ELECTION OF PARENT GOVERNORS – BALLOT FORM

BALLOT FORM

Nominated Candidates

Please tick the boxes against the 3 candidates you wish to vote for

Ben Taylor's Personal Statement:

I’m a proud Yorkshire born father of two and am passionate about giving back and supporting the local area. Having studied, worked, and lived across 4 continents, meeting people from all walks of life, I feel I can bring a wealth of experience to the hub of the community – our wonderful school. It was our love of Yorkshire though that ultimately led my family and I to settle in Cookridge several years ago and we’ve never being happier. My time working at a summer camp in America as well as volunteering in Poland and Romania supporting under-privileged families have been some of the most rewarding of my life, and now that my children are growing in independence I feel it’s the ideal time to start using my skills and passions in a new area - as a school governor. Professionally, I’m a business consultant and my work entails data analytics, sales, budgeting, strategic planning, and people and project management. I am a pragmatic, personable, and resourceful person who relishes a challenge and believes in hard work, honesty, and being kind. In my personal life I like to spend time with my family, going to the gym, martial arts, and gardening.

Sarika Dhanjal's Personal Statement:

Cookridge Primary provides a rich learning environment which nurtures children. I love how the school ethos details childrens natural curiosity and ability to learn, as I believe stimulating this at a young age, provides strong foundations for them to continue on this journey into adulthood. I currently work as Head of Training at Progeny and have worked within financial services for over 15 years. My experience in leadership and people management can help to steer the school in the right direction, as I am confident to appropriately challenge and speak out for what is important. Through my experience of managing large financial budgets, I am able to help ensure money is spent effectively and reconciled appropriately. I am passionate about developing others and sharing my ideas to help create something amazing. My children aged 8 and 5 attend the school. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with them and reading. I feel it is important that every child at Cookridge is happy, safe, confident and strive to become the very best they can be. It is important for parents to support and provide guidance to the school in its journey to become outstanding. “Together we achieve the Extraordinary”

Catherine Flint's Personal Statement:

I am a parent of three boys, two of whom are already at the school and one who will be starting in September 2021. I have always been interested in education and learning, I worked for a number of years supporting schools across Yorkshire with staffing and helping them to make sure they had the best staff for their school. I have some experience as I was school governor for a school in Batley for a number of years. I think supporting the school is important and as my youngest is going to start school shortly I feel I will have the time and energy to do a good job. One of the main reasons we chose Cookridge Primary for our children was that the school wanted to encourage a love of learning in children, as a governor I would like to help the school to continue this mission.

Sian Shenton's Personal Statement:

I would like to be a parent governor, as I feel I can bring skills and qualities from my professional life to the role, and use this to discuss the school policies and strategy in an open and supportive way. I am a qualified hospital pharmacist, currently on a career break, due to the need to support my family. I was responsible for informing and managing budgets, staffing and leading evidence based discussions and the implementation of policies relating to medicines. I was also Professional Secretary to a group responsible for looking at incidents and errors, learning from that experience and how this is communicated and actioned for future improvement. My daughter is currently in reception, and my son is due to start school in 2023. I am also the leader in charge for 1st Cookridge Rainbows. I am also the Treasurer for Girlguiding in the local area. I organise the programme for the Rainbows, budgeting for these activities and also to risk assess and implement the actual activities in the meetings. This includes managing other leaders, parent helpers and young volunteers to ensure we run meetings in line with safeguarding principles.