Governor Information – Henleaze Infant School

The role of a Governor

The purpose of a Governing Body is to help provide the best possible education for pupils. Governors meet regularly with the Headteacher and staff to decide the school’s aims and policies, and to oversee the efficient running of the school. The Governors work in partnership with the school and local authority and have particular responsibility for:

Setting aims and planning for the future of the school
Agreeing targets to raise standards of achievement
Ensuring that the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils
Monitoring the school budget
Staffing issues, including appointing the Headteacher and other staff, and determining salaries
Deciding the school’s policies
Making sure all pupils have equal opportunities within the school and providing for pupils with special educational needs
Challenging and supporting the Headteacher, as a critical friend
Ensuring the school site is well maintained, safe and secure
Dealing with complaints about the school

The Governing Board of Henleaze Infant School meet at Full Governing Body meetings. In addition, a Resources Committee meeting is held once per term.

The Governing Board is made of staff at the school, parents and people appointed by the Governing Body because of their professional skills and experience.

How to contact the Governing Body

The Joint Chairs of Governors welcome contact with members of the school community. They can be contacted via the Clerk to Governors

Aggie Forster – Clerk
Aggie can be contacted via the following email address: clerk.henleazei@bristol-schools.uk

Please view the details of our Governing Board below:

Current Governing Board

Other Governors

Historical Governors

Henleaze Infant School Committee Terms of Reference

Henleaze Infant Governor Attendance 2020-21

Governor profiles

Ania Kopel-Hanna

Ania is a co-opted governor, a member of the Curriculum Committee, link governor for attendance, PE, PSHE, RWV, wellbeing, mental health and SEND. Both of Ania’s children attended HIS. She strongly believes that inclusion and outstanding education for all children during their infant school years give them the best start in life. Ania is keen to contribute her time and experience to participate in the strategic management of the school and making the school a safe and enjoyable environment for all HIS children.

Richard Lukes

I became a parent governor at the end of 2018 and, more recently, took on the role of co-Chair in 2021. I find the role of being a governor challenging and rewarding, and it is a pleasure being part of a board that strives to make the school a fantastic place for all children. I have a background in engineering and now work as an airline pilot. My part-time work pattern gives me the time on non-work days to focus my governor role, as well as hobbies including cycling and trying to look after our family allotment.

Amar Shah

I was voted on to the governing board as a local authority governor in 2019 and have since become co-vice chair and this past year co-chair.

It has been a steep learning curve, with a lot of new acronyms and vocabulary to get my head around but it has been great working out of my comfort zone in healthcare. I am fortunate enough with not having to work full time to be able to dedicate some specific time to this role but certainly couldn’t deliver it without the support of my co chair. I have a child in year 2 at the moment and one joining in reception next year (Sept 2022) – they keep me out of mischief but in my own time I enjoy live music, cycling and a bit of running.

Elizabeth Smith

Being Bristol born and bred, and having spent most of my childhood and early adult life living in Henleaze, I was keen to become involved with Henleaze Infants because the school plays a fundamental role in the local community. Since starting my working life, I have always worked either with or around children. I started my career working as Community Development Manager for Bristol Rugby, working with children in schools and in their leisure time and seeing first hand how children benefit from opportunities available within school. I now work as a lawyer specialising in child protection and have a huge desire to enable, and ensure, that children have a positive, robust, and holistic education to support their social, emotional and academic development, and to support them to grow in confidence, happiness and knowledge.

Sarah Smith

Having recently retired from the NHS after nearly 40 years, I want to give something back to my local community that has been so supportive of me since I moved to Henleaze when I was 11.

Vincent Smith

I have been a Governor at HIS since 2017. Both of my children attended HIS in the 1980s, and when they moved to secondary school, I was a parent governor and chair of governors at Monks Park School from 1988 to 1992. One of my grandchildren moved from HIS to HJS last year, and the other one is currently at HIS.

I was a University Lecturer, and later Reader, in Physics at Bristol University for over 50 years (and I have a medal to prove it!). After retirement, I was able to continue as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Physics. In research, I am part of one of the big collaborations at CERN in Switzerland, and so I am one of the thousands who collaborated in the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.

After retirement from teaching at Bristol, I taught part-time for a few years at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), and now occasionally at Jaffna University, Sri Lanka.

I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for physics by giving many talks to school and other groups (over 100 times in the past five years.) An example can be seen at https://youtu.be/LGwqLmxg1qg (skip the advert at the start.)

Louise Walton

Since my childhood days of taking the register to see if all of my teddies and dolls were present, I have always had a real love for and interest in the world of education. I have been a Modern Languages secondary school teacher for nineteen years and have been head of department for sixteen years. I have enjoyed nurturing and improving outcomes for a wide range of young people in comprehensive, grammar and independent schools. I have seen first-hand how a supportive yet appropriately challenging relationship with the governing body can help to enhance the professionals within a school and therefore the day-to-day lives of the children. I run the Learning and Teaching group in my current school, showing my commitment to lifelong learning and self-reflection.

Minutes from Governors Meetings

16/05/2022 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting May 2022

21/03/2022 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting March 2022

09/12/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting December 2021

18/10/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting October 2021

15/07/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting July 2021

18/03/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting May 2021

30/03/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting March 2021

08/02/2021 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting February 2021

09/12/2020 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting December 2020

19/10/2020 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting October 2020

15/07/2020 Minutes of Full Governing Body Meeting July 2020