Parent Governor Election

Election Result (26/02/21)

We are pleased to announce that Donna Ford has been voted as the new parent governor at Coopers Lane. Thank you to everyone who voted and to all of the other candidates who put themselves forward. We had a total of 253 votes in the election. Donna will be an excellent addition to the governing board.

Thank you

Dear Parents and Carers,

The governing body is now holding the election for the position of parent governor at Coopers Lane.

Our school community has always been quick to give amazing and inspiring support, and this year six candidates have put themselves forward – I believe our highest number ever.

Each has provided a brief introduction of themselves which you can find below.

Please read through them, then follow the link that will be emailed to you w/c 1st February 2021 (all parents and carers) to make your choice of who should become our new parent governor.

Voting will be open from Monday 1st February – Monday 15th February.

If any parent or carer is unable to vote due to having no access to electronic voting, please contact the school office by phone or email info@cooperslane.lewisham.sch.uk

The governing body does currently have a need for more HR skills after the amazing Charlie Fulton-Langley stepped down from this position last year. However, it is important that you vote for any candidate you feel will be most capable of helping our school.

To find out more about the role of a governor, please follow this link:

https://governorsforschools.org.uk/volunteers/about-the-role/

Kind regards

James Green

Chair of the Coopers Lane School Governing Body

CANDIDATES

Isobel Clift

A bit about me

My name is Isobel Clift and I am the mother of two boys who currently attend CLPS, in years 1 and 3.  Although I grew up in Hertfordshire I have been a resident of South-East London for over a decade now and am extremely proud to call it home, for now and hopefully for the long term.  As well as being a Mum, which as we all know is a full-time job in itself (!!) I work for a large accountancy firm.  When I’m not working or embarking on an enormous Lego build, I enjoy reading, walking, music and going to the gym (in an attempt to work off those lockdown calories!).

The School Governor Role

I have been keen to put myself forward for a school governor role since my oldest son started at CLPS.  I have huge amounts of enthusiasm for becoming involved in something that affects me personally and the wider community and the governor role provides the perfect opportunity for this.  In terms of what I can bring to the role I believe I can offer the following:

  • A range of professional skills which will benefit the board including project management skills, the ability to take ownership of any given task and excellent communication skills – my job requires that I have difficult discussions and this is not something that I shy away from.
  • A great team player – no man is an island, in my opinion!  I would be lost without the support of my team, both inside and outside work!
  • A desire to give something back to the community in terms of my time and skills.
  • I work for a company which is extremely supportive of those looking for school governor roles and provides support and training where required, in addition to allowing paid time-off to meet my governor responsibilities.
  • An active member of the local community – I have recently been speaking to our MP about road safety measures on Burnt Ash Hill

I currently act as an administrator for the parents Facebook group and am always keen to be involved with school events, attending the quiz nights and the recent fabulous ceilidh.  I have also recently been involved in the North Pole challenge run by the PTA, and never cease to be amazed at how the school pulls together with efforts such as these.

Overall, I would be exceptionally grateful for the opportunity to become more involved with the school, I feel passionately that CLPS is an amazing school with even more amazing potential!

Tom Crispin

My name is Tom Crispin, I am 54 and have two children at Coopers Lane Primary School: Benjamin in Year 2 and Jack in Year 1. It would be a pleasure to support the school by serving on the Governing Body.

I have lived on or near the Lewisham/Greenwich border for most of my life, first in Kidbrooke, and then near Lewisham Station. In 1990 I bought my first home on Burnt Ash Road, and after marrying Clare in 2011 we moved to Grove Park the day we returned from honeymoon.

After leaving school at 16, my first job was in a fast food restaurant, and after a series of retail jobs I was the manager of a large wine merchant in Greenwich. At the age of 27 I started studying part time for two ‘‘A’’ levels on a one year course at Woolwich College, and ended up being offered a place at Cambridge University to read education and mathematics. I am now a specialist in primary mathematics with 14 years’ teaching experience at the Lewisham school I attended as a child.

In 2012 I stopped teaching to set up my own small short-term accommodation business (serviced apartments suitable for families with up to four children), which we ran while juggling childcare. In 2017 we put our business into the hands of a manager, found tenants for our family home and Clare and I set off with two toddlers and two border collies to tour Europe in our small VW campervan. We spent just over a year away, visiting 33 countries and travelling 40,000 kilometres from the frozen arctic of Norway to the sun soaked beaches of Spain, from the mountains of Bulgaria to the steppe of Slovakia and almost everywhere in between.

We are now settled back in Grove Park and our household has grown by six chickens which we keep in our garden and our boys collect fresh eggs daily.

Given my local knowledge, my experience of primary education including three OFSTED inspections, one of which was “outstanding”, and my business understanding, I feel that I would make the ideal parent governor and hope that you will vote for me in the upcoming governor elections.

Donna Ford

I’d love to apply for the recently advertised Governing position at Coopers Lane. Every day when I walk my two sons to school (Jack is in Canary Wharf and Ethan in Waterloo) I am so grateful for the warm, caring and enthusiastic environment they are learning in every day.

