Meridian Primary School

Governing Board

The governing board has four core functions:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.

2. Holding the executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff.

3. Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

4. Ensuring the voices of stakeholders are heard.

We are all volunteers and have chosen to become governors because we believe the pupils at Meridian Primary School deserve the best possible education and are ready for the next stage in their learning journey. Our role is strategic and we work as a team to understand and influence the way the school operates and the standards that children achieve in all aspects of their lives in the school. Governors should ‘know’ things but not necessarily ‘do’ things. We have a thinking role, we ask, we reflect and then make decisions. We need to be curious and inquisitive.

Governors often visit the school whilst it is at work. We scrutinise the standards data produced by the school, monitor the quality of teaching through advisors and inspectors and listen to and talk with children, staff and parents. We scrutinise the budget on behalf of Central Government to ensure our funds give the community we serve good value for money. We welcome scrutiny of our own work by staff, parents and agencies such as the Cambridgeshire Local Authority.

We are led by a Chair and Vice Chair and supported by a Clerk. Parent governors are elected by all the parents and other ‘co-opted’ governors by the governors themselves. We also have one Local Authority governor.

We are always interested in hearing from potential new governors.  Please contact chair@meridian.cambs.sch.uk or clerk@meridian.cambs.sch.uk to find out more details about any vacancies for becoming a governor.

The school was inspected by Ofsted on 24th and 25th September 2024. This was the first week that Ofsted began their revised inspection programme for the 2024-5 academic year and exactly one school year after the school’s ungraded Section 8 inspection in July 2023.

Governors know that there will be some disappointment from the whole school community with the “Requires Improvement” outcomes. No school would be satisfied with these outcomes, The two inspectors that visited the school were very thorough in their monitoring, investigations and questioning of staff, pupils and Governors and were very aware of the leadership, management and teaching challenges the school faced last year. Positive observations were made by Ofsted and we were pleased with several statements which identified that improvements are happening quickly, and progress is being made.

Key strengths Ofsted emphasised were:

• Recognition of the rapid implementation of the new school vision and set of values; along with how

this is feeding through into improvements for consistent behaviour management.

• Reading and maths curriculum are structured well which in turn demonstrates good levels of

teaching and learning in these core subject areas.

• The new structure to the school’s writing curriculum is having a positive impact already.

• Safeguarding is effective and children are kept safe.

• Improvements since the July 2023 inspection could be identified in behaviour, including bullying.

• Acknowledgement of the role of Governors and the Local Authority in planning for and implementing change.

• Identification and appreciation of the schools plans for further improvement.

The school is aware that work in several areas has just begun and were pleased that Ofsted

articulated our three focus areas:

1.Ensure that there are ambitious expectations for all.

2.Ensure everyone has the expertise to teach all subjects effectively to better support

learning across the full range of subjects.

3. Ensure assessments are used effectively to design learning tasks that support all pupils to

learn effectively.

The current leadership team, all teachers and all Governors are aware of these priorities along with

plans already in place. Improvements to Meridian Primary School have already begun, with the hard work of all staff, but there is still work to do, to improve further.  With the support from specialist teams, the Local Authority, Governors and working with staff, we are confident that the school will bring about rapid and sustainable improvement. 

We have a new Headteacher, Ms Rebecca Snelling, starting in January 2025 and we are excited by

the opportunities presenting themselves for children at the school.

Constitution and Structure 2023-2024

We have a total of 12 Governors on our Governing Board.  

We have established the following Committees:

• Finance, Premises and Personnel and Communication (FPPC)

• Standards Committee (SC)

Please see below for a breakdown of the Governing Board and committees:

The Term of office for all Governors (other than the Headteacher) is four years. Co-opted governors are elected by the Governing Board. Parent Governors are elected by the parents of the Meridian Primary School. Staff governors are elected by the staff. The Local Authority governor is confirmed by the Local Authority.

