First Appointed as Community Governor on 5th April 2004, currently a Co-opted Governor

Responsible Area - Finance, Buildings, School Trips

Parent Governor appointed on 8th March 2018

First Appointed as Community Governor on 2nd October 2005 currently a Co-opted Governor

Responsible Areas - Governor Recruitment, Evaluation and Development. Finance, Buildings.

Elected as Staff Governor on 10th March 2015 and re elected on 10th March 2019

Responsible Area - Stakeholder Engagement 

Appointed as Local Authority Governor on 15th September 2014, reappointed on 15th September 2018.

Dulani Kulasinghe

Appointed as Co-opted Governor on 25th April 2016

Responsible Area - School Improvement Strategy, Finance, Performance & Pay

Hope McAdam

Appointed as Co-opted Governor on 7th June 2018

Responsible Areas - Careers Guidance , Special Educational Needs, Vulnerable /Looked After Children

Emma McCrea

Vice Chair of Governors Appointed as Co-opted Governor on 2nd October 2019

Responsible Area - Student Progress Data

Chair of Governors

Appointed as Co-opted Governor on 1st December 2016, reappointed on 1st December 2020

Responsible Area - Health & Safety, Premises Management, Buildings, Staffing Matters

Vice Chair of Governors

Appointed as Parent Governor on 24th March 2017

Responsible Area - Equalities, Safeguarding and Behaviour 

Appointed as Clerk to Governors 1st September 2008

Responsible Area - Governance procedure and compliance

To contact Governors please email:

teresadee@varndean.co.uk

Julian Benkel

I have been connected to the school since 1995, having seen three of my children pass through Varndean.  I am currently serving my sixth term as a Governor and have witnessed all the changes over decades and continue to be a strong advocate of the school and its young people.

By profession I am a chartered accountant with specific specialisation in compliance and corporate governance and I am a partner in a consultancy providing services to the Higher Education sector, particularly those institutions involved in residential student accommodation in the UK. I bring experiences as a parent and as businessman to the governing body.

As well as being a keen follower of Brighton and Hove Albion, I have both younger and older children and many grandchildren to keep me active.

Simon Bowes

I have lived and worked in Brighton for over 2 decades now, mainly in education, and currently lecture in cognitive science and philosophy at the University of Sussex.  I am particularly interested in widening participation in higher education to include those who traditionally may not have gone to university.  The reasons for this interest are seeing such students fail to thrive once at university, and being someone who did not follow a straight route into academia myself.  We need to better support those students when they are at university, but also to give them the skills they will need while in secondary and further education.  This is a part of the reason I was interested in becoming involved as a governor at Varndean.

Apart from that, I have 2 daughters at the school (actually, the eldest has just left), and I wanted to play an active role in their school and the wider community, as well as to have a better understanding of the workings of the place that we will have had a decade-long connection to once they have both finished.
 

Jon Dee

I have been a governor at the school for over 15 years now.  I was the Chair of Governors from 2013-2017, and I am currently Chair of the School’s Finance Group. I am a Principal within BDO a leading accountancy firm and a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 30 years’ experience in providing assurance and consultancy services across both the public and private sectors. I also have considerable experience in the voluntary sector. I have also been a trustee and the Treasurer of a national charity for over 12 years, chairing its Finance and Investment Committees.

Giovanni Franceschi

I have worked for Brighton & Hove Schools since 1998. I have been a deputy head and head of three junior schools during that period. I have been a Local Leader in Education working alongside colleagues in other schools in need of additional support. As a deputy and a head teacher, I have been a governor for the last 16 years and I fully aware of the importance that governors can have on the strategic direction of a school and the ultimate positive impact on pupils’ educational experience.

I continue to enjoy the role and a being more involved in the secondary sector as this gives me further insight as to how pupils progress after leaving primary.

