Full Name   

Samuel Anthony Nixon        

Please detail Date of appointment, Term of office and date of standing down (where applicable) and who you were appointed by.

I was elected as a parent governor over twenty years ago and became the MENCAP representative when our daughter left the school.  With the present classification system I am a co-opted governor.  My current term of office extends to October 2018.

Can you tell us something about yourself and what strengths you bring to the governing body? Include occupation and background if relevant.

My career has been as a university lecturer, from which I’ve now retired.  It’s clear that education is a dominant factor in all our lives, influencing and improving them at whatever level we can absorb it.  Being a governor has been helped by my experience of inspecting and writing academic courses and by my teaching being observed by Ofsted-equivalent inspectors.  As a governor I’ve chaired our curriculum committee for most of my tenure.

Do you have any relevant business or pecuniary interests? Are you a governor in another education institution?

No to both questions

Do you have any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff?

No

Why did you want to be a governor at Brentwood?

Our daughter attended the school and I thought that my background could be helpful.

What impact has being a governor at Brentwood had on you?

Governors help the school by familiarising themselves with school operation and by asking questions, normally of the school staff.  Two aspects have become clear.  Finding out about the school must be done with minimum disturbance to the efficient running of the school.  And it is sometimes important to broaden questioning to include the guidelines under which the school and governors operate.  This has been particularly important when assessing the relative merits of becoming an independent academy within a trust and being controlled by our local authority.