As soon as the email dropped in my inbox I was really excited and interested in replying to the invitation for a new school Governor. I have a varied background and before becoming a parent I worked in school across London for 10 years delivering dance and drama workshops as a way to inspire young minds and nurture wellbeing. I also helped set up and run a community project at the Royal Academy of Dance (Step into Dance) and worked as a community artist with Trinity Laban in the Lewisham borough and was so grateful to learn from Lorna Sanders and Veronica Jobbins who campaigned and succeeded in bringing dance into the National Curriculum. I’ve managed budgets for dance companies and run two of my own businesses. I truly believe the arts are powerful in building confidence, self esteem and a connection to yourself and others (I could talk for hours on this!) and love that Coopers Lane embrace this holistic approach to education. I’ve always been passionate about the changing landscape of education and the challenges that schools have to reconcile their heart-led approach with the restraints of the National curriculum.

I feel that one of the key ways I could contribute to Coopers Lane in this role is helping monitor and maintain the mental health and wellbeing of all the Staff, senior team and of course the Head Mr Hooper who gives so much to everyone else. This year unlike any other has put tremendous strain on the resilience and capabilities of all and for the school to continue to thrive, the staff and management team need support and structures that support wellbeing and mental health to avoid burnout.

I now work as an educator & speaker on creativity as well as a portrait photographer (websites below)) and would be honoured to contribute to the school in such a valuable way.

Simon Ibbotson

Hi all. I’m Simon, father to two kids in Coopers Lane (Ben and Sarah), so I’m already committed to the school and would like to be even more involved.

The value of education is very high in my priorities – both my parents were teachers and school governors and I chose London (moving from the north-east of England) for my degree and doctorate in science; teaching graduates and A-level students to raise funds whilst I did so.

In my day job, I work in the public sector – investigating & holding the major banks to account. The skillsets I bring from that work – diligence, understanding, inter-personal & collaborative – would see me in good stead for the role of school governor.

Paul Lampon

Hi, my name is Paul Lampon, I have lived in Lee for 11 years. I moved to London after meeting my wife who was born and raised in the local area even attending Coopers lane as a child. I have 2 young children who currently attend Coopers in year 2 and reception.

Since my eldest joined the school I have been an active member in the PTA attending many of the in-person meetings and then on Zoom this year due to Covid 19 creating chaos this year. In the last few months I worked on and assisted with the Coopers North Pole competition, which became the most successful fundraising event the school has seen outside of the school grounds. It was amazing to see the commitment that the kids put in and the fun that created a buzz in the playground by those competing.  

I work for the Centrica the largest energy supplier in the country. I manage a large engineering team who work all over SE London. In my work I need to understand people, their effect on the jobs they do and on the people they work for. It is a very customer focused environment where real world in person results are the important factors. I deal heavily in health and safety assessments, understanding and mitigating risk. An important part of my work is interviewing potential candidates to assess their suitability for the different roles we have and being able to make good judgements on people in an interview scenario. These are all attributes I believe I can bring to good use with the school, working with the other governors and Leadership team.

I am a believer in that education can be the key to a great start in life, but also that not all children learn the same way in the same time and that great teachers are the greatest gift our children can have. My ambition is to be able to offer my own small part in supporting the staff and the school, Hopefully I can help make our school the best it can be.

Richard Parkin

I currently have three children attending Coopers Lane.  My daughter is in her final year after attending Coopers Lane since Reception and my twin boys are in Year 3.

I want to become a Governor as I have a strong belief in education and the difference it can make to our children’s lives, setting them up for their next steps in the world and giving them a great foundation for later life.  For me this includes not just knowledge but physical and mental health as well.  I have been exceptionally impressed with Coopers Lane over the last 6 years and want to help it continue to be an excellent school.

For work I am the Assistant Director of Housing Service for the Royal Borough of Greenwich.  I run Greenwich’s Housing and Homelessness Teams managing around 600 staff members.  In this role I have developed many skills that I think will support me representing parents as a school governor, including attending governance and board meeting in the various roles I have held.  In my role I often have to handle complex or escalated HR issues, manage various budget for my services, understand performance reporting and focus on staff training and development. 

I believe all of these skills would help me as a Parent Governor for the school and would like the opportunity to work with Mr Hooper, the staff and other Governors to support Cooper Lane.

 

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Contacting the School

Coopers Lane Primary School is situated in Grove Park in the borough of Lewisham. The entrance to the school is in Pragnell Road, SE12 0LF

School Times

School Day
Mon-Fri 8:45am to 3:15pm,
Breakfast Club 7:30am to 8:45am
Afterschool clubs 3.30pm to 4.30pm
After school Tea Club 3:15pm to 6:00pm

School Office

Telephone: 0208 857 7680

Office Email

info@cooperslane.lewisham.sch.uk

Headteacher

Headteacher@cooperslane.lewisham.sch.uk

Ayse Mehmet – SBM (School Business Manager)

Rachel McCulloch – Senior Admin Assistant

Karen Hill – Admin Assistant/Attendance Officer

Claire Huckle – Admin Assistant