Dulani Kulasinghe

I have lived in Brighton for nearly 20 years. I trained and worked as a teacher in the US but on moving to the UK worked in immigration law and retrained as a lawyer. After having children I returned to teaching and now work at a local infant school, where I am part of an anti-racism working group which includes staff and leaders from local junior and secondary schools.  Our older daughter is currently a Varndean student.  

Given my background in law and education I am particularly interested in equalities and inclusion and have been impressed by the school’s respect for students as citizens, particularly in its acknowledgement of the persistence of gender-based violence and its active participation in anti-racist work. From what I have seen, Varndean’s small school structure and dedicated staff and leadership team nurture the kindness and confidence that can lead to lasting positive change. As parent governor I look forward to supporting this important work.
 

Alex Marsh

My wife and I both grew up in Brighton and after spending over 10 years in London, we returned to Brighton with our two young children to be closer to our families. As part of this move I was keen to get actively involved in our local community and in particular education, which has been a long-standing passion of mine influenced by my own state school experience. I feel very fortunate to have been appointed a co-opted governor of Varndean School in April 2016 - with the aim to work collaboratively with the other members of the Governing Body and the School Senior Leadership Team, towards delivering a world-class education for all children in our school. In my working life, I head up the UK business of Klarna, the Swedish bank and global payments provider, having trained professionally as a Chartered Accountant. I also volunteer for a number of charities and initiatives that encourage business links with schools to provide young people with inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities to help achieve their potential

Hope McAdam

I have spent most of my career working in education for various educational charities that support students from underrepresented and low income backgrounds. After spending a number of years working for the Mayor of London’s charity, managing activities and events with schools in London, I wanted to connect with schools in Brighton and play a more active part in this vibrant community, and so I became a Co-opted Governor at Varndean in June 2018. I’m now working in Widening Participation at the University of Sussex, through which I help young people make choices about higher education and their future pathways, which has been a really beneficial background for my role as the careers link governor.  

Emma McCrea

My background is in education having worked in the sector for almost 20 years. I currently lead Oak National Academy's curriculum and pedagogical development as their Head of Curriculum and am a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton where I train new teachers. I recently gained a Fellowship in Teacher Education.
Beyond these roles I am an author of a book on maths education and work with the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), the Sussex and North East Hants & Surrey Maths Hubs and is the founder director of an EdTech start-up.
I began my professional life as a maths teacher at an innovative local secondary school, and have worked as a head of maths, qualified as an Advanced Skills Teacher and led on teaching and learning and teacher professional development in schools.
With this experience, I hope to bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in education to the governing board.
 

Ian Rodgers

Following my retirement, I became a governor as a way of getting more closely involved in my community after a lifetime of commuting.  I live close to Varndean, and have done for over 40 years.
For the last ten years of my career I ran a national membership-based organisation. Amongst other things, this gave me extensive expertise in stakeholder engagement, governance and government & media relations, as well as general management.  I was also a non-executive director of a number of not-for-profit companies, a role very similar to that of a school governor.
 

Emma Warde-Robinson

I feel strongly that school should be a happy and safe place to learn. To achieve this, the school and its staff need to be supported in turn by its governors, acting in their role as both sounding board and critical friend. 
I believe in supporting my local community through contributing skills and experience. I am a Public Health Doctor and have significant management experience at senior level in the NHS and more recently local government. I have a deep understanding of how good governance can enable an organisation to achieve better outcomes. I also have experience of governance in other local schools and believe strongly in the benefits of a school having a strong and diverse board of governors.

Having reached the end of my first four-year term as parent governor, I am fortunate to now be a co-opted governor and recently appointed as one of the vice chairs. I am the lead governor for safeguarding, behaviour and equality. 
 

Meeting Dates

Additional meeting -   Covid Response

1st October 2020

Quality of Education - Results

10th December 2020

Quality of Education - Curriculum  & Teaching

4th March 2021

Behaviour, Attitudes & Personal Development

20th May 2021

Leadership & Management