Governance

We are proud to have a committed governing body made up of a team of individuals with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The number of governors for our school is 12 and our primary role is to ensure that the school discharges their statutory duties under the law as well as act as a ‘critical friend’ in supporting and challenging the leadership and management.

We also help to set the vision and strategic direction of the school, oversee the maintenance of the premises and management of budgets, monitor performance and attainment of pupils and engage with key stakeholders.

The school and governing body also benefit from the support of the Trustees who look after the endowment left by Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts and periodically gives grants to the school. The chair of the Trustees is Mrs Fiona Burdett-Coutts.

Mr. P. Carrivick

Chair of Governors - Local Authority (11 July 2017 - 12 July 2021)
Phil lives in Pimlico and works as a strategy consultant, a role that involves advising companies on growth, transactions and transformation. He studied at the University of Durham and read Engineering, after which he did a brief stint designing buildings in London before living in New Zealand for two years and working for a management consultancy there. In 2013, he returned to London and joined A.T.Kearney, a leading global strategy consultancy. In his spare time he enjoys sport and finding the next good spot for coffee.



Ms A. Sladdon

Vice-Chair of Governors - LDBS (21 January 2020 - 20 January 2024)




Ms. Y. Barnett

Headteacher - Ex-officio (appointed Sep 2020)




Ms. S. Agabani

Elected Parent (12 October 2019 – 11 October 2023)
Shaza, who has a daughter at the school, lives locally and actively participates in the many community events and activities in the area. Following professional careers in advertising & marketing, working with some of London’s top media agencies and publishing houses, she is now focussed on realising a childhood passion and developing her own jewellery business. Shaza is a strong advocate of the GROWTH model and Child Safety Online and loves reading and aromatherapy. Her favourite part of the world is the River Nile, close to where she was born.



Mrs J. Bates

Deanery (24 January 2019 – 23 January 2023)
Jill lives with her husband and three children in Battersea. She earned her PGCE and M.Ed at Cambridge University, after reading Psychology and English at the University of Ottawa, and has enjoyed an extensive teaching and educational leadership career in schools across UK & the US. Following a break to care for her children, she has now resumed her career as a primary school teacher. Her professional research interests include developing resilience and growth mindset in pupils and her pastimes include knitting, reading mysteries & playing in Battersea Park with her children.



Ms. N. Bowles

Elected Parent (06 March 2017 – 05 March 2021)
Narissa lives with her husband, daughter and cat, working from home as co-director of a web development company. She read Journalism at Sheffield University and has enjoyed careers in print journalism, sound engineering and event planning. Her interests include reading, cooking and spending as much time in Kew Gardens and Richmond Park as possible.



Mr. S. Brickell

Elected Staff (26 September 2019 – 25 September 2023)
Born and raised in South London, Steve turned to teaching after a successful career in telecommunications. His association with Burdett-Coutts, where all his children attended school, spans 26 years and in 1995, he co-founded the Out-Of School Club with Ms C. Hall, which continues to provide after hours support for the school. Steve has also been a governor of London Nautical School and Charlotte Sharman Primary School and is passionate about football, dancing and in particular, the martial arts, having trained and represented England in international karate tournaments for over 40 years.



The Revd. G. Buckle

Ex-officio (appointed March 2014)
Born and raised in South-East London, Graham had worked for a community newspaper and even been a fumigator, before reading Theology at Southampton University. Ordained in 1989, he has enjoyed varied and extensive service in many churches and is now presently at St Stephen’s with St John’s, Westminster. His passions include travelling, playing and listening to music, watching and participating in sport as well as being involved in the community.



Ms. C. Hui

Parochial Church Council (25 February 2020 – 24 February 2024)




Miss A. Johnson

Trustee (29 April 2018 – 28 April 2022)
Abimbola lives in Oval and works as a criminal defence barrister. She read Jurisprudence (Law) at Oxford University, graduating in 2009 and was called to the Bar in 2011. She is passionate about social justice and fairness and sits on her chambers’ management committee as the equality & diversity officer and as the junior members’ representative. Abimbola regularly volunteers in schools outreach programmes and her interests include learning about history, with an emphasis on the history of people of African & Caribbean descent in Britain & the Commonwealth, playing netball, and singing.



Miss L. Playford

Trustee (08 March 2017 - 07 March 2021)
Louise lives in south-west London and works in St James's as a Corporate Finance adviser working with Healthcare and Education businesses. She studied French at the University of Nottingham and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2010 (Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales) whilst working at KPMG. Following 5 years at KPMG which included time living and working in Amsterdam, Louise spent a year in industry working in a Commercial Finance role before returning to advisory work in her current position. Louise enjoys playing hockey, travelling, theatre and photography.

In addition, governors are encouraged to involve themselves in the school directly, perhaps attending a school assembly or event, accompanying children and staff on a school trip or simply talking to pupils and staff.

Previously, the entire governing body met one evening a term with specific subcommittees – Resources, Standards & Achievement and Children, Families & Community – meeting termly at other dates throughout the academic year as well.

Following recent guidelines, we have streamlined our governing body’s processes and procedures to ensure our focus remains primarily on strategic issues. Since September 2017, we have adopted a new meeting structure, moving away from termly FGB and committee meetings to a monthly FGB meeting model (10 per academic year).

By working without separate committees, our aim is to ensure the sharing of all key information and effective use of governors’ and school leaders’ skills and time. 

In line with this ‘circle model’ of governance, we have retained two committees – Pay and Headteacher’s Performance Management – in order to be able to continue to discharge certain statutory functions and we also delegate monitoring of specific areas of the school to pairs of governors or individuals.

In 2019, we set up an Ethos Committee for governors to monitor the effectiveness of our school as a Church school and the provision of RE & Collective Worship within our curriculum so as to enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness.

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It is important that our governors act and are seen to act impartially. One important means by which a self-governing school demonstrates that it is applying these principles is by maintaining detailed information including a register of business, pecuniary and material interests. Our governing body regularly updates this register to ensure an accurate record is kept at all times.