Governance

Academies are schools funded by the government with the freedom to govern independently – but all are accountable to the Secretary of State for Education. To share resources and best practice, many are part of multi-academy trusts – a network of schools under one legal body.

Ark John Keats Academy is part of Ark Schools - a leading education charity and one of the country’s top-performing academy operators. Ark is non-denominational and does not make any profit from running its schools.

Ark’s relationship with the Secretary of State is set out in the Master Funding Agreement. There are also supplemental funding agreements for each individual school in the network, including Ark John Keats.

PDF iconArk Schools Master Funding Agreement

PDF icon Ark John Keats Supplemental Funding Agreement

Every school in the Ark network is the legal responsibility of the Ark Schools Board. This board focuses on statutory duties and delegates most day-to-day responsibilities to each school’s individual Local Governing Body (LGB). This means that Ark Academy's governors are able to concentrate on the things that really matter – educational strategy, school outcomes and aspiration.

The Ark Schools Articles of Association and Decision Making Framework scheme of delegation can be found on the Ark Schools website.

Our Local Governing Body

Ark John Keat’s LGB may be made up of a combination of the following:

  • Six to 10 members appointed by Ark, to include the Chair - usually people with a local connection or interest who are committed to supporting educational opportunity in the area.
  • Ark John Keat’s Principal
  • Two parent governors
  • One teaching staff governor
  • One non-teaching staff governor
  • One local authority representative from the London Borough of Enfield

Ark aims to create a balanced group that will have the right skills, connections and dynamic for the LGB to work well and support the school in achieving exceptional performance:

Good insight into the specific challenges at the school and the general challenges of operating top-quality schools
Excellent community links
Specific skills as needed by/relevant to the school
A link to the senior executive team of Ark

The LGB meets four times a year.

Contacting the Governors

The Clerk to the Governors is Alleisha Furlonge-Royal (Alleisha.Furlonge-Royal@arkonline.org). Governors can be contacted through the Clerk.

If you are interested in becoming a governor, please visit the Ark Schools website.

If you have any governance-related queries, please contact the Clerk via email or write to Ark Schools:

The Yellow Building
1 Nicholas Road
London W11 4AN
Phone: 020 3116 0800

 

Current Governors

Linsey Maynard (Chair; Behaviour & Ethos Governor)

Linsey is the Head of Student Enterprise at LSBU. She is responsible for developing the university’s approach to student enterprise, supporting LSBU students and alumni to develop enterprise skills and start and grow their own businesses. Prior to her current post, Linsey was the Head of Business Partnerships at the University of East London (UEL), working with a network of local, national and international partners to generate income for the university and support the regeneration of East London. She has a particular interest in women’s entrepreneurship, having led the creation of UEL’s Centre of Excellence for Women’s Entrepreneurship (CEWE). In 2012, she completed a secondment at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) supporting the development of enterprise culture and education policy. Linsey is an experienced Project and Partnership Manager, who has delivered projects, funded by ESF and ERDF, to support the social and economic regeneration of East London. She volunteered at London 2012 and is a volunteer with Girlguiding UK.

Maria Ancupova (SEND Link Governor)

Maria has earned both a Master’s in International Political Economy and BSc in Management Sciences from the London School of Economics. Upon graduating in 2011 she joined AKO Capital as an investment analyst, becoming a partner in 2016. She strongly believes that every child should have access to great education, regardless of their background, and thoroughly enjoyed working with children through a number of volunteer projects in London and Riga. She supports ARK’s mission to transform children’s lives through education, and is very keen to contribute to the academy through her professional and personal experiences.

Luba Chudnovets (Finance Link Governor)

Luba has a BSc in Accounting and Finance and MSc in Economic History from the LSE. She worked as a management consultant across multiple multinational companies in several different countries and industries. She then joined a 30-person company to build a bank that later became known as Monzo bank, where she scaled operations and built multiple products. She is currently a Senior Product manager at Samsara - a company specialising on the internet of things. She believes that although talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not, but that everyone deserves a chance to achieve great things. This is why she’s keen to support and contribute to ARK’s mission of transforming children’s lives through education. 

Mohit Doshi (Ark Link Governor)

Mohit Doshi has been with Ark Schools for a little over three years but has been within the Education Sector for almost 8 years and is very passionate about working towards reducing the socio-economic gap within Education. He is a qualified accountant with over 12 years of post qualification experience in various sectors including Banking, Pharmaceuticals, Fashion Retail and Education.

Christopher Jones (Safeguarding Link Governor) 

Christopher is currently Deputy Head of a secondary school in North London. Previously he was part of the Senior Leadership Team of a large 11-18 academy in Kent. Christopher has worked on a number of teacher training programme including the Troops to Teachers initiative. As a governor, Christopher is keen to understand education through another lens and share his experience of strategic development and academic management. Having grown up in Wales and Norway Christopher is passionate about how education can prepare students for their role as global citizens. Outside of education, Christopher is a successfully, largely self taught artist who has held a number of exhibitions in London.

Fatos Kocakaya-Rane (Parent Governor)

Fatos comes from a Turkish background where she is fully eqipped with both language and cultural diversity. She has a degree in BA Economics where she started her financial career where she had grown in gaining experience and knowledge. Feeling very proud to be part of the AJK as a parent, now would be a great opportunity to join the team as a Governor to bring in new ideas and to support body of governors to build a bridge with parents, especially with those with whom lack the communication due to the language barrier.

 

Rebecca Curtis (Executive Principal)

Amit Hathi (Regional Director)

 

All appointments are made by Ark's Director of Governance.  The term of a governor is three years, except for the Principal, who remains a governor for the duration of their time in post. Governors may be re-appointed for further terms.

The Register of Interests for Governors and the Attendance Information can be found here:

Ark John Keats Academy - Governor Register of Interests 2022-23.pdf

PDF iconArk John Keats Academy LGB Attendance Log 2021-2022.pdf