Members
Ian Freeman
Chair of Governor
Co-opted Governor
Ian has lived locally most of his life and is passionate about the stewardship of the schools in the Federation. With Ian on the Board of Governors and his children at our schools, four generations of his family have now been involved at our schools.
Professionally, Ian is a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a Partner of a “Big 4” accountancy firm. Accordingly, he brings considerable financial and analytic skills together with an external view on strategic planning, control and governance to the Board. Having chaired the Finance and Resources Sub-committee, been Vice-Chair of the Governing Board, and acted in assorted link governor roles since 2019, in 2023 he became Chair of the Federation Governing Board as part of a managed transition.
As Chair, Ian has a particular responsibility for ensuring that the Executive Federation Headteacher, Mary Ann Cooper, and the leadership team, are appropriately supported in their leadership of the Federation and our two schools. As such, Ian is active across Board's sub-committees and, when applicable, working groups.
Mary Ann Cooper
Executive Headteacher
M.Cooper@busheyfederation.org.uk
Mary Ann has worked in mainstream, special schools and school support services for thirty years, mainly in the London Boroughs of Islington and Brent, and she has held a variety of roles and specialisms in areas such as EAL (English as an Additional Language), Autism and Inclusion. She has also spent several years in International school settings in both the USA and in Italy before making her home here with us in Bushey Primary Education Federation.
Mary Ann holds a Masters degree from UCL, Institute of Education, with a focus on policy and provision for Inclusive education and multi-disciplinary working. She is passionate about ensuring that there is equity of opportunity for all children and that everyone feels welcomed and valued within the organisation and systems we develop within our Federation schools.
Mary Ann has been a staff governor in many of the previous schools she has worked in and has a research interest in effective school governance, policy and practice. She is currently the proud Chair of Governors of an Outstanding federation of two schools in the London Borough of Brent. In 2023/2024, Mary Ann led training on School Governance for the States of Guernsey and for Bedfordshire local authority, and will continue this work in the forthcoming academic year, along with work for Somerset local authority.
As an experienced school leader, Mary Ann took up the post of Executive Headteacher for our schools in 2019. Her role was to raise standards and secure good Ofsted judgements in both schools, whilst developing our vision and educational practices across one cohesive, federated school community. Mary Ann is active across the Board’s three Sub-committees and various working groups.
Mary Ann has taught the children of a previous Prime Minister and is looking forward to the day when she can proudly boast that she has taught the current Prime Minister (who will of course be a former pupil from Bushey & Oxhey Infants and Bushey Manor Juniors)! Growing confident children filled with knowledge, wisdom and a strong moral purpose, rooted in kindness and compassion is what the wider world needs right now. She's on it!!
Dan Hall
Governor
Curriculum and Standards Sub-Committee
Dan was originally elected as a Parent Governor to the Bushey Primary Education Federation in September 2015 having spent the previous two years as an elected Parent Governor at Bushey and Oxhey Infant School.
Dan is Director of Information Technology Services for the Girls’ Day School Trust, where he is responsible for delivering IT services to 17,000 students and 4,000 staff. Dan is also Chair of the Board of Trustees for the charity, Charity IT Leaders.
Brought up in North London, he moved to Oxhey Village in 2003 after living in London and Liverpool. Dan is father of two children, who have both graduated from our schools. He lives with his wife and children in Oxhey Village.
Dan is very keen on ‘wild’ camping and often leads groups of children in camping adventures across the UK as part of Forest School Camps and Woodcraft Folk. In this context, he especially enjoys cooking for the children and their leaders on an open fire.
Sarah Morgan
Co-opted Governor
Finance and Resources Sub-Committee
This is Sarah's sixth year as a school governor and a member of the Board. She has two children, the eldest of which attended the Federation schools and is now in the Sixth form locally; the youngest is a student at Queen's School.
Sarah would describe herself as passionate about the health and welfare of children and has a particular aim to educate children in the Federation schools about cancer prevention from an early age. Sarah works in the NHS as a Matron and has a background in cancer care. Her role is both clinical and managerial and she is able to draw on this experience of strategic leadership to benefit the Federation in her role on the Governing Board.
Sarah is a member of the Human Resources and the Finance and Resources Sub-committees. She also volunteers in school on a regular basis, finding this both rewarding and insightful.
Helen Shirley
Staff Governor
Curriculum and Standards Sub-Committee
Helen has been a member of staff at Bushey and Oxhey Infant School for over twenty years. During this time, she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Early Year Foundation Stage (Reception), and across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2), having completed her Specialist Teaching Assistant course at the University of Hertfordshire. More recently, with the formation of the Federation, she has taken on the role of Pastoral Lead across both the infant and junior schools.
Helen has been a staff governor for several years and is a member of the Curriculum and Standards Sub-committee. She is a qualified nurse and specialised in Oncology before leaving the profession to start her family. Helen has three children and two grandchildren.
Along with a friend, Helen ran a very successful local Brownie Pack which over the years included many of the pupils from Bushey Manor.
