Governors
About the Board
The Board may have between 15 and 21 members of whom the majority must be members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). New governors are appointed by the General Meeting (FSSWGM), the body which oversees the school on behalf of Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (BYM).
Governors serve an initial 4 year term and may be nominated to serve for a second such period. In exceptional circumstances a governor may serve a further 2 years but never beyond this maximum of 10 years. Suggested names of people to join the Board may come from a variety of sources; from constituent Area Meetings of the General Meeting, from Old Scholars, parents and any other interested parties.
The full Board meets once a term as do the two main sub-committees Education Committee and Finance Committee. An Executive Committee comprising clerks of committees plus the Bursar and the Heads of both schools keeps things ticking over between meetings of the full Board. A Search & Governance Committee (3 strong) is responsible for overseeing Board training, induction of new members and close liaison with the GM Nominations Committee to maintain Board numbers and spread of skills.
In addition to these committees there is a small Junior School Working Group and a Finance Working Group. Individual governors attend meetings of the Health and Safety Policy Committee, Finance and Premises Committee and the Senior School Council.
Governors are encouraged, indeed expected, to play as full a part in the life of the school as other commitments and living at a distance permit. The Board is committed to fostering an understanding of Quaker values and practice among staff and pupils, as well as making the work of the school known to the wider Quaker community.
The Board of Governors: January 2012
The Chair/Clerk of the Board of Governors is Sue Collins. If you wish to correspond with Sue Collins then please use the School address.
Richard Bloomfield
Richard is a retired professional electrical engineer and worked for 35 years on signalling and train control working for British Rail and its successors. He is a Quaker and his local Meeting is Saffron Walden where he is Treasurer. He also regularly attends Cork Meeting in Ireland, where his partner, Denise, lives. He serves on Britain Yearly Meeting Finance and Property Central Committee and the Board of Friends Trusts and has interests in environmental issues and working with Quakers in Bolivia. Richard’s connection with Friends’ School Saffron Walden goes back to 1963 when he entered the first form as a day scholar, staying until the end of the sixth in 1970. Subsequently, both his children have attended the senior school.
Ann Brereton
Ann is a member of Saffron Walden Friends’ meeting. She trained as a teacher and subsequently worked with parents whose children had special educational needs. She has a clear insight into the benefits that children derive from living, playing and learning in an environment enriched by Quaker values. Through service on the Board she seeks to repay something of the individual attention her son gained from a Quaker education.
Richard Clunes
Richard is currently ‘Quaker in Residence’ at Hampstead Meeting. He is also on the Board of Sidcot School in his seventh year but due to the rigours of travelling will be resigning his position this year to devote his energies to Friends’ School Saffron Walden. Richard ran a successful training business for many years and comes to the school with a strong interest in marketing. Richard is a Friends’ School Old Scholar and is looking forward to renewing his acquaintance with the school community.
Sue Collins
Worked in the Children & Young Peoples’ section of Quaker Home Service (now Quaker Life). She has been involved with FSSW for more than 35 years as staff wife, parent and part time piano teacher. She is a trained primary school teacher and was on the Junior School staff for 4 years from 1998. Sue is Clerk to the Board and seeks to promote Quaker values throughout both schools.
Andrew Deller
Andrew has a background in Financial Services: he spent 16 years working in commercial and retail banking running Change Management and Human Resources teams and projects, including 4 years living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. Andrew now works as an independent consultant specialising in Leadership Development and Executive Coaching, across a wide range of industry sectors, thereby finally, achieving the work life balance he values so highly. Andrew is father to three children at Friends’, currently in years 4, 6 and 8.
Martin Dickinson
After reading History at Cambridge Martin went into teaching and in 1995 became Head of Ackworth, the Quaker school near Pontefract. He has been a Friend for 30 years. He retired in 2004 and came on to the Board a year later. Martin is assistant Clerk to the Board.
Sue Fellows
Is a Quaker and has been on the Board since 2006. She is a librarian at North London’s Middlesex University. Her particular area of interest vis à vis the school lies in ensuring that it offers a safe, stimulating & supportive environment for pupils to succeed in, using the most up to date equipment, software and resources available (affordable within budget), within the framework of a Quaker ethos.