Past Governors

The following have now stepped down as governors or reached the end of their term:

None of these governors had any relevant business or pecuniary interests or other potential conflicts of interest.

Governor Biographies

 Mel Collins (Chair of Governors)

Mel is a co-opted governor, elected in March 2021. Mel became Vice-chair shortly after joining the governing board and has recently become Chair of Governors. Mel has worked in secondary schools for most of her working life, initially as a teacher of geography and  humanities in Bristol and Kenya, then in management positions at Comberton Village College and Chesterton Community College, Cambridge. Mel then moved out of schools to lead the education team for the local authority in Peterborough. Mel has lived in Comberton for 40 years and both of her children attended Meridian Primary School.

Emma Cox

Emma is a parent Governor who was elected in November 2021 and sits on the FPP Committee.  She has lived in Comberton for nearly 20 years and has two children at the school.  She is a Business Manager, managing finance and HR for a national organisation specialising in safeguarding.  She also has 20 years experience of being a paralegal.

Kate Edwards

Kate is a Parent Governor and Chair of FPPC from September 2024, and has children in the school.

Debbie Jack (Vice Chair of Governors)

Debbie was elected in February 2018 as a full governor and became Vice Chair in September 2024,  linked to FPPC Committee focusing on personal and policies.   She has lived in Haslingfield for over 30 years and has three grandchildren at Meridian. Debbie was previously a primary teacher in Bar Hill then Head of Education at Middlesex University.

Wayne Laramee

Wayne is a Local Authority Governor and joined in March 2023.  Wayne has two children at Meridian.  His career has been mostly spent in financial services regulation.  He became a governor because he is  passionate about education and wanted, working with the school's leadership team and fellow governors, to contribute to the school.

Ioan Milosevic

Ioan is a co-opted governor and was elected in December 2023 to start 06/12/2023.  Ioan is a Doctor, specialising in anaesthetics, and was formally a secondary Maths teacher.  He is very enthusiastic about the prospect of contributing to the continued success of Meridian Primary School.  

Caroline Mulderij (Standards Chair)

Caroline is a co-opted governor who was elected in November 2019 and Chair of the Standards Committee. She moved to Comberton with her family in 2015.  She is a teacher of French at a school in Cambridge and was previously Head of Department and Head of Year at a secondary school in London.

Ruth Noble

Ruth is a parent governor and was elected in May 2024 to start 10/07/2024. Ruth is a primary school teacher with an in depth knowledge of how schools run, she also currently works with PhD students at Cambridge University, she has two children at the school and attended herself as a pupil. Ruth is passionate about all aspects of school life and the role it plays within the community in keeping up with ongoing improvements and developments.  

Vicki Scott

Vicki Scott is a parent governor and was elected in July 2023 to start 01/09/2023 and has children in the school.

Jenny Weston

Jenny is a staff governor, and currently the Year 6 teacher at Meridian. Before training to be a teacher she worked in Early Years, both as a practitioner and later on as a manager.  She is now coming to the end of her first year as an Early Career Teacher and her third year teaching her own class. As she continues through her career as a teacher, she is keen to learn about all aspects of school life, and feels that becoming a staff governor will give her a new perspective on the way that schools operate. She is looking forward to working with the other governors and teachers to help make sure that our school is achieving high standards. 

Sarah Yates

Sarah is a parent governor and was elected in July 2023 to start 01/09/2023.  Sarah is a Chartered Accountant and works as an Executive Level Head of Finance at a London Venue.    Sarah attended Meridian Primary School as a child and has fond memories and would like to be able to make a positive contribution to the school as a parent governor.

Catherine Swift 

Cathy is an associate governor and is a part time teacher at the Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School.  She also volunteers for a learning team at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens.  Cathy lives in Comberton with her family.

Iris Considine (Clerk to Governing Board)

Iris has been Clerk to the governors since March 2023. She has worked in education (Secondary and Primary) for many years, in Office Management, HR and Finance.