Governors

Welcome to Mrs Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy. Our current School has served the Parish of Uplyme since 1873 and nowadays we welcome children from many surrounding villages too. The school was built by the Reverend Charles Ethelston in memory of his wife, Anne Ethelston, and is not named after the Headteacher as some visitors think! The school has grown considerably since then, but still retains the feel of a small village school sitting snugly next to the beautiful Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the heart of the village. The church is used frequently by the pupils for Worships and other events, and this helps to keep the close links between the two very much alive.

Whilst the school operates under the umbrella of Acorn Multi Academy Trust and its Board of Directors, we retain our own Local Governing Body (LGB) and through this we work hard to preserve the individual character of our school.

Within the framework of our Terms of Reference and the Trust Board Scheme of Delegation, governors work as a team with children, parents, staff and the community to ensure the best outcomes for pupils. We are constantly striving to improve our own skills to strengthen the leadership of the school in order to fulfil these aims and obligations.

The focus of the governors has always been the well-being of our children. We want them to be the best they can be; happy, safe and healthy within a caring, positive and Christian environment which nurtures and celebrates their talents and provides the highest possible standards of education. 

These aims are enhanced by the continued support and challenge of our Chief Executive Officer of the Trust (CEO), Andrea Rice, and the increased management and teaching expertise across the 7 schools of the Trust. As staff develop and share skills and knowledge together, the curriculum and the extra-curricular opportunities for all the children will be developed and extended. We closely adhere to our Equal Opportunities Policy and, as a rural school, we are  aware that we need to offer the children as many different social, cultural and sporting experiences as we can to prepare them for their lives ahead in the wider world.  We shall continue to monitor the work of the school as critical friends, to question and challenge staff through regular visits and reports and be well informed about behaviour, safety of pupils, expenditure and value for money. We value our strong links with our church, St Peter and St Paul, and will ensure that the core Christian values are at the heart of all that we do.

As a Local Governing Body we are committed to working as a team with children, parents, staff, the community and all other stakeholders to ensure the best outcome for pupils and we constantly review the ways in which we do this. This is part of our current development plan for the Local Governing Body and we welcome any feedback.

Correspondence for the governors should be sent to the Clerk to Governors, Veronica Dower: clerk@acornacademy.org

Jo Cursley, Chair of Governors, Mrs Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy, Pound Land, Uplyme, Lyme Regis, DT7 3TT

Scheme of Delegation

LGB Terms of Reference

For further details of the Acorn MAT Trust Board of Directors and the governance structure, please click on the link below:

AMAT Trust Board of Directors