Flamstead End Local Academy Board

On behalf of all governors that form our Local Academy Board, a huge thank you to all who make Flamstead End a special place to learn. From the staff who put in tireless effort and enthusiasm to make learning as engaging as possible to the pupils who do their best every day. And, of course, to carers and parents for all you do to support the school and your child’s learning.

You may wonder who the Local Academy Board are and what we do. We are a group of volunteers whose role is to ensure the school does the best possible job to support every child to fulfil their potential. I like to think of our job as a critical friend. Like any good friend, we visit often and celebrate milestones, progress, and success. But like the friends we trust the most, we also ask difficult questions and are unafraid to challenge too. All of us are passionate about helping the future generation. Between us, we bring a wide variety of perspectives and experiences from leading youth groups, family charities, school publishing, and educational technology companies.

Vanessa Wright, Co-Chair Local Academy Board

Jean Holt, Co-Chair Local Academy Board

The Flamstead End Local Academy Board (LAB), plays a key part of providing a link between the school and the Board of Trustees.  The Board meets at least every half term with one of the main goals, in support of the Academy’s Leadership Team, being to offer independent insights across a range of areas affecting the day to day operation and future of the Academy. The committee focus on Pastoral matters, as well as having an oversight of the tracking data of the school.  The LAB also maintain links with Heads of Department, to quality assure the quality of their work.

Should you wish to get in contact with the LAB please contact Jean.Holt@generationsmat.com and Vanessa.wright@generationsmat.com

The agenda and minutes for each Local Academy Board will be available to the public, on request, once approved by the Chair.  Until formal approval (with appropriate amendments, if any) at the next meeting, any minutes provided must be understood as being subject to amendment.  Copy minutes made available to a member of the public will usually have redacted any information relating to individual employees (including teachers), prospective employees, students and prospective students.  This will include any information from which the Trust believes that the individual could be identified.  All other confidential information will also be redacted.  What might amount to confidential information will be dependent upon the state of affairs at the time of the request and consideration of issues relating to confidentiality can be time consuming.  Therefore, if a member of the public wishes to see only those parts of the minutes which relate to a particular topic, it would be helpful for this to be stated in the request.

Members: The LAB membership comprises the following Trustees and volunteers:

Vanessa Wright: Vanessa is Co-Chair of the Flamstead End Local Academy Board. Vanessa Wright brings over twenty years of experience working at Pearson, the world’s largest education company, and includes the exam board Edexcel. She has previously held the positions of Vice President running the schools business in Australia and more recently, leading sales and marketing for schools in the UK. Vanessa has been a Trustee since 2017 and the co-Vice Chair since 2019.

Jean Holt: Jean is Co-Chair of the Flamstead End Local Academy Board. Jean was a Governor at Goffs School for many years and became a Trustee of the Multi Academy Trust when it was formed. Jean was previously Chair of Standards and Achievement Committee and is now Chair of the Search Committee and Co-Chair of Flamstead End.

Originally a parent governor, Jean has 3 sons who were educated at Goffs School.   Jean has a scientific background and although retired now, she was a research scientist and has a degree in Chemical Physics. 

Jean also has considerable experience of analysing performance data. She has a passionate interest in the education of all students in the Generations Educational Trust and believes that every young person deserves the best education to allow them to reach their full potential.  

Laura Orlando: Laura brings over 20 years of experience producing & project managing teams, to deliver creative projects & live events. She currently works for a disabled children's charity, supporting young people with disabilities to share their rich variety of experiences via content creation. Laura is the parent of a young son, and lives locally with her family. In her spare time, she contributes as Treasurer of the school PTA. She has a Joint BA Hons in Economics and Business Management and is a member of the Association for Project Management.