School governors receive awards

Three governors of a Tadley primary school receive outstanding service awards

THREE school governors of a Tadley primary school with 59 years of service between them recently received awards.

After being nominated by the headteacher of Burnham Copse Primary School Lyn Downes, three school governors received outstanding service awards from the deputy leader of Hampshire County Council, Roy Perry.

The governors were current chairwoman of governors, Penny Waterfield, with 22 years of service, David Read with 20 years and Mike Christmas with 17 years.

Mrs Waterfield, the clerk to Baughurst Parish Council, said she had utilised her organisational skills as a school governor, while Mr Christmas put his financial

skills to good use as a former chairman of the school's finance and facilities committee, and Mr Read, whose skills lie in statistics, is chairman of the school's children's committee.

Mr Read began as a governor at the Burnham Copse Junior School, and then at the Burnham Copse Infant's School, where he became chairman before the schools combined as a primary school, owing to declining numbers.

Mrs Waterfield said: “For many years our lives were intertwined, but as separate entities. The decision to amalgamate the infant and junior schools meant that we

were then thrown together, and our combined skills used for the good of the new primary school.

“We have collectively seen the school through a number of difficult years, working as a team, and have just seen it through a recent Ofsted inspection, where the outcome was good. “We have risen from special measures to ‘good' in just five years.”