Local Committee – Governance – Birdwell Primary School

Our Committee Members

Emma Day

Parent Committee Member

My name is Emma Day, I'm one of the School's Parent Committee Members. I currently have a son in Yr 3 and a daughter in Yr 1, I live and work in the local community and therefore I'm really keen to support the school's improvement journey for the benefit of the pupils and families it serves. I have wealth of experience working with young people aged 11yrs + and I'm a keen advocate for children and young people's voice, supporting them to participate and be involved in achieving positive outcomes. I wanted to become a parent committee member so that I could gain a better understanding of the school's strengths and challenges and how improvements could be made. I'm also keen to feed the views of parents into the committee and ensure that they are taken into account when decisions which have an effect on families and the local community are made.

Alice Thompson

Vice Chair

Tom Knowles

Chair of Local Committee

I am delighted to join the Local Committee at Birdwell from September 2023. I work as a secondary History teacher, I was born and brought up in Barnsley and have worked for ten years helping to give students in our town the best possible start. During this time I have led a secondary History department, as well as working on whole-school projects on curriculum development and, most recently, on induction and training for teachers at the start of their career. I was also a Staff Governor for four years at my current school. I hope this experience will help me bring a useful perspective to Birdwell, and I’m looking forward to hearing about all the great work being undertaken.

Birdwell Primary School are a member school of HCAT. Each school within the trust maintains its unique identity and HCAT strongly believe that excellent schools have excellent leadership and management from within, and a key component of this is governance.

Overarching responsibility lies with the Board of Trustees and they have established Local Committees within each school to govern at individual school level. Click here for the HCAT Trust Governance Arrangements that outlines the structure and remit of the trust’s members, board of trustees and sub committees.

Birdwell Local Committee

Our Local Committee are responsible for providing confident leadership and robust accountability, oversight and assurance for education, staffing and community engagement.

Our Local Committee constitution includes:

– At least 2 parent committee members

– Up to 3 persons co-opted by members of the Local Committee

– Up to 2 persons appointed by the Board of Trustees

Our Register of Business Interest documents any financial interests, affiliations, and potential conflicts of interest of individuals within our Local Committee to ensure transparency. Our 2023/24 Register of Business Interest can be accessed here.

Business Interests

The Local Committee at Birdwell Primary School adhere to the Nolan principles of public service.

Nolan Principles

Selflessness
Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.
Integrity
Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
Objectivity
Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
Openness
Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
Honesty
Holders of public office should be truthful.
Leadership
Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

If you have any questions or queries for the Chair of our Local Committee, they can be contacted via email at tom.knowles@hcacademytrust.education