skills gained from my varying roles.
Jacqueline Williams
I have over 20 years of school governance experience.
Currently, I am the training and development governor at The Roebuck Primary school, in Preston – a position I have held since 2018. I originally became a governor in 2002 through my work as an Education Welfare Officer based in a variety of Lancashire schools and held several roles at Eldon Primary school, including Chair for over 11 years.
My professional background is working with children, young people and families who have experienced difficulties and I have worked in numerous roles including Child support officer, Residential social work, Education Welfare, Criminal justice, Children’s Integrated services, Youth work, Advocacy, Family support, Lancashire Victim services and fostering/adoption services.
The issues I have supported children and families with have included homelessness, neglect, limited educational opportunities, domestic violence and abuse, substance misuse, criminality, mental ill health as well as child sexual exploitation.
I feel that through both my personal and professional life, I have developed skills, knowledge and experience that have equipped me to be an effective Executive committee member. These include financial management, strategic leadership, board training and development, staff supervision and performance management.
I am also currently a Director/Committee member on several local charities and Community or Voluntary groups, which include Preston Domestic Violence Services (PDVS), Peertalk (support group facilitator) and No Whispers (CIC - Community Interests Company).
Clive Gregory
After taking retirement from Industry in May 2017, I was asked to join the Governing Body of Royal Cross Primary school in Preston where I became Chair of Governors in November 2017. After a little over two years in this role I joined the LASGB Executive Board in December 2019.
Royal Cross is Lancashire's Special School for Deaf Children, aged 3-11. It is also where my deaf daughter was educated in the ate 1990s. The School provided her with a foundation on which she developed her skills for the outside world.
My background is in the Management of Technical Training and I have in the past been involved with Apprentice, Graduate and Leadership Training Programmes. I bring to the LASGB Executive Board a broad range of experience in the Leadership and Management of complex industry projects.
Although still learning about the rather different world of education, I have, with support of the Staff, Children, Parents and my fellow Governors at Royal Cross, successfully navigated through a recent OFSTED - and in doing so kept our Outstanding rating.
Area East
Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale
John Davey
Chair
John is Chair of Governors at Haslingden High School one of the largest secondary schools in the County. He has been a Governor there for 24 years and is Chair of the Finance/Personnel Committee. He is a retired local government officer having been an Environmental Health officer. He is also a magistrate and District Commissioner for Rossendale Scouts. John is married with 2 grown-up children.
Ian Bannister
Joint Website Manager
Co-opted
Ian has just (February 2023) rejoined the governing body at Holy Trinity CE Primary School in Burnley, and he was previously a Governor there (where both his sons attended) in Burnley for 14 years, starting as a parent governor and taking up the role of Chair in 2006, he also served as the link governor and a period as vice chair, and also a foundation governor to allow another parent to join the governing body. Whilst a governor Ian has worked proactively with the School management team in analysing the immense amount of data we are presented with as governors. In addition to this Ian has also played an active role in two major building projects at Holy Trinity and has recently developed their new website. After leaving school in 1980 he worked in engineering and banking before a career change into education in 2002. Ian worked as an Management Information Systems manager at Burnley College and played an active part in ensuring success for all students.
Ian now works as an Education Consultant within the education sector, and also providing support to organisations regarding all aspects of data protection, including GDPR.
Ian has also worked at Burnley Football Club as stadium PA Announcer on match days since 1991.
Ian's technical, IT and design skills are useful to the LASGB, as is his access to reprographics services, and as a result, was co-opted on to the LASGB Executive in 2013 until 2022.
Nicola Whyte
I had taught in Special Education for 35 years in both Greater Manchester and Lancashire before taking early retirement in 2016. My teaching experience has covered Early Years to post 16, with young people who have a wide range of educational, physical, medical and emotional needs. My specialism was PSHE and I was part of the working party that rewrote the PIVATs PSHE Assessment Tool. I continued supporting my school for 3 years after taking retirement with Post 14 accreditation, but was looking for something different within the education sector.
A friend and colleague, Head-teacher at Holly Grove Primary in Burnley, asked me to join the governing board there in August 2020; within 4 weeks I was on Artsmark and Safeguarding courses and by the December I was Chair! (Holly Grove is an Outstanding Primary Special School.) Three years on it is the best decision I have made and when the opportunity arose to join the LASGB Executive Committee this year I was delighted to accept. I hope to continue to develop personally in Governance and from there support other governors and achieve the best outcomes for all Lancashire schools.
Rebecca Lindley
With over 16 years of experience in education and a background in Organizational Psychology and behavioural sciences, I hope to bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to my role on the Executive Committee. I am a Graduate member of the British Psychological Association, Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Professional member of the International Stress Management Association, Member of the Association of Coaching and Associate Member of the International Society for Coaching Psychology. I am deeply committed to promoting wellbeing through effective leadership and self-development.
Since 2019, I have served as a Governor at Reedley Hallows Nursery School and assumed the role of Chair in September 2022. Additionally, I am currently self-employed as an Independent End Point Assessor for the full suite of Leadership and Management Apprenticeship Standards, staying closely connected to the evolving needs of education and contributing to the development of Industry leaders. My dedication to creating a supportive and effective educational environment drives my work as a Governor, and I am committed to making a meaningful impact on the educational landscape.