Brudenell Primary School

Governors are a group of volunteers who include parents, staff and members of our local community.

Our main role is to promote ongoing improvements in standards throughout the school. We help the headteacher and staff plan the school’s long-term direction and we evaluate progress. We help set the school’s aims and values and are responsible for some staff appointments, including the head. Many of our responsibilities carry a statutory requirement. This means we are obliged by law to do things such as agree the annual budget.

Our role is sometimes described as a ‘critical friend’. This does not mean that we are there to criticise the head or the school. Instead we try to ask useful questions to gain a greater understanding of the school and to foster an ethos of continuous improvement.

Our recent Ofsted report in March 2018 identified the governors as a strength of the school and said:

'Governors know the school well and are proud of the inclusive ethos that school leaders have developed over time.  They share the leaders' high expectations and are highly ambitious for pupils.'

'Governors are knowledgable and provide robust challenge to the headteacher and co-headteacher.  Efficiently led by the chair of the governing body, they know the school's strengths and weaknesses well.  Governors are very well aware of the challenges the school faces with a large number of pupils joining the school at different times of the year.  They are proud of the strong progress pupils make from their different starting points.'

Headteacher:

Jill Harland

Jill is the headteacher at Brudenell Primary school and has been in  post for 18 years. She has always worked in Leeds and lives locally with her husband and 3 children. She has supported other schools and spoken at conferences across the U.K and the globe, including America, Dubai and Sweden. She is passionate about creating a culture where everyone can flourish and has a book published about the subject.

Chair of governors:

Ian Joicey - Attendance and parental support governor

            Ian has been a  resident of Hyde Park for 16 years and is very interested in helping with the success of Brudenell Primary and its continuing status as a                  pillar of this changing and vibrant community. He currently has one son at the school and works in the banking sector. 

Katie Haggerty - Early years and early reading 

Katie is a founding partner of a Leeds-based legal recruitment agency. She has worked in the recruitment industry for over twenty years’ and has extensive experience of advising organisations (including higher education settings) on the implementation of new staff members and growth strategies as well as guest speaking at university and secondary school career events. Outside of work she is mum to two primary school-age children, therefore the role as Early Years Governor seemed a natural choice.

Staff governor

Julie Lock 

Co-opted governors

Hannah Harris - Finance Governor 

Hannah Harris is a parent to four boys, two of whom attend Brudenell.  Having only recently moved to Leeds she was delighted to discover such a great Primary school so close to her new home.  With a background in business and finance she is the link Governor for Finance.

Colin Noble - Safeguarding Governor

Colin was a teacher and local and central government education adviser, and still works as a consultant specialising in wellbeing and raising boys’ achievement. 

Local Authority Governor

Nilesh Cohan