Susan Garrett
Susan was brought up in a Quaker family, and was married according to the usage of Friends. Her parents and husband are all Members of Meeting for Worship, at Billericay. Susan was an active Young Friend, participating in Young Friends Gatherings, YFCC, and work camps. She is currently Regional Gathering clerk, Representative on Meeting for Sufferings, Trustee of Area Meeting, and a Trustee of Glebe House.
Susan teaches full time in a large and challenging urban primary school, where she is Deputy Head teacher and frequently Acting Head teacher. Susan serves on her present governing body and on her children’s school governing body as a parent governor.
Celia James
Celia James comes from an arts background, studying painting at Camberwell Art school before focussing on sculpture She trained as an infant teacher, working with Reception for 8 years and later as an Art Therapist, working with young offenders, people on probation and adults with severe learning disability. She has been a Quaker since 1981.
Douglas Kent
Joined the Board as recently as January 2008 and was recommended by the Old Scholars’ Association. He is a Chartered Surveyor specialising in the conservation of old buildings. He is particularly interested in helping the school in matters to do with its building fabric.
Jenny Marks
Having been Governors’ Secretary for 3 years Jenny joined the Board in 2007. Her original training was in medicine but she brings her experience of marketing, public relations and an ongoing commitment as Company Secretary of her family business to the service of the Board.
Finola O’Sullivan
Finola O’Sullivan is from Ireland and moved here to work for Cambridge University Press as a book commissioning editor in 1997. Today she co-ordinates their global academic law publishing, with a particular emphasis on international relations and human rights.
Growing up in a large Catholic family in Dublin, she enjoyed both her primary and secondary schools and the formative influences of many inspiring teachers. She studied English language and literature at University College Dublin.
Finola’s later path into membership of the Religious Society of Friends was sparked by her pacifist beliefs. She worships at her Cambridge Hartington Grove Local Meeting and also serves as one of the overseers to attenders and members there.
She sees governorship at Friends’ School Saffron Walden both as an extension of her involvement in Cambridge Area Meeting and a chance to contribute to the practice of Quaker Testimonies throughout the school.
Tony Penman
Tony Penman grew up in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand and began his working life in tax policy at the New Zealand Treasury. Arriving in Britain in 1988 he has spent most of the last 20 years working in the investment management industry, with the last 10 as a product development specialist at Cazenove Capital Management based in the City of London.
His interests include liberal economics, public policy and history and he is an active sportsman. Tony has four children, two of whom attend Friends’, and his wife, Sarah, currently works as one of the school’s nurses.
Whilst not a Quaker, Tony identifies strongly with Quaker values and hopes that his skills can assist the Board in furthering the school’s long-term interests.
Ray Wells
Ray, a Chartered Accountant, was a partner in practice before forming a management consultancy business. He then moved into industry and was an owner manager of a number of businesses prior to retiring in 2008. Ray is a parent of two children in the Senior School . He will support the school with his experience of both finance and property. He was appointed as a Governor in January 2010 and will become Treasurer in April 2010.
Malcolm Whalan
Malcolm moved to Welwyn Garden City from Yorkshire early last year, where he had been ‘Friend in Residence’ for Gildersome Local Meeting after taking early retirement in 2002 as a Hospital Social Worker specialising in long term disabilities.
Malcolm was a founder member of the “Yorkshire Quaker Link Group”, a group for 13 – 18 years olds; he planned and ran workshops on Quaker themes such as the Peace Testimony and Conflict Resolution. He has also organised and facilitated a series of residential spiritual retreats for 14-18 years over the past 18 years, which included a 12-hour period of total silence. Malcolm was a trustee governor on the Management Committee of Bootham (Quaker) School from 1999 to 2006.
Malcolm has served as Clerk of Brighouse Monthly Meeting, (1995-2000), Clerk to the Trustees of Leeds & Settle Monthly Meetings’ Joint Buildings’ Fund, (2000-2008) and Quaker Chaplain to Leeds University (2007-09). He comes to the end of his second Triennium as a Governor of the Retreat Mental Hospital on 31/12/2010. He is currently serving as an Elder of Hertford & Hitchin Area Meeting.