Gavin Brown
Curriculum and Standards Sub-committee
Parent Governor
Gavin was elected as a Parent Governor in 2022, shortly after his son started in Reception at Bushey and Oxhey Primary School. With 20 years’ experience in sport and education, Gavin’s role will focus on reinforcing a robust physical education curriculum as well as working together with stakeholders to inspire children to develop a love of physical activity and sport.
After completing his degree in Sport and Exercise Science, Gavin founded sport and education specialist Primary Sporting Development (PSD). PSD is now one of the leading providers in education, apprenticeships, sports coaching and active childcare in the South East.
Alongside his role as Director of PSD, Gavin has held the position of Pre-Academy Lead Coach at Watford Football Club since 2017. He is also Head Coach of the Maccabi Under 18 Boy’s Football Team, a role which will see him represent Team GB at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Together with a group of close friends, Gavin founded the fundraising group Mary’s Boys in 2013 and has since completed a number of challenges including the London Marathon, 3 Peaks and cycling to Brussels. Their efforts have raised over £50,000 for charities including Children with Cancer, CTRT and the NICU at Watford General Hospital.
Alexander Richards
Parent Governor
Finance & Resource Committee
Pay Committee
About twelve years ago Alexander moved his family to Bushey in part because of the glowing reports from his friends about their children’s positive experiences at these unique schools. With their daughter now in year six (where does time go) his wife and he have been delighted by the encouragement and support she has received.
Alexander’s respect for the teaching staff redoubled during the pandemic and associated lockdowns and he committed to finding a way to help the Federation. He was thrilled to have the opportunity to do so when elected by the parent body of both schools as a parent governor.
Professionally Alexander is Chartered Business Security Architect. This is essentially a risk management discipline which involves designing and implementing controls to help organisations operate effectively, securely, and legally. He has experience working in government, with charities and in the financial services sector.
Currently he’s employed as the Head of the Insider Risk at a global bank
The Honourable Crispin Hayhoe
Co-opted Governor
Finance and Resources Sub-Committee
Crispin is a barrister and accountant. He used to be an insolvency practitioner. On leaving St Andrews University, he joined what was to become Price Waterhouse Coopers and specialised in insolvency.
In 1999 he became the Finance Director of an internet company specialising in the music business.
After an exciting and turbulent few years he then undertook a postgraduate diploma in law and completed the professional training to become a barrister.
Since 2005 he has been in practice doing a wide range of cases and now brings his legal and financial expertise to the Governing Board of our federation schools. Crispin is also the Finance Director of the Enterprise Forum, a not-for-profit organisation promoting discussion between business leaders and government, and he supports our schools each year in an initiative linked to employability and enterprise, the annual Careers Day.
Crispin has three children, two of whom are at Bushey Manor Junior School, and one who has graduated to Parmiter's School in Watford.
Since September 2023 Crispin is the chair of the Finance and Resources sub committee.
Faisal Mir
Local Authority Governor
Finance and Resources Sub-Committee
Faisal has lived in Bushey since 2015, having grown up in North London.
Faisal is a Chartered Accountant and currently works as a Director of Resources in the Metropolitan Police Service, having worked in several roles in Hertfordshire County Council (sitting on the Children's Services Board and the Herts for Learning Board), the Home Office, the Department for Education, Ernst & Young and elsewhere.
Outside of work, Faisal enjoys playing squash (not very well).
Faisal sits on the Finance and Resources sub-committee.
Dr Matthew Beacham (new board member 2024/2025)
Co-opted Governor
Matt has lived in Bushey since 2014, though moved to North London in 2012 for work. Both of his children are currently attending Bushey Manor and have thoroughly loved their time across both schools.
A teacher at a local independent secondary school since 2012, he has been a Head of House and is currently Head of Economics. Passionate about education, particularly ensuring that students have the skills to thrive beyond school, he believes that academic achievement and pastoral care go hand in hand. He has been a governor since 2023 and sits on the curriculum committee, using his experience and expertise in education to support the school.
Matt enjoys sport – and can be seen regularly running to and from work – playing computer games, baking, and has recently become a leader for Cubs.
Chloe Hughes (new board member 2024/2025)
Staff Governor
Chloe has been a teacher at Bushey Primary Education Federation for seven years. She has taught at both Bushey and Oxhey Infants and Bushey Manor: teaching a range of years groups from Reception to Year 5.
Chloe has recently completed both her NPQLT and her NPQSL which have developed her leadership skills. She has demonstrated these by leading Science, PE and Computing. She has led both schools in achieving the Science Primary Quality Mark Gilt which highlighted the high level of Science learning and teaching throughout the schools, as well as achieving Gold Sports Mark which recognises the school’s engagement in developing the school PE curriculum, ensuring children are being active and attending competitions.
Chloe also runs King George Junior Parkrun on Sunday mornings which helps children and families keep active and develop a lifelong passion for running. This run also encourages volunteering which some Bushey Primary Education Federation families and children are involved in regularly.